When getting ready for work or play, I occasionally enjoy listening to Pitbull’s Sirius XM station and jumping up, half-dressed, to dance in front of the mirror. This past Sunday morning, as I painted on my face, I tuned in and noticed the DJ kept asking callers if their family’s Easter celebration was more religious or social. Many listeners said both–and all followed up with praise and gratitude for their full family and life.
Preparing for Easter – Past and Present
As head usher at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for the past 20+ years, I usually have little time for anything other than attending church and directing parishioners into pews, towards the bathroom, and up to the communion rail.
This year was different. I stayed home and watched the service on Youtube. My children (now young adults) have taken up the torch and worked many services for me, shuttled my grandchildren to services, and listened as my oldest son sang an Easter solo, sharing his, shall we say, “God Given” gift with the congregation. In turn, I prepared my church-going brood an Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt fit for Kings and a few Queens.
The Goose That Layed the Golden Egg
No longer having young grandchildren that enjoy hunting for candy or dyed eggs, I decided to make a grownup Easter Egg Hunt with money tucked inside plastic eggs and hidden in my yard. To motivate the otherwise complacent participants, the grand prize of a crisp $100 bill, was placed in a solitary golden egg.
For several days I thought about this game and how to keep it fair. A family of four would have an advantage over a family of two. A youngster would be a faster runner than an older family member. After much consideration, I finally landed on a modified scavenger hunt/egg hunt.
Rules of the Game
To keep the opportunities equal, each family no matter how big or small was made into a team. There were three teams, eighteen clues, thus six drawings per team. At first, they thought me silly, but when told there was money involved, they got excited and began to listen to the rules.
I hid 18 eggs with varying monetary denominations, put all the scavenger hunt clues in a basket and assigned the great grandparents to manage and facilitate the drawing.
To find an egg you had to follow a handwritten clue. I had so much fun making them up! Below are a couple of examples:
“YOUR EGG IS HIDING, WHERE BUDDHA IS WATCHING.” The egg was hidden beside my garden statue of Buddha.
“YOUR EGG IS HIDING, WHERE SOME COME TO LAY.” The egg was in the chicken coop.
Some participants ran, some walked, and some got lost around the corner of the house. It was a huge success. I don’t believe I have ever seen grown, sober adults have so much outlandish fun. It was fast, loud and, when over, we all had sweat on our upper lips and brows.
The Sun Sets on Easter
The weather couldn’t have been more obliging. Late in the day, the chickens were released from their coop to have their own scavenger hunt for bugs in the clover. As the sun stretched sideways and warmly across the large porch of the Big House (as we call it), the family lingered. We took off our shoes, donned stick-on mustaches, nibbled like royalty, and just like the radio call-ins, gave thanks… for church in the morning and family in the afternoon.
