Posted tagged ‘Easter basket’

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“What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?”

April 17, 2017

Yesterday was wonderful. The weather was so hot short sleeves were the order of the day. The restaurant was filled, and there was a line out the door, but our reservations got us seated as soon as we checked in at the desk. Looking out the bank of windows from our table, we could see only the ocean glinting in the sun and tiny whitecaps cresting atop the waves. My friend noted it was like being on a cruise.

The Easter Bunny was good to me. Besides the traditional candy, I got a new coffee mug which held pansies, a great t-shirt with Nevertheless, she persisted on it, spring and Easter hand towels, and a giant package of chocolate sea salt caramels. I admit that last night I ate two Reese’s peanut butter eggs. I could hear them calling my name from the kitchen.

Right now we have 70˚. It will get cooler starting tonight but today needs to be enjoyed. I can see myself sitting on the deck stretched out in the sun maybe reading my book but maybe just sitting with my eyes closed to take in all that warmth.

The Ten Commandments was on TV on the other night. It got me remembering when it was first shown. It was around Easter. It was a huge event. The whole family sat around the TV watching. That the movie was in black and white made no difference. We were thrilled and amazed to see such an epic movie on TV right there in our living room. My mother made popcorn.

Today we celebrate Patriot’s Day which commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord, the start of the American Revolution. It is an official state holiday, and it is chock full of events. The reenactment of the battle was this morning starting at 5:30. The reenactors for both sides wear historically accurate clothes with the Red Coats in uniform and the minutemen in every day garb. When the guns are fired, smoke fills the air and it is 1775.

The Red Sox game began at 11 today. Right now my Sox are ahead 4-2, but it is still early innings.

Today is Boston Marathon day. The first wave of marathoners started the 121st running of the race at 8:50. Elite runners left at 9:30. The last wave left at 11:15. The winning woman just crossed the line on Boylston Street.

My day will be a quiet one satisfying my soul and spirit. I’m spending the afternoon on the deck. Maybe I’ll read or maybe I’ll just sit and soak in the warmth of the sun and with eyes closed listen to all the sounds around me: the swishing of leaves from the slight breeze, the spawns of Satan running on the thick branches and the songs of birds. I have hot dogs for lunch.

Categories: Musings
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“‘Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.”

April 16, 2017

Happy Easter!!

Alexa woke me up at 7:15 this morning so I could go down the street and decorate the tree beside my friends’ deck. It is a tradition. I draped garlands, old cards and egg shaped ornaments all over the tree then left quickly. I hate getting caught. I’ll go back down to my friends’ house later for baskets then we’ll leave for dinner.

It is a glorious Easter Sunday, sunny and warm, perfect for showing off new clothes and whirling dresses. The pictures will all be outside in front of budding trees, flowering bushes and the bright bulb flowers like the dafs and hyacinths.

When I was a kid, we wore our new clothes to church then over to my grandparents’ house in East Boston. My grandparents always had special Easter treats for all of us like candy and small baskets. I have one very distinct memory of an Easter Sunday with them in East Boston. My grandparents lived in an apartment before they moved a couple of streets away to a house. The apartment was the one on the second floor. My great-grandfather was still alive and living with my grandparents. He used to sit on a rocking chair in the room with the big gas heater. He’d yell and spit. We used to run as fast as we could to get by him to get to the TV room. I remember all of that, and I remember the Easter he snatched my basket away from me. I don’t remember the snatching, but I remember the horror, and I remember running to the kitchen crying to tell my mother what happened. My grandmother came to the rescue and got my basket back. I stayed in the kitchen for the rest of the visit.

When I was down the street this morning, I noticed the house across the street had eggs all over the grass and under trees. Later I heard the kids hunting and one yelling that he’d found more eggs. I figured he’d gotten to the lawn which had tons of eggs scattered  all over, no hunting skills required. The eggs were all colored plastic unlike the eggs of my day which were real, hard-boiled colored by hand eggs. Sometimes the count of found eggs was less than the count of hidden eggs. That’s why outside hunting was always best.

I hope you have the loveliest of Sundays and a wonderful Easter.

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“You’ll wake up on Easter morning, And you’ll know that he was there, When you find those chocolate bunnies, That he’s hiding ev’rywhere.”

March 21, 2016

First we had rain then we had snow last night but only a dusting to an inch. The weather today is in a weird cycle. The snow started to melt earlier so most of the branches are no longer covered. Right now, though, it is snowing again, big flakes falling straight down or from the north. The snow cover on the ground has slush underneath it. My shoes would leave only a hole, not a footprint if I walked in the yard. The day is dark and uninviting. It is a read a book day or a day to do that project I need finished by Easter. The problem, however, is I have little ambition, not even enough to turn pages. Cozy under the covers on a dark and snowy day seems just about right.

Easter never had the anticipation Christmas had. It didn’t have any rules about the necessity for good behavior but it didn’t have any wishes either. We knew pretty much what we’d find on Easter morning. The only surprises were the small toys and books my mother tucked into our baskets. A tall chocolate rabbit was always the eye-catcher. Around it were jelly beans, big round hard colored candies which were white in the middle, a few small pieces of chocolate and some yellow Peeps, wild out of the box. I remember if I ate a piece from something, like the ears from the big rabbit, and put the rest of the rabbit back into the basket, it would stick to the grass at the bottom. Later, before I could have another bite, I’d have to pull off the grass shoots.

We didn’t have a giant rabbit at the mall the way they do now. We just had Santa at Christmas. Seeing Santa made a lot of sense but seeing the rabbit doesn’t. What do you talk about? What do you ask him to bring? He doesn’t care if you were good or bad. You’ll get an Easter basket regardless. I suppose you can always fall back on the sort of stuffed animal you want, the one usually sitting beside the basket, but beyond that, I’m clueless.

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“An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare. “

April 19, 2014

The day is lovely with a bright sun and a deep blue sky. The wind has disappeared. The temperature at 54˚ is the start of a heat wave. Time to break out the sandals.

I have a few errands today, and I made an appointment for Gracie at the vets. I first thought she had a stroke last night because she was dripping saliva from one side of her face as if she had no control. I checked but there seemed to be no visible difference between one side or the other. She ate her treats and begged for more and chewed on both sides. I wiped her jowls periodically and the dripping finally got less and less. By 2 this morning, she wasn’t dripping at all so we went to bed. Today she is perfectly fine, but I want her checked.

Just as my mother used to on the Saturday night before Easter, I’m going to put out the clothes I’ll be wearing tomorrow. I want to make sure they’re wrinkle free. Nothing is new but everything is so seldom worn they do have a newness about them. My dress material is filled with colorful flowers. It is spring personified.

We used to get excited knowing the Easter Bunny was coming, not so much for him as for his treats. It wasn’t the giddy excitement of Christmas Eve when we knew Santa was coming with a bagful of toys just for us. We really didn’t know all that much about the Easter Bunny. We knew he brought baskets filled with candy and small toys, but we didn’t know who helped. Santa had his elves. Who did the Easter Bunny have? We knew Santa summered at the North Pole. I had no idea where the Easter Bunny lived. I guessed a rabbit hole which must have been enormous, but I never really gave it a thought. We didn’t have to be good, no naughty or nice list. There were no threats. We knew Santa wouldn’t come if we were awake or if we were really bad, but the Easter Bunny came regardless. Instead of new pajamas, we got whole new outfits. We never questioned why a rabbit brought eggs or how he hauled all those baskets from house to house. On an Easter card I once received, the Easter Bunny was pulling a wagon filled with colorful eggs. He wore a small jacket with lots of gold buttons but didn’t wear pants. I just took the whole scene for granted. I believed everything about Santa so believing in the Easter Bunny wasn’t a stretch at all.

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“Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate.”

April 6, 2012

My casual morning has made me a bit tardy in writing today. I was up quite late last night and slept in this morning. It was Gracie who decided it was time to get up and out. It was probably a good thing as I have to hit the aisles and grocery shop. I don’t even have the bare essentials: coffee and toilet paper. I finished the last of the coffee this morning and the toilet paper roll looks a bit skimpy.

The Red Sox lost their opener yesterday. They tied it up only to lose in the bottom of the ninth. Oh, the dismay!

My neighbors have returned from Florida so that’s another sign of spring. Today, though, is still in the 40’s which I think is chilly. The sun is shining and the sky is blue but they are merely for effect. They look best from inside the house through the window.

We always had today off from school when I was a kid. We were supposed to go to church in the afternoon during the vigil, but we seldom did. Once I went and brought a book which I hid inside the hymnal and read while I was sitting in the pew. I looked pious with my head down as if deep in prayer. Even when I was working in the public school, it was a day off. One year the school committee decided that because Good Friday was connected to religion it was going to be a school day, but people could take it off for religious reasons. The number of teachers who called in floored me especially as some of them hadn’t seen the inside of a church since their baptisms. We had no substitutes  and had to have kids in the auditorium for large-scale study halls. That was the one and only time we had school on Good Friday.

We never had a countdown to Easter the way we did to Christmas. We knew our baskets would have candy, a stuffed animal when we were younger, probably a coloring book and crayons, maybe a kite and a few other small toys. We could always count on a chocolate rabbit and jelly beans. The rest was usually a surprise. I saw the best chocolate rabbit for sale in a catalog. It came with extra ears as the ears were always the first to go.

When we were younger, my mother bought inexpensive chocolate as we didn’t know the difference, but when we got older, she shopped at a candy store because we could taste the difference. I still shop at a candy store to make up baskets for my two friends. I buy little treasures to add to the candy and wrap all of them so the baskets are more fun. Today I have to candy shop. That makes going to the grocery store a bit more palatable.

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