Finding out you are borderline diabetic before Easter weekend has the?potential?to drastically effect your enjoyment of the profusion of sweets that typically accompany the festivities. As the duly appointed agent of holidays in my family, I had to rethink my approach to the way we celebrate–not only for my health, but for my kids and husband too.
I had already purchased a few things on behalf of the Bunny to dress baskets, but I had not yet assembled the supplies for the plastic eggs. Typically those would be full of various chocolate pieces and jelly beans. This year I deviated from that plan.
Scrambling through my mounds of scrapbooking materials and the arts and crafts hodgepodge I came up with a variety of notes, and Bunny Money Credit. I also included a few chocolate pieces–a grand total of five–along with some slap bracelets, connect puzzle pieces scattered inside several different eggs, and a twenty dollar bill for the golden egg.
The result was better than I had hoped for.
The kids went wild gathering the eggs in our backyard, which we had let grow out for over a month–much to the disappointment of our?meticulous lawn cutting neighbors. My oldest found the golden egg as I knew she would since she looks for that one first. Her younger brother doesn’t really care yet, plus whatever is inside the golden egg is meant for them to share. Just one of our family traditions there.
My son is still in the stage where finding eggs is more fun than what is in them, so my main concern was how my daughter would react to the decrease in candy and the alternate treasures provided. I could not have asked for anything better than her first response.
“Mommy! There’s toys and money inside the eggs! That’s better than candy!”
This made my husband and I laugh, partly with relief and partly with genuine amusement. As we all sat down to open all the eggs, my daughter expressed her thrill at the notes and money. When she opened a few with the chocolate pieces she actually seemed disappointed with the candy and said, “I don’t like candy so much, Mommy. I think I’m going on a diet from candy, a little.”
It seems like this whole eating healthier and cutting down on sweets thing is going to be easier than I thought with my daughter totally on board. AND it looks like we have a new family tradition!
What are some of your family traditions that don’t involve candy or sweets? Any additional suggestions?
*Photo: What was inside some of the eggs. The notes read, “A raccoon stole all the candy for a bear he owed.” “You are my sunshine.” “Quick! Look over there!” and various other things. Bunny credit was for quarters, nickles, and dimes.
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