(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Easter was special in my family. It always meant a new spring outfit for me. Holy Saturday brought blessed food which included ham, my Mom’s wonderful potato salad, an egg cheese that she only made at Easter-time and red beet horseradish for the dyed hard boiled eggs. Palm Sunday mass had a long gospel with presents of palms for all attending.
Easter also brought an end to any deprivations we vowed to do for lent. I always tried to give up something that wouldn’t be too painful. I am pretty sure that one year I gave up driving a car when I was 13. I liked to give up liver and onions. I never ate that awful stuff anyway. After all, lent was six weeks long so giving up something I really like wouldn’t be a good idea.
If we were lucky and it was a late Easter, the weather would be mild and blossoms would be blooming. Easter was always a favorite. It was a harbinger of the summer.
Oh yes, there were Easter baskets with jelly beans, marshmallow peeps and chocolate bunnies. First I would eat all the black jelly beans. They were my favorite. I hate black licorice so I don’t understand it but black jellybeans still hold a magic for me.
I would barter the marshmallow stuff. I wasn’t much for that uber-sweet goo. Sometimes I could trade them for a coconut cream egg or maybe peanut butter. I always saved the chocolate bunnies for last, savoring them into the summer. I also liked to display them and enjoyed looking at them. That is until the year I was around 8 or so.
Worst ever picture of both of us with Easter baskets. I am on left, Anita on right.
My niece Anita is only three years younger than I am. We were often playmates growing up. People say there is a family resemblance but I am not so sure. We are the same size and build but she always had natural red hair. Not the carrot-top type with the huge freckles but a very pretty strawberry blonde that deepened as she got older. She was not much into savoring the chocolate. For her, chocolate in hand was chocolate in mouth. Anyone’s chocolate to be precise.
That year I had displayed my bunnies on the window sills. I now know that didn’t make any sense since they could have melted from the sun. As I was admiring my treasures, I noticed that one of them didn’t have ears. Upon closer inspection, there were bite marks. As I went from window to window, all of my bunnies were equally de-eared. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who did it. Obviously the pointy ears were too much of a temptation….so, off with their ears.
I was mortified. I cried but no one offered to buy me new bunnies so I had to make due. It wasn’t the same. Eating chocolate bunnies that had someone else’s teeth marks was just gross. That was the last year I ever displayed my treasures. After that I kept them in the refrigerator or in my bedroom. There is no point in tempting fate…..or Anita.
I am including a more current picture of Anita so you don’t think she still has those big cheeks (filled with my bunny ears!). Trust me neither of us look like that old picture!
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
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Hahahaha! I LOVE it! Obviously I got that from my mother as well. Jenn always savored her chocolate. Mine was gone by the end of the day. 🙂
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If you were Jewish, you’d have had all the matzah you’d want to eat. No one wants to steal that.
Great pictures!
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We typically go to two seders every year with friends. They put chocolate on the matzah crackers. Guess that helps but no I wouldn’t steal the matzah and neither would Anita.
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Chocolate covered matzah doesn’t fool anyone. It’s still matzah.
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That’s what I thought. I didn’t touch it.
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Great pictures – we have a few of those ourselves. Missing bunny ears do gross out the eating fun. My mother’s solution was to use a knife and cut off that chewed part….it still wasn’t quite right – but we rarely got candy. I noticed my older brother smugly watching the chopping -quite amused – the “perfect” child, he never got scolded for it. (“Don’t be a baby – it’s nice to share”. older brothers are a pain!)
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Sweet and funny. I got a chocolate bunny for my grandchild and the first thing to go were the ears. 🙂
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So funny! I loved the picture, actually…it’s so reminiscent of ones I know my mom must have stashed somewhere. I like that you refer to your bunnies as “treasures” and had them all displayed. To me that is just so humorous! Anita couldn’t help but take the bait! Happy Easter to you, Kate. May your bunnies have their ears! Debra
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Love the vintage pic! Great post, thanks for sharing. 🙂
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I was with my mom when she first read this and from the title alone she knew it was about her. She laughed pretty hard and now that I’ve read it myself, I can see why. Did she think you wouldn’t notice? bunnies with no ears?
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When you are five and it’s chocolate, you just don’t care! Glad she laughed. That picture of her had the biggest cheeks I have ever seen!
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I always ate the ears first! My grandma used to go to a special chocolate shop that made homemade, solid bunnies. She would then hide them around her house, eg. taped under the dining table, and we kids had to find them all. I always used to think what if we didn’t find them all? So every time I visited her I would explore under all the furniture just in case, haha.
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I love that old picture. The Anitas of the world are the reason you need to eat chocolate right away.
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Yes, I learned that the hard way. I always saved the best for last and I am not sure that is a good strategy. Anita ate her favorites (and mine) first.
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LOL! You can have all my black jellybeans if I can have all your chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies! Great post.
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I can understand Anita’s caving in to temptation. Chocoate bunny ears – especially the big ears variety – are my favorite. Good Friday and Happy Easter, Kate.
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