's motd Easter 2010

[Guest guest]

THE BASKETS

Sunday, 04 April 2010

Happy Easter Sunday to you, your family and to your pets. So what are you thinking about today? Oh I know, your mind is just filled with Easter memories. I know mine is. I was brought up where holidays in the house were always major events. You'll notice, I used the word...events.

See, my parents, Shirley and Leonard, loved Thanksgiving, Christmas and of course Mardi Gras. They loved to decorate the house for all of the holidays. I used to think the decorations were for Lenny and me but actually, I believe they were more for my parents. I think sometimes neither of them had much holiday celebrating when they were kids. So they were kinda like reliving their childhoods with Lenny and I. It was so much fun for all of us!My parents were really into Easter. And they were really into Easter baskets, too. When Lenny and I went to bed on Saturday night, my parents would begin working their holiday magic. But, truth is, their magic actually began a couple of weeks before Easter. See, they would go to several stores downtown to buy everything they needed for our baskets. Their first stop was Woolworth's down on Canal Street. There, they would pick out just the right Easter baskets for my brother and I. And I'm telling ya', my parents walked right past the small baskets to get a couple of the really big ones for us! Hey, you could have put a couple of live, fully grown bunnies in those baskets!

Their next stop was the Stover candy store for well, candy of course. They visited two other department stores on Canal Street to pick up some other Easter goodies and...more candy. (Hooray!) Their last stop would be Walgreen's to pick up jelly beans, pastel-colored cellophane wrap and straw for the baskets. So by the time the Saturday night before Easter arrived and Lenny and I were sound asleep, they'd get started. They put everything together in the dining room and would begin by putting these huge chocolate bunnies in the middle of each basket. I'm not talking those hollow chocolate bunnies, either. These babies were solid! There would also be a big sugar egg you could look inside and see the sweetest little Easter scene. Then there were the jelly beans and an assortment of little chocolate and creme-filled eggs. And oh, there would always be a little wind-up Easter toy for Lenny and I to play with.

After all of the goodies were put into each basket, my parents would wrap them with the pretty cellophane wrap they'd bought. Then they'd tie the most beautiful ribbon around the baskets and...they were done. Let me tell you, by the time they were done, those baskets were almost four feet tall. They were just about as tall as me!I was always the first to rise on Easter morning. As soon as my eyes popped open, I'd rush to the dining room and see the amazing Easter baskets my parents had created. I'd get my face really close to the cellophane so I could take a peek inside. Oh, boy!My mouth would begin to water as I got a close look at all of the goodies inside. And oh, wouldn't you know, temptation got the best of me! Slowly but surely, I'd examine the cellophane wrap until I found that spot where the two sides met and I could slip my hand inside. I'd reach in and grab myself a little treat. Oh, nothing tastes like Easter candy. Now don't get me wrong...I love Valentine's and Christmas candies, too. But that Easter candy really gets to me!

I'm not gonna fib to you. I ate candy all day long on Easter Sunday. And there wasn't very much candy left at all, come that Monday morning after Easter! LOL.I like to think about those baskets from long ago because no one makes Easter baskets for me now. When I go downstairs to the dining room this morning, there'll be no Easter basket waiting on the table for me. And if there were one...you know what I'd do? I'd put my face really close to the cellophane and try to get my fingers inside so I could taste just one of those Stover coconut-creme eggs! Did you ever put jelly beans on one side of your mouth and little chocolate eggs on the other side then chew until they met in the center of your mouth? M-m-m-m-m! It was my own little "recipe" for chocolate covered jelly beans!Enjoy this beautiful Easter Sunday!Love,