Easter Bunnies

Mom and Dad always made Easter special at our house.  Well, looking back, I am not sure how much time and thought Dad really put into it, but I now understand how those things work.  There was one big huge basket with lots of candy, mostly chocolates.  Chocolate is one of Mom's favorite things, so come the "chocolate holidays," she never disappointed.  There would be a nice assortment of Sarris Candy, sometimes a large peanut butter melt-away egg, M&M's, turtles, chocolate covered pretzels, maybe some Whoppers and some jelly beans.

Being a girl, we would often get a new Easter dress too.  That was always a big deal.  Things were different then.  We wore a dress to church each Sunday and we weren't allowed to wear nude panty hose until we were 13.  We would either wear tights or knee socks.  We could break out the new white patton leather shoes or white sandles for Easter, but we didn't wear them again until after Memorial Day.  We were allowed to wear make-up in 7th grade and were able to get our ears pierced in 8th.  I don't remember real rules for shaving, there was just always the big lecture of "once you start, you'll have to keep on going and it will grow in darker and thicker like Daddy's whiskers "  I remember one of my sisters trying to fib her way out of saying she didn't shave her legs, but the ring around the bathtub told otherwise.  Yes, it is a surprise that wasn't me!

We had two Easters that had an extra surprise.  The first, I don't remember the year, I would have been early elementary ages, we came out to the dining room table to find a white bunny with pink eyes in our basket. Three little girls fell in love with her right away (It was B.J. - before Jim).  We named her Puffy.  We were so excited to have a cute new pet to play with.   Of course WE would feed it and clean the cage.  HA! I do remember helping to paint her cage and we had to move the cage around the yard to give it fresh grass spots.  Puffy really do much, but lay there - she got so fat and lazy, she even forgot how to hop!

We all were excited for the time that we found out that Puffy was going to have babies!  (Now that I think about it, I am very surprised that Dad agreed to that and I don't know where she even met her boyfriend, she was usually gated up on her own!)  Well, we watched as she got ready to be a mommy.  We were amazed how she pulled the hair from under her chin to make a nice soft nest for her new baby bunnies.  It was very exciting.  What colors would they be, would any of them be white with pink eyes like her?  How many would she have? Oh the tension and the thrill was so thick you could almost taste it!  Finally the day came that we found out that she had her babies.  I don't really remember the time frame, I imagine it all happened pretty quick, but dad, not always being the most sensitive, told us that none of the babies made it. Puffy ate all her babies!  "EWWW!!!  GROSSS!!!!!  She ate them?  Why would she do that?"  Then the science teacher in him came out.  He explained how sometimes that just happens.  (I don't really remember his words.)  I do remember him telling us thought that maybe she was a "special needs bunny."  He said that her parents probably were brother and sister and she just didn't have the right things in her for her to be a mom. What is a child suppose to to with those thoughts?

Now that I think about it all, I have no idea how he would have know that, and I feel bad thinking that all these years we had a retarded bunny.

Several years later, Puffy had passed, and one Easter morning, another white bunny with pink eyes waited for us all, including Jimmy, in our Easter Basket.  Jimmy named this one, Softy.  I am guessing by the name, Jim would have been around 3.  Mom had bigger plans for Softy.  She had heard that some rabbits can be indoor pets, but they were super expensive, so we would just train this one.  She thought it would look so cute of have a little black Poodle, Tosh, and a white bunny, Softy, greet  you at the top of the stairs when you walked into our house.  "All you have to do is train it to use the liter box.  It will always go back to the same spot to do it's business.  Well, yes that is true, it did go to the back bathroom liter box to go potty, but it also went in other places around the house.  He also would like to hop behind the stereo system and that wasn't a big deal, until something would just stop working and dad would find the wires chewed and frayed. I am sure that didn't warm his heart to have to continually be repairing wires, but I am pretty sure the last straw to Softy being an indoor bunny was one of his "spots" that he would return to in order to do his business.  You know, as a child one of the most comforting and secure spots was right between mom and dad in bed.  Softy must have agreed too.  He also loved that little dip between the pillows on their bed.  Yes,   after that, Softy was an outdoor rabbit.

Yesterday was a day of rejoicing.  We all went to Jeannie's house for Easter dinner.  Grandma Allshouse was there too and mom looked great.  She had on a new pair of jeans, a fleece vest and shirt (my guess is from LL Bean!)  Her hair was beautiful - still there.  Her color looks a lot better than the last time I saw her.  Dad even put on a nice dress shirt for the family gathering.  A good rule of thumb for dad to follow would be "if you got it free, like for giving blood, some kind of special varmint control, or our old high school musicals,  - probably isn't appropriate for a nice family gathering.  Not that there is anything wrong with varmint control, I'm all for it...just saying...

I made the ham, Becca made the salad, and Jeannie made the potatoes, veggies and rolls.  In the corner, I spotted a familiar Tupperware container.  It was one mom always put her cookies in.  In the clear bottom, were round tan objects with black spots.  "Could it be?  Are those the famous homemade chocolate chip cookies?"  When I questioned, the answer was "YES!"  Mom and Dad together made cookies.  It was perfect.

When we were finished with our meal, but were all still at the table, the phone rang and made the evening complete.  We all talked to Becky on speaker phone at the table for about 45 minutes.  We all can't wait for the summer when we will all be together and for the year she and her kids will have in Indiana, with us all as a family.

Easter Sunday and Mom finally went to church.  What a day to make it back for the first time!  She still needs to be careful with germs, but she is able to get out.  She will be scheduling times for visitors to stop by as she still tires easily and it can be very overwhelming.  Please call or text her if you would like to visit.

We can not thank you enough for all your thought, kind words, meals but especially your prayers.  Please continue to pray for complete healing.