A season of childhood memories

Easter and Passover may bring different thoughts to mind, depending on your individual beliefs and life experiences. As a child growing up, Easter was the time of year we always traveled because my parents were teachers, we all would have time off for Spring break.

This time was not only a celebration of reawakening in the church, but for us it was a time when we would visit family or new places.

  

Mom loves gardens, so the trips always involved heading south. We wanted to be able to see the azaleas and other flowers, since they would bloom so much earlier in the warmer climates than they did in New Jersey.

These trips were always times of great joy for me; first because the weather was always warmer than back home, and second because we always stayed in a hotel. I loved hotels as a kid. There was a pool at each hotel, and I remember staying in the water until my skin would wrinkle and my fingers turn blue!

No matter where we traveled each year, Mom always had an Easter basket waiting for me in the morning – yellow PEEPS, spiced jelly beans, Reese's eggs, and a small gift.

In retrospect I have no idea how she hid everything from me the entire trip, and am astounded that she made it all so special every year.

When I was in college I would get an Easter care package, but by then it included practical items such as cans of tuna fish, peanut butter crackers those things you couldn't live without while living in the dorms.

Do you have holiday memories around Easter or Passover that remind you of your childhood? Anything that makes you smile when you think back, or traditions you have continued with your children?