This was the first Easter morning Maxine has ever had without Edwin. They haven’t dyed Easter eggs in years, but they have competed in the home egg hunt every year since Maxine could walk. With Edwin away at school, Chris and I hadn’t even thought about Easter baskets and hidden eggs.
We visited my parents yesterday, and as we were saying our goodbyes, Maxine remarked that she would get all the candy and money in this year’s Easter egg hunt. Chris and I looked at each other. What egg hunt?
“Um, you want to hunt for eggs by yourself?” I asked her.
“Of course! What do you mean??”
“Oh. Right. Okay, then.”
After I dropped Chris and Maxine at home, I muttered something about running some errands and drove to Giant. I loaded my basket with a dark chocolate bunny, Starburst jelly beans, Tic Tacs, gum, Dove dark chocolates, and a bag of Doritos (nothing says Easter like Doritos, right?). I went through the charade of hiding the loot and then recruited Maxine in helping me get the Easter decorations from the attic.
Within a half hour, I had arranged the delicately embroidered eggs in a bowl, fanned out the two sets of wooden Easter eggs from the Obama White House we had received from family friends, and filled two Easter baskets with the plastic grass I save every year.
Like every Easter morning, Chris and I got up earlier than the kid(s) to stuff candy, quarters, and a few dollar bills into plastic eggs and hide them around the main floor. We used the same old spots plus a few unexpected nooks.
For the first time ever, Maxine descended the stairs by herself on Easter morning, picked up her basket, and proceeded to search for the eggs. It was stunningly calm – no shouting, no accusations of cheating, no running and stumbling over furniture. She admitted that she missed Edwin, but she looked pretty serene with her easily won pile of loot.
My Corner of the Village 
A solo Easter Egg Hunt- who wouldn’t love those odds.
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I bow to Maxine’s sense of tradition and hail her victory in the hunt!
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