the end of a tradition

one of my favorite things about my family is that we are big on tradition. every major holiday comes with a handful of things we do EVERY time that holiday comes around(if we are all together,which is rare nowadays,which makes these traditions even more meaningful). for thanksgiving, we always have a fancy feast,with my dad always making the turkey. for christmas, me and my sister ALWAYS wake up early,check out what santa brought us in our stockings+the dogs,then wait for mom and dad to wake up so we can open the rest of our presents(this was even true last year when she came to visit,but was extra awesome cause we got to do it with justin and connor). new years eve is fun because,according to my mom,it's good luck to turn on EVERY SINGLE light in your house right before midnight and then bang pots and pans and jump up and down once the new year has arrived. even for each of our birthdays,it's tradition that on the actual day of our birth the birthday boy/girl gets to choose where they would like to go for dinner,with almost no restrictions.

i would say that my mom has been a big influence on a lot of the traditions we have. she LOVES decorating for different holidays(i would say christmas is most definitely her favorite),and always tries to add extra special touches that make it personal and makes you feel just that much more important,or makes it that much more fun. this is especially true on easter.

growing up,easter day ALWAYS started by going to easter service at church. but after church is when all the fun began. our mom would restrict me and sam to a certain room of the house (usually our bedroom)while the "easter bunny" hid the eggs. depending on the weather,the eggs could have been hidden inside or outside of the house. usually there was a mix of both real eggs that sam and i had helped her decorate the night before, and fake eggs,with hidden prizes in them. we would have the traditional egg hunt(usually while dad was in the kitchen making a delicious easter breakfast),then once that was done we would eat breakfast as fast as we could so we could dive into our sweet easter treats.

as we got older,things got a LOT more interesting.

our mom decided to turn the egg hunting into a type of game. find a certain amount of eggs-get a prize. find a specifically decorated/colored egg-get a prize.this is how,up until about 3 years ago,our mom was still able to convince sam and i to egg hunt in our backyard. i'm not gonna say i wasn't totally embarrassed being a 20+ year old running around our fenced yard like i was 6 with an easter basket complete with easter "grass" and decorated eggs. but i could have cared less,i was focused on finding the most eggs so i could be the big winner!

not only did the egg hunting get more elaborate as we got older,but the prizes got more elaborate as well.while 80% of our plastic eggs would be filled with the traditional chocolates and jelly beans,every once in a while mom would throw in a dollar bill into a few of them,as well as offering money up for "special egg" prizes.i'm pretty sure one year i walked away from an egg hunt 20ish dollars richer,just for finding the "special" eggs. another good incentive to egg hunt in your 20s-that's a work weeks worth of lattes! during breakfast my mom would then give me and samantha gift bags she had made just for us, full of more chocolate and trinkets like a bracelet,gift card,or other small gift.

unfortunately,this year i have realized that this tradition has basically run its coarse and come to an end. samantha is now living in texas and is starting her own easter traditions with connor and justin. this year,my mom is working,so me and my dad are hanging out at their house until she comes home so we can have breakfast dinner together(at least my favorite part of the tradition can be salvaged :). he's sitting next to me playing world of warcraft and listening to talk radio while i'm writing this post. even though it's not as elaborate or exciting as years past i still get to spend it with 2 of the most important people in my life and that,to me, is worth more than any tradition.