Easter Sunday memories

My column tomorrow will discuss some of my favorite Easter memories like egg hunting and being force fed ham. In an attempt to get us geared up for that, I decided to post this picture from many Easters ago.

That's me and half of my brother on the steps of Nana and Mick's house on Easter morning. It was the traditional holiday photo shoot, but apparently Chris was done since he's exiting to the right. It's hard to tell, but our outfits were color coordinating that year. Pale green was the color of choice. For some reason, my mom took it upon herself to dress us like Jack and Jill for the first five years of our lives.

We weren't twins, but you would have thought she wanted us to be.

Anyway, I don't look completely happy in the pic. Even though I clearly LOVED the stuffed bunny the Easter Bunny had given me. And, if you look closely, I got an awesome toy saxophone that year too. The Bunny had been good to me, but I was disgruntled for one reason. That God-forsaken dress.

My poor mother probably had this dress made for this one day and this one picture, but I hated that dress. We would continue this trend for about four more years. Ridiculous dress after ridiculous dress. I believe the following year I was forced into a similar style dress in pale blue. But that dress was worse. Jingles bells were sewn into the layers of the skirt and everywhere I went my dress jingled like a cat collar.

I didn't learn much about Jesus that year. I was too busy hunting the bells and ripping them out of the dress. I didn't get in too much trouble. After all, I grew up in overalls and boots playing in gigantic piles of dirt at construction sites.

My mom should have known better.