What's in your Easter Basket?

Dear Em,
For my very first Easter, your Nonnie really wanted me to have a Winnie the Pooh Easter basket. Papi kept telling her to wait until payday. When payday arrived, the baskets were sold out & Nonnie was heartbroken. Luckily, right before Easter she found a Winnie the Pooh basket filled with fruit at the grocery store. She was happy to have the Winnie the Pooh basket for me & the fruit was a nice addition to the Easter Day festivities. Ever since, I always found my basket filled with lots of fruit, some candy, & one special gift on Easter morning (I was shocked to learn not all kids find baskets full of fruit).

By the time you're reading this you will know that magical beings lived with you the whole time you were growing up. It's true. Santa, the Easter Bunny, & the Tooth Fairy all lived in your very own house. Of course that's because Daddy & I were those magical beings.


So far Santa has been a little excessive. I always knew he would be. I am, in fact, my mother's daughter. The Easter Bunny, on the other hand, has been inconsistent. During your first Easter, you were only a few months old. What does a a little baby need for Easter? You were on a strict diet of breast milk, candy was out. You had all of the baby toys & books you could ever dream of.

You did need an Easter basket. I ordered your basket & personalized liner from Pottery Barn Kids. It was a little pricey, but I planned to reuse your basket each year. To me, it was worth it. Our friends joked that your basket was bigger than you, but I knew you'd grow into it. The night before Easter, I realized I had nothing to fill your beautiful basket with. So, I gathered up some of the things you already owned & a bunch of empty plastic eggs (trust me, you didn't know the difference), & this is what you found on Easter morning.

We had the Easter tradition pictures memories without the fuss. The next year was a different story. You had grown out of the baby stage & into the toddler phase. You were growing out of many of your toys & things. The weather was getting warmer & we were looking for things we could do with you outside. So, we the Easter Bunny may have gone a little overboard, but most of the things in & around your basket were things we had planned to get you anyway. 

See the fruit in your basket? We made an indoor egg hunt by mostly just putting eggs all over the floor. Your eggs were filled with cheerios & jelly beans. Once you tasted jelly beans, you dumped the cheerios & kept looking for jelly beans.

The books, the towels, the bath toys, the sand toys, & the bike are things that we've loving used frequently since. However, when you add the fact your grandparents got you a Cozy Coupe Car for Easter, I was worried we were setting a dangerous precedent for Easter & spoiling you like crazy. I mean, all this stuff is not what Easter is really about.

This year, we are back to a place where you really don't need anything. I've been putting away a few books & a puzzle & a movie that I found good deals on since Christmas. This is what we're putting in your basket for Easter this year. I think you will be excited without us going overboard.

I hope we can spend Easter celebrating the real meaning of the holiday: Jesus (& spending time with those we love).

I love you so,

Mommy

* Readers, what is your rule of thumb when it comes to what your Easter basket is filled with? *