Thank you Easter Bunny. Thank you for being a symbol of something much larger when I was a child who could not understand the meaning of Easter. You were the figure that brought my family together in spring. We would gather around the table a week before the celebration of Christs’ resurrection, and watch as we dropped colored pallets into water. The water would bubble as it began to turn the most beautiful shades of pink, green, blue, purple, and yellow, the colors of spring. It always meant the warm weather was coming.

The eggs promised many more days like the day they were colored, it meant many more family gatherings, uncontrollable laughter and catching up. It meant school was almost out for the year and the warmth of the sun would push out the decay that winters’ frostbite left behind. With each dipped egg, we painted the world in color, covered the snow with flowers, and gave the trees life. In the activity there was hope of brighter days.

You would hide the eggs, both colored and candy filled, or so my mother said. We would go hunting early in the morning, finding eggs high and low, inside and outside. Mother would make pancakes and eggs as we laughed and giggled, comparing the amount of eggs in our baskets and trading our favorite candies.

After the hunt, normally behind a chair, we would find baskets with our names written on it from you. These baskets were great as a child, filled with Cadbury eggs and other candies, often there would be bubbles, a jump rope, chalk, or other outdoorsy toys. We would play outside with the new toys for hours blowing bubbles, creating hopscotch and tic-tac-toe boards. Our parents would often get fret, asking us not to get our Easter clothes dirty before church. Our pastel colored dresses and our brothers khaki pants or pastel shirts would surely be stained by the end of the day, probably before church.

I remember bringing our new toys to my grandmothers while she made brunch. We would play with all of our cousins in the fenced yard, the dogs often joining in games of tag. You had been there too and hidden eggs, filled to the top with jelly beans, Hershey kisses, and Reeses. You brought and continue to bring love and unity in every home on Easter day.

Thank you, Easter Bunny, for adding to my Easter every year, for teaching me how much the little things matter. You taught me that it is not the eggs or the baskets, but the smiles upon the faces running around in pastel colors that mean the most. It is the games of tag, the jumping dogs and the way Nana’s French toast soaked in Vermont maple syrup smells in the oven at ten o’clock on Easter morning.

This Easter I will be carrying on your traditions as you no longer come to my home. I will hide the eggs my family and I color, around our quaint apartment. I will dump candy and cat toys into colorful baskets and cook breakfast early in the morning. I can’t wait to see the smile on everyone’s faces, to watch the kitten run around with his new Easter toys. I cannot wait to feel the sun on my face promising springtime is near. Thank you for instilling these traditions in me, and many other children, for making families feel joy. Thank you for everything. Happy Easter, Easter Bunny.