Holiday Recap: Extreme Egg Hunting

March 14, 2008

Forgive me for bragging, but I'm pretty much the best egg-hunt planner in the whole entire universe. If you come to my house for Easter you won't find some lame-o setup with eggs dumped all over the lawn, and chocolate bunnies tucked neatly into the bushes. Oh no my friends, at my house you'll find obstacles...big ones.

Yesterday it took a ladder, a screwdriver, a shovel, some work gloves, two helpers, and one hour to construct my masterpiece. Then, after I put all of the tools back in the barn, I let the adults out of the holding pen, discussed the boundaries, and the hunt was on.

Ten or so grown-ups--ranging in age from twenty-one to ninety years--emerged from the kitchen, and paused in the driveway to do a visual scan of the yard. For the first ten seconds, there was silence. My aunts, uncles, and cousins just stood in the yard grasping the handles of their plastic grocery bags, wearing expressions of utter confusion.

Finally, my Aunt piped up. "Amy," she gently laughed. "How are we supposed to get the eggs off the top of the barn? And out of the tops of the trees?!"

I just shrugged my shoulders and happily replied, "That's the fun part. Now get to it!"

"No cheating," I added, as they reluctantly scampered off if a dozen different directions.

I watched with a great sense of satisfaction as a Mormon missionary shimmied up a tree in his formal suit and tie, as my mother cautiously batted at at the gutters with a seven-foot stick, and as the other Mormon missionary (remember, they always come in sets of two) risked electrocution by trying to dismantle an outdoor lighting fixture without the help of tools.

My proudest moment, however, came when my Uncle Bill spotted three candy-filled treasures on the dashboard of my little Toyota station wagon. He tried all four doors, but found each one to be locked---mmmm, too bad. As a last ditch effort he went for the tailgate, and *pop*, it opened right up. Without hesitation, my white-haired uncle crawled through the way back, over the car seat, and stretched his arm just far enough to grab those eggs. His face was distortedly pressed up against the window and he was barely maintaining his balance, but Uncle Bill still paused to give me a thumbs-up through the very foggy glass.

Now that's the kind of spirit and stick-to-itiveness I was hoping for yesterday afternoon.

All in all, it was a wonderful day with the family. Now that the cuts and bruises from Sunday's event have been tended to, I can move on to planning bigger and better events--like James's third birthday party. If you're lucky enough to score an invitation, be sure to plan ahead--it's a BYOH (bring your own helmet) kind of party.