...to hunt for Easter eggs. Saturday night, my lil sis called and informed me that she had gotten some dye and was in the process of dying some eggs and that Dad was going to hide them for us on Sunday. "Does Dad know about this?" I ask. "No, but he'll do it" she says. Well, of course he will! Our Dad would do anything in the world for us if he could. Never mind that we are in our, um, LATE 40s. That is entirely beside the point. Never mind that we had no kiddies on the property to participate. Why, that's completely unnecessary! Who says you have to be a kid to hunt eggs? Who says we aren't kids locked in 40+ year old bodies???
The thing is, as I get older, I realize that my parents won't be around forever. I've had too many friends that have lost a parent and warn me to enjoy them while you can. Because they can be taken away on a moments notice, either by death or, worse, alzheimers.
Our father got a HUGE kick out of the fact that we wanted him to hide the eggs. He kept saying all morning how hard he was going to make it for us. I told him to hide them up high since lil sis is so short. Dad laughed and Mom pointed out that he's short too, so that probably wasn't going to happen.
When he got through hiding the eggs, he told us to come on out. I handed Mom my camera and showed her quickly how to take a picture. lil sis and I had our brand new Easter baskets (with sparkly beads, of course), and we ran outside. Dad told us the boundary lines and we were off! I found the first two, then lil sis found one. We were chasing each other around the yard trying to find hidy-holes acting like the kids we are. Mom and Dad were both laughing harder than I've heard them in a long time. It was a beautiful sound.
When it got down to where there were only a couple left, they started playing the "getting warmer"/"getting colder" game until the last one was found. lil sis ended up with 7 and I found 5.
Seeing the looks on my parents faces as they were watching us run all over the property was priceless. My Mom standing there with the camera brought back memories of her doing that when we were kids (like we aren't still kids). My Dad was simply beaming with joy.
There is not much of anything any more special than having a good time with your family, and above all, making your parents laugh.
3 comments:
That looked like fun!
And not a cat in sight.
Thanks for sharing and your friends are so right to tell you to enjoy every minute you can with the family. I am in tears right now. the thinh I miss the most is that their is no one to make me feel as special as they did. PD does but it is not like the love of a parent telling you it will be ok. I miss their laughter, I was my daddy's girl.
Fun!
Much to the embarrassment of my husband and children, I try to remember to be a kid as often as I can. It's a bit easier being surrounded by them, but I hope I hold onto this when they are all gone.
I also hope that they will want to come back and love me like you love your Mom and Dad :-)
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