Easter Week Traditions From My Past

When I was a young girl, holidays were always big events at our house.

Mom was both a planner and a decorator and while Christmas was her

 big decorating holiday, Easter was too.  She would spend days on her

Easter centerpiece for the dining room table.   I remember her encouraging

branches to bloom in vases around the house.  Tulips and daffodils were

everywhere.  She planned her menu weeks in advance.  Although Easter

Sunday dinner was always roast leg of lamb and asparagus and new potatoes,

she hunted through all her favorite magazines for the latest appetizer craze

and fabulous dessert.  We were always sure to have the perfect dinner

after church.

Daddy was in charge of hiding the colored Easter eggs.  He was so good

at hiding eggs that we practically had to turn the house upside down to

discover them all.  He never repeated himself though.  After an egg was

carefully slipped into the hem of a drape one year, he never used that

idea again, yet we continued to laugh about it for years.

Since the weather along the shores of Lake Michigan in the suburbs

of Chicago was so unpredictable in spring, Mom always made sure 

that we had our spring coats.  Shopping for a new coat for me each

spring was a yearly event.  Of course, that was back in the day when

there was still a Marshall Fields and a Best & Co. and shopping for

just the right coat was a special event.  One year when I was still

quite young, about four or five, my Mom made me a navy blue coat

with white trim and buttons and the same coat to match for my doll.

On Easter morning, we were all dressed and ready to go to church a

bit early so that Daddy could take pictures.  Daddy was an amateur

photographer and he had a pricey camera with all sorts of settings.

In many of the family photos, no one was smiling because it took him

so long to get all the settings just perfect.  The Easter Sunday I wore

the navy blue coat, I looked quite serious in my close up shot.  I think

I was exhausted from posing so long ;-)

Good Friday was a solemn day at our house.  For my Mom it was a day

of reflection on the sacrifice Christ made for us.  No meat, no television,

no parties.  Mom's rules.  I don't see many adhering to that policy now,

but that's how it was when I was growing up.

What were the traditions of your family and have they changed today?

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Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley