Hopping Along the Bunny Trail!

I finally got a bloom out of one of the daffodil plants that I bought at Walmart last week...a cheery sight on a snowy day!

I wanted to share with you one of my family's Easter traditions that has brought a lot of joy, a lot of laughs, and a lot of good pictures over the years...and that is the tradition of the Bunny Trail!

Ever since my son was young (again, a long time ago) I made up Easter baskets for him, and whoever happened to be visiting at the time.  Easter morning would arrive, but instead of an Easter basket there would be a carrot, lying on the floor.  We said that the Easter bunny hid the baskets, and the way to find them was to follow the carrots along the bunny trail.

If the children living or visiting Easter morning were young, we would hide the baskets somewhere in the house, and they would follow the carrots that would lead them to their baskets.  As the children got older, or if I had the grandparents visiting, I would hide the baskets out in the yard.  I would make the trail winding...going out the front door, twisting around the side of the house to the back yard.  I used a lot of carrots!  Sometimes I even hid them at the neighbor's house, and they would follow the trail down the block and through the alley!  Kids, and grownups, love a hunt!

The bunny trail became a family tradition, and I still enjoy getting out the photo albums and seeing the excitement on the faces of family members, young and old alike.  One of my favorite pictures is of my father-in-law holding the basket that he had just fished out of the bushes, with my mother-in-law in her long flannel nightgown trying to grab it.  My father-in-law recently passed away...so these memories are very precious to us.  I have another picture of my old golden retriever Gus who, unbeknownst to me, had gathered up all of the carrots that I had so carefully planted around the yard. Instead of a bunny trail that Easter, we had a guilty looking dog with a carrot in his mouth, sitting amidst a pile of carrots! 

Family memories.  Made from simple things really, but oh, so priceless.  Whatever your family traditions are this Easter, practice them and hold them tight.  Memories that will warm your heart in later years are being made right now, today!  DLB