Those Easter Morns

Well, I've done seven memory posts in which I remember as many details as possible about all the holidays I've experienced--and now it's time for the eighth! But Easter is a bit of an unusual holiday. In my family, a lot of the Easter traditions actually occur on the Saturday and sometimes Friday before Easter. The purpose of this blog is to remember only Easter Sunday, which means that some of my memories are vaguer than they are for other holidays.

2011--I think Allie and I made Easter sugar cookies in the morning, before church. Then after church we put blue frosting and Eastery sprinkles on them before going to my grandparents' house. We took the green Taurus. We got to their house at about the same time as my cousin Joey. I was taking the cookies out of the trunk when Joey was talking to Allie. Allie had brought her Disney Princess Squinkies, which Sue said she really liked. (I only remember this because Allie reminded me.) We had a traditional ham dinner (I ate a lot of deviled eggs), and then we brought out the cookies. My mom told everyone that Allie and I had made them, although I think there was something in that statement that wasn't quite accurate, but I can't remember what it was. (It might have been that my mom had actually made the dough.) I remember Debbie and Renee saying they wanted big cookies. They said that I did a good job, which I thought wasn't really accurate. I'm sure we talked about our Disneyland trip. Then we went home, and I watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie while trying to finish up all of my Easter candy, including my egg-shaped Almond Joys. Both of my parents watched at least part of the movie.

2010--It was conference weekend. My parents were going out of town since it was my mom's spring break. Our home teacher had brought us donuts the day before, and my mom wanted me to eat a quarter of the last one, a glazed one. I didn't want to, since it didn't have any Easter frosting or sprinkles, but she insisted. I told her that I would have to do ten pushups for it. She told me I was a slave driver (against myself) and said that she wouldn't have made me eat it if she knew I would have to do pushups for it. I told her it was OK. They left, and I watched the afternoon session of conference. Elder Nelson spoke and showed pictures of his grandkids. I thought about how my parents wouldn't see those pictures, since they were listening on the car radio. Then I was texting my cousin Jesse about how I would be coming to their house. It took me a long time to get ready to go back to Provo, and before I left I played "That Easter Morn" on the piano. In the car I was listening to Messiah as performed by the MoTab. I think Jesse texted me while I was driving, asking when I'd be there. I got to the Thompsons' house and they had a banner across their door that said "Welcome Home Elder Mark" that they had taken when I came home. I had been home for four months at this point, and I had actually seen the banner on the floor in their house on a previous visit in December. When I told them this they seemed disappointed. When I went inside I was standing, waiting for them to invite me to sit down (as I had become accustomed to doing on my mission), but I could tell they weren't going to invite me, so I sat down anyway. They told me that Joey had objected to putting the banner across the door because it would make them look like white trash. He didn't mind it being in the window, but he didn't like it across the door. I said that I didn't know how having it across the door was worse than having it in the window, and Sue agreed with me. Sue talked about watching conference, and mentioned the speaker who showed pictures of his family. I said, "Wasn't that Elder Nelson?" They were watching a sports game of some sort. After some small talk, Jesse asked me if I wanted to play Nintendo. I told him that I preferred not to play video games or watch TV on Sunday. I didn't think about the fact that they were watching TV. I didn't mean for them to turn off the TV, but they started to. Sue told me she agreed with me. But Peter insisted on keeping the TV on. I remember Jesse eating his Easter candy and I was a little sad that I had eaten all of mine. Jesse and Peter talked about how they wanted to get a pet penguin, and I started talking about how puffins are better than penguins because they can swim and fly. Sue said, "Penguins can fly." Peter and Jesse said, "No they can't!" and Sue realized her folly. They talked about how they wanted to buy an island for exotic pets, and how our uncle Paul could probably finance such a purchase. We talked about an individual we don't care for. We talked about the mysterious, creepy phone calls my aunt Debbie had received many years previously. Sue said that Wayne had put someone up to it, but she wouldn't say who the caller was because it was someone Peter and Jesse liked. After some coaxing, Sue told them who the caller was, and they assured her they didn't like that person. Throughout all our conversations Joey was in and out of the room. He would say the initial of a swear word, forbearing saying the word itself. He said he hated his dad and anyone associated with him. Sue told him he couldn't hate his dad. After he had left, Jesse was talking about how people believed Obama was a Muslim and that Joey probably believed that too. Sue said that Jesse and Peter believed dumb things too, "like evolution." Jesse retorted about evolution being fact-based. I could have spoken up with my views on evolution, but I figured it wouldn't have done much good, and I didn't want to open a can of worms. Eventually I left. I parked in my parking lot by the storage sheds. Lots of people had Facebook links to the Church's YouTube clip adapted from Elder Holland's talk the previous year. I made a status that said "Handel's Messiah is awesome," but no one commented on it.

2009--After church, Elder Kitchen and I went out in the rainy weather for our proselyting. We walked instead of biked, due to the weather. We walked to our dinner appointment with the Isaksens, who had bought us a bunch of Easter candy. We arranged so that they would drop it off at our house so we didn't have to carry it around with us. It was rainy, and I felt bad for all the little worms on the sidewalk, fearing they would get caught there when the rain went away and they would dry up in the sun. Elder Kitchen tried to get me to move them. This was uncharacteristic of him, since he would usually nag me for doing silly things like that. On Chateaux Drive, I picked up one worm, but when I did its internal fluids came out. Elder Kitchen told me I killed it, but I told him I had noticed some of those fluids coming out even before I picked it up. I still felt bad though. We saw a less-active family we had been trying to contact forever. The man was cordial enough, but didn't seem excited we were there on Easter, and in fact remarked about us having to "work" on Easter. It was for that reason (people not being excited about us being there on a holiday) I didn't want to do any tracting. We might have stopped to say hello to the Williamses, a family we were teaching, but I can't remember. We tried to see a potential investigator who I think lived on Hayden Avenue, but there was something weird there and I think we didn't end up knocking on the door (we later learned he had moved, anyway). I think there was a small girl in the yard who was yelling something. With all the rain and worms, I took this silly video:

We stopped at the Van Ettens', a member family, but I can't remember why we went in the first place. Sister Van Etten told us about how she had forgotten it was Easter until late the night before, so she went to the dollar store to get candy. They were all out of Easter candy, so she had to get generic candy. She bought Mike and Ikes and said they were like jelly beans if you smushed them. Because it was raining and because people weren't going to be too happy to see us on Easter, we asked Brother Van Etten to drive us home. He obliged. When we got home, the Isaksens' basket of candy was on our doorstep. We went down into our study area so I could do some paperwork. I tried to eat as much of the Easter candy as possible. They had given us a lot. There were chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies and Lifesavers jelly beans that were really yummy. I was craving string cheese (my mouth was sick of candy)--I can't remember if I went upstairs to get some or not, knowing that that was my last chance to legally eat Easter (and, in fact, any) candy.

2008--We first had church in the Greenbluff Ward. We were really excited about the people who attended. The Vaughans, a less-active family we were working with, were there, as was Richard Swinkels, a man who hadn't been to church for a very long time. He was wearing a leather jacket. Our investigators Heather and Matt might have been there, but I'm not sure. The Greenbluff Ward choir sang "That Easter Morn." After the Greenbluff Ward's meetings, we were in choir practice for the Northpointe Ward. We were practicing "That Easter Morn," and Elder Condie told everyone that the Greenbluff Ward had sung the song and that it sounded great. We were also pleased at the people who attended the Northpointe Ward. There were several related inactive families, the Carlsens, who all came. So did Nikki Carter, a less-active, and her three kids, whom we were teaching. They sat behind us, but Jonathan sat with us. But they left right after sacrament meeting. I think they had expected there to be some egg hunt or something--I figured that out when I got their voice mail after church. We had dinner with the Fullmers from the Greenbluff Ward. Before dinner some of the kids showed us their rooms. One girl showed us the picture she drew of Jesus's cross, including a crown of thorns. The Fullmers' teenage daughter said the blessing on the food, and referred to us as "Elders Condie and Melville." I knew that that family prayed for us by name. After dinner they had us participate in their family tradition of breaking confetti-filled eggs over each other's heads:


(Sorry that the video is sideways...)
We were almost out of gas, and since it was Easter and it was Sunday (meaning we couldn't buy gas), Elder Condie asked if we should just go home. Unfortunately, that's what we decided to do--that was a dark time of my mission.

2007--My sister had to work and my parents were still in Tennessee, so I watched Allie that day. In the morning we watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie on my sister's bed. At one point I was in the bathroom with Allie and she was scared of a spider she saw. I was figuring out what to do with it, but then she shrieked and I noticed that she was actually looking at a different spider, one that had just crawled over her toothbrush. I don't remember what I ended up doing with (or to) the two spiders. At one point I tried to tell her the true meaning of Easter. But she wouldn't have anything to do with it--talking about dying made her freak out. "I don't want her to die 'cause then she won't live with us anymore!" I decided to forgo getting her to understand. We went to church and we sat at our bench. People made comments to me about what a good uncle I was. We were shorthanded on Aaronic priesthood holders, but I didn't think it would be good for me to help out with sacrament because I didn't want to leave Allie alone. I think Brad Byington thought the same thing, because he got his brother Greg to help bless the sacrament instead of talking to me. But then I was singing in the ward choir, so I did leave Allie for that, and I felt guilty--if I could leave her to sing, I could have left her to help with sacrament. I was glad to see that the Taylors, who sat behind us, had invited her to sit with them. After the block was over, I went downstairs to get Allie. Her sunbeam teacher, Sister Willard, told me that she had said to Allie, "Let's go find your grandma," and Allie said, "I didn't bring my grandma." Since I was a loser eighteen-year-old who didn't drive on the freeway, my grandparents came and picked us up to go to their house for Easter dinner. Chancey had a girlfriend there, and he said something to Allie about "Grandmamother," the name she had previously given to my mom. Chancey's girlfriend thought "Grandmamother" was funny. Susanne met us there, and Allie told her about how she sat with Rebecca at church. At one point I told Nan about my experience telling Allie about Easter, and she told me that she should have warned me--that ever since Grandma Judy died, Allie had an aversion to talking about death.

2006--After church I watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie with Allie. Before we went to my grandparents' house, we stopped at the Taylors' house, but I'm not sure why. When we got to my grandparents' house, Allie was looking at their collection of Lladros. There was one that was a girl with a basket of bright flowers, and Allie said, "Someone got a visit from the Easter Bunny!" That night, I watched the songs from Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie. After everyone else went to bed, I read my scriptures in the computer room with all the lights off except for the lamp in which I had put an orange light bulb. After I read the scriptures, I got online and did my typical time wasting on TV.com and TVLand.com, which resulted in me getting to bed late.

2005--I don't remember a lot about this year. I remember seeing a comic strip that had the Easter Bunny saying "I hate it when Easter is in March" because he was up to his ears in snow. We had Easter dinner at our house, and I went downstairs and watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail. I had the closed captioning on, and I discovered that Antoine was swearing in French. (I don't think it's considered swearing in French culture as it would be in American culture.)

2004--I think David and Ya-ping and I were late for church, and I think we were the only ones who went to our church for some reason. I was wearing my Easter Bunny tie and aqua-colored socks. That afternoon we went to my grandparents'. We had a gospel discussion. We sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" to start it off, and I would have preferred to sing "I Believe in Christ." Part of it was kind of an open testimony meeting, and I talked about having read in Isaiah 9 about how the Lord says he is angry but his hand is stretched out still. Sue agreed with me and really liked that scripture. She talked about reading her scriptures and talked about how she went through a time where she read every cross reference, but that sometimes it was better to just read through. I remember thinking that reading all the cross references wasn't the greatest idea (I sometimes do this, but I still think this way--many of the cross references aren't very good). My grandparents had lots of jelly beans. The white ones were peppermint, so I ate a lot of them. That night I stayed up late working on an Isaiah project for my seminary class, since I had an abominable seminary teacher. I remember capitalizing all the instances of "LORD," as they do in the Old Testament. I think I actually formatted the font size so that the L was bigger than the ORD.

2003--All I seem to remember is that I watched It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown before church, and my mom wasn't too happy about that because she thought it was taking away from the true meaning of Easter.

2002--In Sunday school, our teacher, Sterling Parker, gave us a handout that was bright orange, and there were comments about it being an appropriate color for the day. (At that point I didn't consider orange an Easter color, but that made me reconsider.) I think there were those Whopper eggs with the shells, and my classmates introduced me to licking them and using them as lipstick. (It's possible all this happened in 2001.) My cousin April was coming to our house, and my mom told me not to bring my Easter candy out, but I ended up doing so anyway. That night I watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail, and my dad came downstairs at the part when Peter was talking to the witch on Halloween.

2001--Easter dinner was chez nous (for those of you who don't speak French, that means it was at our house). I remember turning on my Easter lights, including my Easter swag lights. I think I jumped on the trampoline with my cousins. They had brought a croquet set they got for Easter, which we played in the front yard.

2000--Easter dinner was at our house this year, as well. It was supposed to be at 5:00. My mom told me and David she wanted to have a discussion on the true meaning of Easter before everyone came. But before it was even 4:00, the Thompsons all pulled up in their van. I said, "What are they doing here!?" I think I remember wondering why Sue was driving instead of Wayne, because my dad was always the one to drive in my family. Because they arrived early, we didn't get to have our Easter discussion.

1999--It was conference weekend, and we were in Fillmore. My uncle (or maybe my grandma) had thrown jelly beans all over the living room for my small cousins. They told me there were some hidden especially for me. They gave me a hint--it had to do with a piano. I kept looking around the piano. There was a shoe lying haphazardly on the floor near the piano, and there was a jelly bean behind it. I asked if it was the one behind the shoe, and my grandma said, "I'm not telling." Eventually I looked up and looked at the painting on the wall of a woman playing a piano. The jelly beans were stuck in the decorative holes on the frame. I pulled them out and ate them. Then we went to my other grandparents' house. I remember talking with Jesse about this commercial:

Jesse really liked it. I don't remember what I thought of it.

1998--I remember looking at all the Easter-themed comic strips in the paper. I remember Ask Shagg had a chick-themed strip (chick meaning a baby chicken). I asked my mom what comic strips she read, and she said she read a lot of them but not all of them. That afternoon we made an Easter cake like my Grandma Judy used to make. We used a mix for a strawberry cake, so it was pink. We made coconut flakes green for grass, and we cut marshmallows to make them look like bunnies. My mom told me my grandma would use a marker to put faces on the marshmallows, but I didn't like the idea of eating marker, so I think we tried to use food coloring and toothpicks. The Thompsons came, and I remember jumping on the trampoline. Jesse was talking about that day's Foxtrot strip: The mom reprimanded Peter and Jason for eating their candy before church, and told them that Paige had left all of her candy untouched, including her entire hollow chocolate bunny. Jason said, "Hollow? These bunnies are solid," and the mom yelled, "Paige! Get down here!" That night I went home with the Thompsons for a sleepover. I even took all my plush bunnies. We stayed up too late and I was very tired the next day.

1997--I don't remember anything about this year :(

1996--My primary teacher, Caroline Weight, told us she had something to give us, but that she didn't have it with her. I told her I would go up to her house and get it. And I did--thus starting a weekly tradition of going to her house for candy. What she gave me was a yellow plastic bunny with candy inside. Then my grandma picked us up to take us to her house. I'm not sure why. I always thought it was cool to ride in this car because it had a telephone. (My, how times have changed...) There was a big crack in the windshield, and my mom--or maybe my brother, or both--asked what happened.

1995--I don't remember anything about this year, either :(

1994--I remember a lot of girls at church had fancy dresses and hats for Easter. One girl, Alicia Steagall, was sitting on the stand and she had a hat. I remember seeing the shadow of her hat and thinking, "Ooh, she has home darkness." (I should probably describe what home darkness is, although it has nothing to do with Easter. I was once at my grandparents' house and many of the lights were turned off. For some reason the darkness really excited me and made me feel as if I was at home. After that, I used the term "home darkness" to refer to darkness that wasn't completely dark. I loved home darkness--hence thinking Alicia Steagall was lucky. I suppose home darkness was the first term I coined--long before lemits.)

Well, folks, this is it. I have now finished writing memory posts for all major holidays. What should I do next?

Other posts in this series:

The Ghost of Independence Days Past
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-treat Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
Auld Lang Syne
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
Green Days