A Birthday Hunt At Easter?

I couldn’t believe that my husband had never experienced an Easter egg hunt before. That was an annual tradition in my house growing up. We’d have our baskets outside my brother’s and my doors in the morning. We’d have to wait for my Mom and Dad to get up and then we were off to the races! My brother and I would search high and low in the house for those neon coloured plastic eggs.

We were always excited to do it. Some of the eggs would have sticks of gum, candies, or chocolate eggs. The bigger eggs would have chocolate loonies or real loonies in them. It was always a treat to count the eggs at the end and see all the goodies inside.

When Michael mentioned that he had never done an Easter egg hunt before, I was flabbergasted! I thought everyone in North America had done it. Oh Rachel, so naïve. Well, I had to do something about that.

Michael’s birthday ended up on Easter Sunday a few years back. We wanted Easter to have its important reflection, but I didn’t want Michael’s birthday to be lost in the holiday. So, I figured out a way to blend the two together. I introduced him to my old traditions with a twist.

I set the alarm for an unearthly time of 5:30a.m. on the Sunday morning. I was awake before then in my excitement and snuck out of bed to get my plans going. I hid all the eggs, set out the basket, hung the balloons and Happy Birthday banner, and got the camera set. Then, Michael ventured out of the room around 5:45 a.m. wondering what I could possibly be up to. Let the games begin!

I started snapping pictures of him stumbling out of the bedroom wondering what was going on. I handed him the basket and explained what he needed to do. Declan pranced around with glee as he tried to figure out what the excitement was all about.

Considering Michael was still half asleep, he did pretty well at finding most of the eggs. I did have to give some hot and cold hints here and there.

It was so much fun to see his face when he opened his eggs. He had chocolate eggs and dropjes (Dutch salty licorice candies) inside. I rolled up Post-It notes in other eggs with his birthday presents or coupons for special dates.

Michael loves gifts and surprises of any size, so this little adventure was a win. He was excited about all of it. It was so memorable that he’s still hung on to some of the coupons because he’s sad to think that he might run out of them. Even though I have assured him that they could come again at some other time.

To finish off the birthday fun and prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus, I took him to the next surprise. I had my backpack stuffed with our Bibles and breakfast. Michael, Declan, and I loaded into the car. I drove them down to a beautiful local beach. It was around 6:30 a.m. at this point. We were able to enjoy our breakfast and devotions as we watched the sun rise over the cliffs and water. It was a crisp but beautiful morning.

I know a lot of you are not looking forward to Easter this year. It will be very difficult to not spend time with relatives and friends, or attend your church service. Be creative and try to make the most of it. You can enjoy a sunrise and go for a walk. You can spend some time reflecting on what the Lord has provided for you and what you’re grateful for. And hey, have some fun with an Easter egg hunt! There’s no age limit to who can participate. If you don’t have kids, do it for your spouse or parents (if you live together).

Here’s some ideas of what to put inside:

• Chocolate eggs
• Jelly beans
• Gum
• Favourite Candy
• Chocolate loonies
• Skittles

If you don’t want to touch food, you could do the following:
(These would all be future I.O.U dates to give them something to look forward to)

• A coffee date with you
• Go see a movie together
• Go canoeing or kayaking
• Bowling date
• Try a new hiking path
• Take a paint class
• Go for a bike ride
• Try a new game

If you want to keep it super simple and cheap, buy a bag of chocolate eggs and hide those. It’ll be a bit trickier because they are smaller.

Have fun!