Easter Sunday

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter!  For those of you who do not, Happy Sunday!  It all works for me, just so long as we are having a nice meal and thinking good thoughts!

Last night, we went to our closest friends' house for a nice dinner - beef tenderloin, potatoes, veggies, home made pudding, hmm - divine!

Today is Easter and though we do not have big plans, we will dress up and have a nice meal and think spring-like and warm thoughts!
The table is decorated:

Chicks and bunnies...

..all grouped around a nice little vase of mums and carnations...

...lambs on the other side, protecting one of my old cardboard decoupaged eggs?  Do any of you recall these growing up?  I do not - I bought this and a smaller one at a local antique shop several years ago - they still had the old grass inside!  Isn't that fun? 

I dug out my Velveteen Rabbit books and placed them on the buffet - they always make me think of love and of my children (who also make me think of love!)

Guaranteed to make you cry, every time you read this passage:

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”
When I was young, we would get new straw hats and white gloves to wear to church, a chocolate bunny and maybe a stuffed animal.  We would hunt for eggs inside the house, as there was always so much snow outside!  Am i the only one who wishes we would take up gloves for events again?  White gloves are so spiffy and I may just do that in 2013, since I have many pairs that I inherited from my beloved Aunt Betty! Oh, I hope I get invited to a wedding!

In my mind, the Easters of my childhood were always sunny, though I am sure that can't be true! Easter makes me think of new bicycles and jumping ropes and rubber balls.  When we moved into our current house, Easter weekend 15 years ago, we gave our daughter, who was then 6, her first bicycle and our son ( who was 3 years old) a new tricycle.  It was so much fun for them, as our old house was located on a busy street and the new driveway was long and had plenty of room for learning.  Oh, and along with white gloves, I believe that Easter bicycles should have streamers on the handlebars!

In my Easter box, I found an old picture made in clay by my son when he was 5 years old.  It has stood the test of time quite well I think:

Not a carrot lost!

From my Easter Bunny to yours, Happy Easter!  May you have a joyous and peaceful one!  See if you can find Easter Bonnet on TV! And stay safe out there!