Doing More with a Lesser Easter

We decided not to spend a lot on Easter. I’m having some guilt about it but, in the end, I know it is the right decision. We just made the purchase of new windows for our home ($$$$). We’re still saving up for our summer vacation(s) ($$$$). And, really, have you seen the junk that they sell for Easter? Do we really need more cheap, plastic toys that won’t be played with? More stuffed rabbits that will be ignored? No. We don’t. So, we’re accidentally having a slightly green-er Easter, too. Look at that.

What will the boys get? Well, BigBrother is getting a (Lightning McQueen) fishing pole. He’ll finally get to go fishing with FireDad. LittleBrother is getting some cars to play with in hopes of adding more cars to our collection so we can stop fighting over the cars that we currently have. (That’s never going to happen, is it?) I’ll be using last year’s Easter grass which may very well be Easter grass from my childhood. It all looks the same: annoying. I do have plans to stop and get some bubbles as well. As for candy, BigBrother will get a few lollipops. Otherwise, they’re just getting (homemade) cookies. We don’t really do candy, especially not for LittleBrother yet.

To be fair, they’ve already received some nice presents from my parents as we “Easter-ed” with them last weekend. We now have two Buzz Lightyears and two Woody dolls in the house (and they still fight over them, sigh) and some Toy Story 2 figurines to make noise with and crash off the couch and hurt my feet when I step on them. I’m sure other grandparents have purchased some things that we’ll receive on our Sunday jaunts. I’m okay with this as long as there are no useless stuffed rabbits. Or those can stay at the offending house. Now that’s an idea.

When it comes to clothes, I didn’t buy myself a new Easter dress. To be honest with you, I said that I would if I lost the weight to hit my next goal. And I didn’t due to some continuing health issues. So, no new dress. (Sigh.) LittleBrother is wearing what BigBrother wore two years ago. (I’m so excited about it!) BigBrother is wearing an outfit that doesn’t match (oh no!) but that was on super sale. Turns out if you wait long enough (read: procrastinate), they put Easter outfits on sale for 50% off! (Also, look for an upcoming gender rant.) FireDad has to pick up his suit that he had cleaned. In short, one is wearing khaki and white, one is wearing black and yellow, one is wearing navy and white and one is wearing a black suit with a tie yet to be decided. We don’t match at all. My Mom has told me this is okay. It feels wrong. But we’ll survive, right?

As for activities, we are spending four dollars per child to attend a local Easter egg hunt tomorrow. (Money goes back to the city so we feel okay with this expenditure.) We’ll also be releasing some purple balloons in honor of Madeline Spohr. We will be dyeing our eggs today as well. We bought our dye-kit at the dollar store and it’s the very same dye-kit I would have purchased at The Store That Has Everything From Easter Egg Kits to Tuna but for three dollars less. After church on Sunday morning (during which I have a special craft planned for the nursery), the kids will have an Easter egg hunt as well before we rush off to FireDad’s mom’s for lunch and, later, his paternal grandparents for supper. Busy but in a good way.

Hopefully, through all of this, we can remind our children why we celebrate Easter. LittleBrother can now say Jesus. I know he doesn’t know what it means other than a word in a song or a book or a character in the Veggie Tales manger scene. But BigBrother does in his three year old way. When trying to decide how to explain the complexities of the holiday to him, I decided to go with an easy, age-appropriate approach. When asked now, he will tell you that we celebrate Easter “because Jesus loves us.” In the end, that’s what it is all about. I have a few Jesus-centered Easter coloring pages along with some blank eggs to decorate ready for downtime on Saturday and Sunday. And we have some books that will be featured at story time throughout our weekend. No new books this year.

I feel somewhat cheap. But, in the back of my mind, I know that it is more about what we do as a family this weekend than what we spend. Our children don’t want for anything and remembering that on a holiday is sometimes difficult. They are loved. They are healthy. They are (mostly) happy. And so, while their baskets may not be filled with fancy or expensive gifts, we’re going to be making some memories this weekend. LittleBrother likely won’t remember this Easter but, as my Dad dropped our Easter cake in a puddle the Easter that I was three and I remember it vividly, I know that BigBrother could likely retain something from this year.

Hopefully it will be something good. Even if our outfits don’t match. At all.