Broken Traditions Through Growing Up and Becoming an Adult

    For some of you, yesterday being Easter and all,  woke up early for the sunrise service at church, others may have slept in and then hunted for Easter eggs, some may have not celebrated at all. Then there is what I did. Being a supervisor in a retail establishment, I had to work Easter morning.

    Every year growing up I remember getting out of bed on Easter and waiting for my parents to tell my sisters and I that we could start looking for our baskets and eggs that they had hidden around the house.  At a young age it was difficult to find them, but as the years came and went it seemed like my parents ran out of ideas for where to put our baskets.  Someone always found theirs in the dryer or pantry.  Then there was the one year my Dad thought he was clever and hid one basket outside. My mother always thought it was funny to put a little toy chick in one of the eggs and call it "special". There was nothing special about it. No extra prize or incentive to find it. Who ever found that egg just got gipped that much more candy. Even though the baskets and eggs got easier to find it was still fun to look because it was tradition. Pretty soon, as we reached teenage years, it became tradition to annoy the mess out of my older sister because she wouldn't get out of bed to come hunt for baskets.  That's when the tradition of her yelling at us came along! In the afternoon, when we got back from church, we would go to visit my grandparents and have Easter dinner with them.  Baked ham, it always had to be baked ham! We would have fun eating, talking and playing cards games through the evening.  Finally it would be time to go home and fall into a sugar coma.

     Time passed, I moved out of my parents house and to another state entirely. I found a pretty girl and married her, but because of the distance I have not been able to visit during my family during Easter. Luckily my wife's family is close enough that we go to the picnic that they have every year.  Tradition for me changed again.  Getting used not hunting for baskets and not eating baked ham, but country ham and fried chicken. I enjoy learning these new traditions and hearing tales of the past years picnics.

      This year was also different because as I stated before, I had to work. That meant not going to church, not waking up to see a basket waiting for me and having to hurry to get to the family picnic before everyone finished eating.  It just seems the older I get the faster time goes and the less I get to enjoy the little things. I cannot wait for the day that I get to see my kids get out of bed and frantically search high and low for Easter goodies. I also make the promise to my future children that I will never run out of hiding places for their baskets and they will become more difficult to find as they get older.