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Yesterday for Happy Monday our assignment was to tell an Easter memory - and I chose to go with my younger children's Easters. Then Hootin' Anni asked about Amanda's Easters when she was little, and I figured I might as well go all the way back if I'm going to tell it correctly. Sooooo... When I was a wee little peanut, Easter was ALL ABOUT CHURCH! We did (as you can see) get baskets filled with eggs, little fuzzy peeps, and always a chocolate bunny. And my mother was IN to stuffed animals, so I'm sure I always got one --- I don't know about the older kids -- but I was the baby and I was still getting a stuffed bunny when I was 10! (My mother LOVED holidays! Especially Easter!) But I especially remember the little fuzzy peeps! They came in pink and blue and purple and of course yellow! I loved them! But still... Easter was NOT about bunnies, and chicks and candy. It was about Jesus! Make no doubt about that! And any spoiling my mother did of us on Easter was DEFINITELY done to the glory of God!!! We knew exactly why we were celebrating! EVEN at 3 years old! We knew that Easter was no ordinary Sunday, and though we DID dress up for church on "ordinary" Sundays -- it was nothing like what we did on Easter! Easter was much more frilly and pretty and white gloves and patent leather shoes and most assuredly a beauuuuuutiful Easter bonnet! Where do you THINK I got my love of hats from??? I don't have very many childhood memories. I have blocked out so much more than I will EVER remember -- much of which I really do WISH I could get back sometimes. But I will tell you this... I remember dressing UP for Easter. And I remember dancing around -- not particularly in this dress above, but maybe by the next year... I remember crinolins (oh so itchy) that made my dress POOF out and I loved getting those new SHINY shoes that went tappity tappity tap! And I LOVED my little white gloves! And when I was verrrrry small -- about the age up there -- and maybe 2 more years beyond -- I LOVED going to church! I was way too little to be bored by it! And I was way to cute to not be the center of a LOT of attention! What was not to love!? And we attended St. Anne's Church on Wisconsin Ave. in Washington DC - which was a MAMMOTH (to me) stone church -- not stone like rocks -- stone like huge blocks - maybe it was all marble. I don't know. But I know I can when I close my eyes I can still smell that church! It smelled sooooo good! A mix of wood and cold, and incense! I always loved it! The inside walls were stone too -- and the floor was marble! Just the perfect floor for my tippity tappity shoes! I wish I had a picture of that church! I should drive down there and take one -- I hope it hasn't changed! I bet I couldn't get in... it's probably LOCKED all the time now.... I also wish I had a picture of ALL of us dressed up... but I don't remember ever even seeing one. But my brother had a new suit (navy or black) and 4 girls all in pretty dresses! (5 sisters - but the oldest was 24 when I was born, and married when I was 3! My oldest brother was already married even before that!) So off to church we would go, and I can remember sO well, being excited because Jesus was no longer covered up! Remember - the Catholic churches have a crucifix above the altar, not an empty cross. And during lent the cross was covered and we couldn't see Jesus. But on Easter Sunday the cloth was down and He was back!!! (still hanging on the cross... you know ... I don't think that made sense to me even back then...) But now that I look back, I am positive my mother MUST have pointed these things out to me and MADE a big deal about them! Or at the very least, she answered my bzillion questions! I don't remember my father ever telling me ANYthing about religion at all. I'm pretty sure he just went along with it all. Religion didn't play a part in his life until much later. So ... that's it. And then when we got home, first we had breakfast - we were Catholics - and back in those days you did not break fast until AFTER you had had Holy Communion. Way back then the mass was still said entirely in Latin too! English didn't come into the picture until I was around 6 or 7 -- and I remember there being a lot of scuttlebutt about it! A LOT of scuttlebutt! But after breakfast, then we got around to hunting for eggs! Now you know... I must have not cared much for egg hunts... I don't remember if we did them inside or out. I am sure that we did one! And I do know that we at least SOME years, if not every year, went down to the white house for the Easter Egg Roll! And I don't remember HUNTING eggs THERE either! But I definitely DO remember rolling them!!! LOL!