Millions!

We didn't get any easter pictures this year, but honestly I don't think it's a big deal. I wasn't as organized as other easter's. No new dresses for the girls, and no bunny ears for our baby bunny either so there wasn't much to photograph anyway.

Not to mention that Easter here usually means snow and thus indoor egg hunts. So no chance catching the kids tiptoeing through the tulips discovering eggs.

During dinner Saturday night the girls started pestering us to have our egg hunt before bed that night.

Savannah's argument was brilliant,
"If we do it tonight then tomorrow we can just celebrate the true meaning of easter."

How could we argue with that?

We decided to go ahead with it and maybe they could have most of the candy gone by dinner the next day and would eat their vegetables. So at 7:30 when we should have been giving children baths, brushing teeth, and putting them to bed we were down hiding eggs throughout the downstairs while the kids waited anxiously upstairs. I think this is the first year we haven't at least alluded to an easter bunny.

Last year I was in big trouble because I only chose two different candies and one of them was strawberry whoppers. Yuck! - they really ruined easter. This time I had lots of expensive tasty stuff. By 8:30 the girls had found all of their eggs after lots of hunting and hinting. And somehow we were able to tear them away from their candy and calm them down enough to get them to bed by 9 p.m.

Easter Sunday was the first Sunday back to church with the whole family. Brent and I came early and sang with the ward choir. It was a good meeting. We all really love our ward. Later on that day we went to have Easter dinner with a family in our stake that I won't mention so we don't spoil their future fun. Dinner was wonderful and we had a great family discussion afterwards and shared our feelings about Easter.

So far we had been extremely successful about devoting the day to celebrating the "true meaning of Easter" as had been our daughter's greatest wish the night before. But at this point things got a little more exciting as we joined them in their family's traditional game for the holiday.

We were all handed a brown bag and then the hostess started passing around a large basket filled with plastic eggs. Everyone opens their egg, shows everyone what they get, then you dump the egg out in your bag.

I went first and got . . Chocolate. Brent several turns later shook his and we all heard some coins. . . $.75 cents. Then Savannah found a dollar. Next turn around . . $20 dollar bill! Then Camille found her own $20. When Brent pulled out a golden egg and hit the jackpot. . . $50 dollar bill we were all laughing hysterically in disbelief! The easter bunny doesn't leave anything but candy at our house and sometimes an easter dress if I thought to catch the after easter sale the year before. I continued to get pure chocolate as did all the other people playing the game which included an older single guy, and two other graduate student couples. Caroline was running all over the room boucing off the walls with joy showing everyone the $1 dollar bill and the handful of pennies she had found, hollering,"Did I win? Did I win?"

My family took home over $100 dollars. It was an Easter like no other. There is nothing like someone handing you free money to bring a huge smile to your face. Along with the leftover pot roast, hordes of chocolat, and the cash, they also gave us a video, "Millions", to watch with the family. We watched the movie the next morning since Brent and the kids were still off from school.

It was actually a story about two young boys who find a bag filled with tons of money and how it almost ruins their family's lives. It ends with the younger boy taking it out in the middle of the night and burning it. Strangely later that afternoon I was starting to feel somewhat like we were living in the movie.

First of all:

Camille was driving me insane since the moment we got up wanting me to drive her to the mall to spend it, looking online bawling about how she didn't know what to buy, and just falling apart demanding that I give her ideas.

Savannah on the other hand was feeling No Where Near as generous as the day before. She had found $32 and Kennon only $1 in her eggs. Right after the game Savannah had handed Kennon her $10 dollar bill. But by Monday afternoon they were fighting again and Savannah was demanding the $10 back.

Caroline had lost her money and was accusing me of stealing it.

Kennon was keeping a tight hold on HER cool ten bucks.

By evening I had threatened to go burn the cash just like the movie so I could get my happy family back. It doesn't take millions to bring out the greed in this family.