The Things I Want to Remember

With every holiday that passes I find myself thinking about the things I want to remember, the things that I want Jackson to remember about these holidays. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t go all out for Easter but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want Jackson to have fond memories of the holiday.

Right before Easter I read somewhere that someone’s favorite Easter memory was finding where the Easter bunny hid their basket on Easter morning. This wasn’t something we did growing up but I thought it sounded like fun.

The night before Easter I asked Jack where he thought the Easter bunny would hide his basket. He thought the basket would be in the playroom, but the next morning that tricky bunny had hid it in the bathroom. I loved watching Jackson’s eyes fill with wonder and surprise when he found it on top of the toilet. I loved watching him search for the basket, I loved his excitement over each and every egg he found.

And I thought to myself that these are the things I want to remember, these are the things I want him to remember.

From this Easter I want to remember… a little boy so excited to see the Easter bunny.

 …his laughter at every egg he found.

…him climbing on top of his desk to retrieve an Easter egg.

… brunch and delicious punch and friends.

… kids running around a backyard in search of Easter eggs.  brunch and delicious punch and friends.

…. a third Easter egg hunt at my parents, and Jack finding 20 year old Hess Toy Trucks along with his eggs.

…watching Aladdin on VHS, because it seems watching VHS movies on Easter has become our thing at my parents house.

…good conversation with my Dad and brother.

… my brother mentioning that he, a childless 30 year old, read my post on Scary Mommy and liked it.

… my mom and Jackson playing together on the floor.

… Jackson not wanting the day to be over.

It’s all these things that I want him to think about when he looks back on the holiday. It’s these things that I want him to associate with holidays not toys or candy. I want him to know that it’s the memories we make that make the day special.

At night when I put him to bed, I asked him (as I try to do every night) what his favorite part of the day was, and for a moment I thought he was going to say getting a new toy from his grandparents and instead he said, “The Easter Egg hunt at Aunt Monica’s with all the kids and finding my Easter basket in the potty”.

And I knew we had gotten the day right. Holidays are not about things, they are about the opportunity to make memories and this
Easter brought us some really good ones.