Smoke Signals Holiday Edition: EASTER

I am Catholic. Maybe not the best one in the world. But still, I am Catholic and we are in our Holy Week. Maundy Thursday is today. (The day of the Last Supper), Good Friday is tomorrow, and Easter Sunday is Sunday. Now I love holidays, and Easter is a holiday. It may not be my favorite holiday, but I still have great memories of Easter's past. So what I plan on doing with my Smoke Signals around the holidays is give you some memories of past holidays. Look for my next one to be 4th of July. So here we go, some memories of Easter Past.

-One of my more recent memories is of getting confirmed. I was never confirmed as a teenager, at that age I was still feeling my way around my religious beliefs, and kind of rebelling since I did not like going to church or CCD. When I met Dawn (my wife for those who don't know) her family was highly religious and as we were planning our wedding one of her wishes was to be married properly in a church. Not just to appease her parents but because she wanted to. And yes I wanted to also. My vision of marriage always included a church service. But in order to get married in a Catholic church, I had to get Confirmed. They have adult confirmation called RCIA. So I went through that for 6 months or so. We get confirmed at midnight mass for Easter. So I went through the process, my stepmother was my sponser and my wife and family cheered me on. My mother threw a pre confirmation dinner for us with Lasagna, and not only was Dawn's family there but so was my Grandmother. So all in all a nice memory.

-Going to a lot of midnight masses for Easter. Some were so startling and interesting with most of them starting in complete darkness and then a lone light appearing and low music and things started getting brighter and louder as our Lord was risen. Amazing!

-My parent's always liked to hide our Easter baskets and they were clever. Once, it was in the oven, once in the Fridge, once OUTSIDE. I try to bring that same feeling I had to my kids, they are still young, but they will probably start getting into it more.

- They also not only gave us candy and eggs, but we got small presents as well. I remember one year I requested a Voltron metal action figure. Got it to.

-As I got older and before kids and marriage I usually worked on Easter Sunday. Not everytime, but a few times. I remember once when I was a bagel baker. I was in at the shop at 3am on Easter Sunday to make the bagels. So about 6 am the sun was starting to rise and we opened later on Sunday so I was still the only one there. I remember looking out our front door. It looked onto York Road and a bank across the street. In the grass in front of the bank was a rabbit. no joke. I dubbed him the Easter bunny. Kind of cool. Though Bunnies are normal in that neighborhood, it was still kind of cool.

-Speaking of bunnies, you know it is Easter when a giant pink Bunny can be seen on top of the roof of the Mary Sue candy warehouse. You can see the bunny off of I-83.  Bizarre.

-When I worked for WLIF 101.9 LITE FM. I had to work the Bunny Bonan-zoo at the Baltimore Zoo. Always a lot of fun. Easter Egg hunts, candy. It was great.

-We dyed eggs. I always remember it being fun, but I had gotten away from it. Last year my wife and kids and I decorated eggs. Hopefully we can do it again. Always did it the day before Easter.

-When I was in Kindergarten we had a class pet. A bunny named Benjamin. All the class got to take him home for a weekend. I was lucky enough to get him on Easter weekend.

-My Grandmother used to have bendy bunny figures out for the kids. I remember playing with them a ton when I was little. I've been able to get some to my kids and hope they enjoy them as much as I did.

-My Easter movie has always been Monty Python and the Life of Brian, which is a satire of organized religion. Hilarious. This year I hope to get the kids into HOP a great Easter movie about the Easter bunny. Noelle and I saw it in the movie theater when it came out last year and we both enjoyed it.

-One year Easter fell on my sister's birthday and she wanted to celebrate by having us go with her on a boatride buffet down the Potomac in DC. Was awesome, except for the fact I was sick as a dog.

That's all I remember for now. Hopefully next year I will remember more. Happy Easter!