My Easter Problem

Easter was simple when the kids were little. Color some eggs, fill their baskets with goodies, and sing some Easter songs.

When Justin was three, he insisted that we sing, "He Arose," before going to find his Easter basket. Sweet child.

I had a picture of kids with baskets in Gabon, but as they were highly unclothed (as they were most of the time inside during our time in Africa) , it wasn't appropirate. Here they are in Nice, where it was cool enough for clothing.

Besides coloring eggs and gathering some Easter basket fillings, I got them dressed up, a step above the usual, for church.

Anna loving being dressed up in an Easter dress for church.

But no, I couldn't leave it at that. I added homemade cinnamon rolls. We made Easter Things out of marzipan.

I know they're scary looking.

And as soon as they were old enough to read, the Annual Harris Basket Hunt began. This involved me writing and placing clues for them to follow to find their baskets. Most years, it was too manic for pictures or video, but I did dig up a few videos from a year in Nice. If you don't get dizzy easily, feel free to look. I didn't know that you shouldn't video holding the camera sideways, so um, it's not stellar videography...

Here's Justin looking for a clue that's hidden in one of his How to Train Your Dragon books.

And Anna's friend Jasmine hunting in the dictionary for her next clue. Anna and Jasmine's clues were in French.

In this video, Jasmine's hunting for a word in English, Anna's drawing a rabbit, and Justin is wanting to use the dictionary for his next clue.

Here Justin is apparently making a rabbit out of Legos. Though it looks an awful lot like an airplane.

This hunt ended in our underground storage unit, where the girls, off-camera due to my stellar videography, do find their baskets.

So, here's my problem. We're going out of town on a church retreat this weekend in Michigan. It will be lovely and calm and restful and fun. But, by the look in their eyes, it was clear that not doing the Basket Hunt would have ruined this Easter for my children. Justin's already bummed about missing the Easter service at our church--he still wants to sing Easter songs after all these years (we will be singing them, but with a smaller group and minus the electric guitars and drums).

So, in addition to getting an oil change and all the other little things that need doing today, I need to come up with clever tasks and clues and place them in clever places so the children can have their Easter fun.

I'll probably still be doing this as they come back from college. Writing clues for them and their spouses. Then for them and their kids. It will never end. What have I done?

On the other hand, no mention has been made of cinnamon rolls, so I may be off the hook. Or we may be eating them Sunday night. And there will be no making of marzipan creatures