Easter Sunday was very “just okay” for me yesterday. I mean, it was nice and all. But I just came away from it feeling pretty “meh” about it all. Maybe I was just in a bit of a down mood, I don’t know.
For context, Easter is my least favorite holiday. (Besides the religious aspect, which I greatly appreciate and enjoy.) But in terms of “all the rest” (the bunny, the eggs, the candy, the baskets, the meal, etc.), I just don’t really get into it.
Which is odd, because I’m usually pretty into holidays. (Kind of. I am coming to realize and accept more that I REALLY, really enjoy fall/ Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that’s about it. Post-Christmas holidays (so, I’m talking Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter, for me/ my family’s culture) just don’t do much for me.)
I find them….mildly entertaining and nice enough, but mostly just things that: a) create work for me in some capacity but b) don’t really bring me oodles of joy, either.
I went over my dis-like of Easter in detail in this post, which was written in my very first month of blogging! So that’s kind of fun to look back on. Haha. 🙂
Long story short:
- I think Easter became “tainted” for me after I had to work on Easter Sunday for a zillion years in a row. (Easter isn’t a hospital holiday, and it fell on my every other weekend rotation on every year for over 5 years when the kids were little. More on this my other post. But basically, I missed Easter for years and therefore we never really established super firm family traditions on this one.)
- We don’t have the custom of gathering with extended family on Easter, for various reasons.
- Buying all the “Easter stuff” requires a bunch of errands. And I don’t like errands. (Grocery store, buying candy/ stuff for baskets, etc.)
- Spring weather is sucky in Wisconsin. It never “feels” like Easter. It was like, 38 degrees yesterday. Just doesn’t get me in the mood to put on a spring dress or go hide eggs around my yard or anything of the sort. I wanted to lay in front of the fireplace.
These last few years, I’ve felt a bit torn as to how to handle Easter. Part of me wants to basically just skip over it, or do something totally random, like just go out to a movie. But I can’t quite bring myself to ever really do this. Part of me feels like that’s “wrong”. (My Facebook feed is full of people celebrating Easter all out, in the traditional ways, so aren’t we supposed to, too?)
So, we kind of “go through the motions”, which isn’t really fair/ probably overly negative sounding, but it’s also kind of the truth.
I mean, we had a nice day. But I just didn’t feel that excited over it. I am not sure the outcome = the effort that went into making the day happen.
Ivan could definitely live without any of it (didn’t grow up doing a single one of these traditions in Mexico…). He basically cares zero about it. (This might also be a factor that spills over onto me. He’s willing/ goes along with it for my sake, but his natural “Easter enthusiasm” is pretty low or nonexistent.)
The boys liked the Easter baskets, of course, and I guess they like dying the eggs (though I think if we didn’t do this anymore, they wouldn’t complain, either). No one seemed to care much if we actually ate a “fancy” meal at the table. Which kind of sucks when you were the one making said meal. And none of us really love ham. HA.
Anyway, here’s how it looks in photos… (*Without the narrative above, I’m sure it seems like EASTER WAS GREAT from these pics! And it was nice. But between us, it was just okay. 😉 )
Easter Sunday Recap:
*Breakfast of cinnamon rolls. Not shown, OJ and fresh fruit. These flowers might be my favorite part of the day. I bought them for myself and love them. 🙂
*Easter basket hunt. Mostly just candy, but they each got one “gift” (Ethan a little gym bag, Asher a water bottle).
*Obligatory pic with the Easter bunny 😉
*Church (not pictured.) This was very nice, and the church looked very pretty.
*Easter lunch/dinner. Ham, green beans w/ almonds, cheesy scalloped potatoes and french bread. I also made Angel Food cake which I forgot to take a picture of.
*The boys were playing outside while I finished up cooking. When they came in, they were out of their “church clothes” and all sweaty looking. Asher was refusing to put his nice clothes back on because he was hot. Eye roll. I didn’t feel like arguing it, so, whatever. Ethan put his collared shirt on over his t-shirt, with his athletic shorts on the bottom. Double eye roll.
Not exactly a Martha Stewart Easter picture, but at least I am wearing a dress.
*After clean up, finally dyed Easter eggs:
I do always enjoy laying them in this little egg display thingy. They look pretty.
The boys played outside again (some kickball concoction in the cul-de-sac with only 2 people?) and Ivan and I started binge watching Ted Lasso. Which I have to say, is TOTALLY living up to the hype for me! LOVE IT so far.
We were going to do something with the boys (aka “family time”)- like watch a movie, play a board game, etc.- but I honestly really just wanted to lay there and keep watching Ted Lasso. hahahaha. The boys came in and ended up downstairs on the Xbox (virtually) with friends (which did ease my guilt, because I knew at least 2 other friends were also playing video games on Easter Sunday night). At one point we did yell down and ask if they wanted to do something with us, to which they replied, “ummm…whatever…we’re fine down here!” We took that as permission to hit “next episode”. 😆
(Still feeling kinda guilty though that we should have done something with them, being a holiday and all….I need to let this go.)
Hope you had an “at least equally okay” or even better Easter!! 🙂
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for those flowers in my kitchen.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Looks like a well-done Easter to me!
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Thanks!
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I think it’s hard to really love Easter when you live in the upper Midwest… the weather is so rarely nice! I don’t get very into it either. But the only holiday I decorate for is Christmas – I do nothing for Halloween or Thanksgiving. But I am not a big ‘decorating’ person in general. It feels like a lot of work for little pay off. But Christmas is something I can get behind since I love the warm glow of a tree on cold winter nights!
Phil really loves egg hunts so he enjoyed hiding eggs for the boys. He probably got more into that than anything we do for any of the other holidays! But he would love to do an egg hunt as an adult! Paul was really into looking for eggs but Will is too young to understand but I did help him find a few eggs. He’s in the stage where he loves putting things in a box/basket/etc and then taking them out – repeating over and over and over.
Try not to feel guilty, although that is easier said than done. It was a cold crummy day so a good time to binge a good show and the kids had fun with their friends. I was sooo thrilled when bedtime rolled around because the day felt so long – the weekend did in general since we were so cooped up and I didn’t feel great until Sunday. We ended the day on a good note, though, by playing a game with Paul that we all enjoy. It’s called “My First Orchard Game.” I love it because it is very fast and you work together so there isn’t a winner or loser. Much better than chutes and ladders or hi-ho-cherry-o! Those games can be endless!
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You know, I never really thought about it, but you’re totally right! I think what I love about the fall holidays and Christmas is that “cozy” aspect. Even at Halloween I put up orange lights and everything feels homey and cozy as the weather turns cool. And especially at Christmas, of course, with the tree and lights. I just love that! I also realized yesterday that there isn’t really any Easter music or anything like there is with Christmas time. Since I feel like Easter should be warm/sunny, maybe I’d like it better if I lived in, say, Savannah, Georgia. Hahaha! The weather just never matches the Easter scene catalog pictures up here. 😉
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Isn’t it funny how expectations make us feel bad about the holidays? Yours sounds totally fine to me! You even dyed eggs and wore a dress! I don’t decorate much at all. For Christmas, we’ll put up a tree and some lights but that’s it. I don’t decorate for any other holiday. For Easter, the only thing we do for the kids is hide chocolate eggs in the back yard. They love it and look forward to it every year, and it takes me like 5 mins to hide the eggs.
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Oh, definitely!! Good for you for just not worrying about those expectations and doing what works for you! I admit I sometimes struggle with feeling like I “should” do certain things to create memories for the boys, or things like that. Your egg hunt sounds fun! Nice and simple.
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I am extremely not a fan of Easter either! I also am not religious in any way, so it all feels like a farce to do anything for this holiday. My parents and in-laws DO celebrate Easter, so typically we outsource all celebrations to them and do nothing on our own. The only year we did anything was 2020 because we were all in lockdown and it just was something fun to look forward to, but at that time my then-10 year old set EVERYTHING up, including an egg hunt and dressing up like a bunny (???) on her own 🙂 I’m in MN soooo yeah it was snowing yesterday/today.
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I love that your 10 year old did it all in 2020! Good for her. 🙂 I also wonder if I’d feel differently/enjoy it more if I could just show up somewhere with a little side dish and be done, lol! I think I just wasn’t in the mood to do all the prep and work this time. But my parents are still overseas with my sister, so we didn’t have anywhere to just show up too. Ha.
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It looks like the kids had fun and that’s all that matters!
We did an egg hunt with my eleven nieces and nephews and it was good fun, but it was really cold outside and that did put a tiny bit of a damper on the activities.
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That sounds like a lot of eggs to hide! Whoa 11 kiddos! How fun. 🙂 The cold sure was a downer though, wasn’t it? Boo…. Gonna warm up later this week for a couple days at least…
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without the intro I’d say you had a great easter, you did all by the book. I get it, I don’t like to organize the celebrations but when it’s done, I feel accomplished to have made my girls excited and happy for the occasion.
I think kids choosing friends over us is happening… while a bit sad, it’s part of growing so we should be happy about it. 🙂
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Yes, that’s the part where I get stuck. I’m never sure if I should go ahead and do the extra work to celebrate things, even though I’m not in the mood, because as you say, it does feel nice once you’re done. Or should I respect my own feelings and not worry about everything always having to be extra “special” for the kids every time? A dilemma indeed. 😉 I’m usually happy I did it. 🙂
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Looks like a great Easter! We don’t do much either… an egg hunt and Easter crafts. Egg dying isn’t a thing here.
I also have to say I love your sun room! Such a lovely space!
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Aside from faith-based activities, I have ZERO traditions at Easter. I don’t do egg hunts, I don’t decorate, I don’t make a special meal, we don’t see family.
I don’t think I realized Easter was such a “big” deal to so many people until recently! The kids don’t know any different, and I’m just so happy making Christmas our big thing! I will admit that I feel like the odd one out because I do very little for any other holiday besides Christmas. I tend not to like clutter and like to be flexible over holidays so we can do adventures when the kids are off/workplaces are shut down? I think, as Lisa mentioned, the weather really impacts holidays too. It was cold and wet here, but without the cozy vibe of Christmas.
Hilariously, I woke up Sunday morning to the kids having done an egg hunt for me! I bought no candy, but friends/neighbours always shower them with stuff, so I actually hid some of those eggs for a spontaneous egg hunt just for the fun of it.
I completely understand the “meh” feeling, but it sounds like the boys were VERY happy and that, honestly, you could plan to do even less next year. Skip the ham, skip the dying eggs?
I’ve blogged a few times about Good Things I Don’t Have to Do, and this especially rings true at Easter for me.
And agreed about your sun room – it looks so warm and inviting!
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I’m with Elisabeth on this one – everyone seemed JUST fine with the less-intense Easter celebration, so please give yourself a break! (Easier said than done, particularly when the advice is coming from the childless person in the group…) As I’ve gotten older -and spent many holidays solo – I’ve realized that just because ‘everyone else’ does it one way doesn’t mean I have to! I vote for taking away things that you don’t enjoy next year, as well as those things that no one seems to care about (e.g., ham).
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Looks like a pretty good Easter to me. Not everything has to be perfectly planned out. I spent Easter with my family and that is all I cared about (there was some yummy food though :))
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