Easter Parade

Holidays have always been a big thing at my house. My mom claims that it's because she grew up never really celebrating anything, so my dad creates a big hoopla to spoil her. I suspect it has more to do with the fact that he was born on Halloween and consequentially, is completely off is rocker when it comes to such things. I was born the day before Halloween, which probably only exacerbated the situation.


You can't see it, but the garage is filled with animatronics. Plus the decorations span around the corner and across the street.

Growing up, I was kind of embarrassed by it all. At school, I'd hear people saying "Hey, did you see that one house?". Inevitably, it would be mine. Come Halloween and Christmas, we'd start getting a parade of cars down the cul-de-sac, all stopping to stare at our house weeks before the holiday. Sometimes, people would even come out of their cars and take photos.

my father loved it. He still does actually. The fact he gives out king sized candy bars and "tricks" probably doesn't help the traffic flow on Halloween. Friends and neighbors conspire with him to knock on windows, dressed as Santa to delight (or terrify in some cases) their kids on Christmas Eve.

As I grew older, I became more accepting of the decorations. Instead, I found myself comparing other decorations to our own. A certain house in the other side of my home town even has a website for their Christmas decorations, but I think it pales in comparison to ours. Theirs lacks the eclectic aura of all the mismatched decorations, accumulated throughout the years. What do they have instead? Lights synced to radio. And not even a lot of lights. We used to know a family who would wrap their entire house in lights for Christmas. Now that was dedication.

Okay, obviously I'm biased here, so take my criticism with a grain of salt. Or with a barrel considering it is probably pretty cool. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.



About when I hit high school, my mom and I struck back with our own Holiday ambitions. A family friend "egged" our house one year. Considering we already had a patch of giant eggs and little ones hanging from trees, this was quite a feat. Our front lawn was absolutely covered in them. There was even one left labeled for "Goon" (I have no idea where this came from, but that's what that family calls him. I suspect it dates back to when he first started playing hockey). Inside was a lump of coal- naturally.

The next year, my mom and I sprung into action. We woke up at the crack of dawn (or butt crack, as she calls it) and egged their house first. Haha! We were victorious!



From there, it spread. We egged friends and neighbors houses. We egged our own house. We even got egged quite a few times (and in one time in particular, so did my car). Again, these were all brightly colored plastic eggs with candy inside- not actual eggs. My mom and I would happily go to IHOP for breakfast, an extremely rare occurrence. It was worth waking up at freakish hours for. Upon coming home, my mom would putter around the house and I would collapse and go back to sleep until my sister woke me up again to "help" her get the eggs. It usually ended in me standing in the rain picking them up while she and my mom giggled on our front porch. There are pictures to prove this.



The tradition has been slowly dwindling down as the kids we know are growing older and no longer believe in the Easter bunny. Soon, even my sister won't be interested in finding eggs either. I lost my finding rights about when she started developing hers. At least I had egging to take its place.

Now Easter is my favorite holiday. There's candy, there's cute cuddly animals, and best of all, there's IHOP. One of my favorite movies is Easter Parade even. If I went to Church, you can bet I'd be wearing a fabulous hat and dress combo.



I'm not sure what I'll do as I grow even older. I'm sure after we graduate, most of my friends will scatter, and I don't know myself where I'll end up. So I'm taking advantage now of my favorite holiday. Last year I knit more than a few projects and I expect next year, there will be more. And my hell and high water, if I ever buy a house with a tree in front yard, there will be eggs hanging from it.

A New and Fabulous Idea

DISCLAIMER: Sorry about the derailing of the knit and crochet blog week- life has gotten in the way of my taking photos. I do intend to finish out the week, but blogging has been on the back burner in favor of a seriously terrifying accounting exam. To make up for it, here's a post I wrote a week or so ago!

Well, I've done it. I've come up with a spectacularly excellent idea. Today, I had a brief conversation with my mom about a variety of things. Mostly she complimented me on my cooking. She had dental surgery last Friday and has been essentially living off the soup I made for her. (Black Bean Tortilla Soup, my absolute favorite, especially with a dollop of sour cream and shredded cheddar on top, and Spinach Soup which is most excellent with shredded Monterey jack cheese). Anyways. When we were talking, she mentioned how my sister had been sleeping in her own bed.

My sister. Ah. How to explain her.


This is Jenny. She has a duck on her head. Don't ask me why.

Jennifer is approximately ten years younger than I am, and opposite of me in almost every way. I love reading, always have. She hates it and only does it by force. I was shy, quiet, and antisocial (I'm less quiet, but the other two hold pretty steady). Jenny is loud, outgoing, and a social butterfly. I could entertain myself for weeks on end without another person. She needs constant entertainment. I was a pain in the neck to my parents until I was about ten, she was an absolute doll to my parents until recently when she started giving them a run for their money.

Even with these differences, I love her to bits. She can be the sweetest kid in the universe when she wants to be, and I'm so glad that I have her around. As crazy as she drives me, I miss her like crazy when I'm in Oklahoma. I keep trying to convince my parents to let me have her for a weekend, but the whole driving up to meet me deters them.

One of Jenny's most obvious traits is that she loves animals. We have essentially a zoo in our house, and Jennifer loves. As if one dog, three birds, and countless (and named) fish weren't enough, she's adopted the cat across the street and tortures it on it a daily basis with her affection.


Jennifer's attack-bird. She loves this stupid thing more than anything else.

So when I showed Jenny the hamsters I had knit for myself, she immediately begged for some of her own. She only has two at the moment, but I expect that will change soon.

She's been asking for more hamsters for a while now, but the conversation with my mom sealed the deal. Jenny had been sleeping on a dog bed next to my parents' bed for years. I'm not entirely certain as to why, but once I left for OU, she was too scared to sleep in her own room, upstairs. When I came home last week, my parents had a break through. They had finally gotten her to sleep in her own room and it seems to be sticking. My mom let me in on the secret to the success. Every day, Jennifer has been laying the hamsters out on her bed. When it's time for Jenny to go to bed, she moves the hamster to a chair next to her bed, facing her so they can watch her and "protect" her while she sleeps.

I think it's the most adorable thing in the universe.

So I'm knitting her at least a dozen more hamsters for Easter. I'm going to put them each in an Easter egg and give them to my mom to hide for Jennifer. I think that'll be a great surprise for her, since I'm not sure I'll be home to celebrate with her. I'm ridiculously excited about this, and going to start knitting them ASAP.

Finally, because this post isn't long and ramble-y enough, lest you think Jennifer's the only one who loves animals, this is my favorite animal/dinosaur ever.



This is Koo Koo, the most evil, self absorbed, boneheaded animal on the planet. I love her to death. My SO says this is because she's exactly like me- selfish to the point of stupidity but her affections can eventually be bought with her favorite foods. Plus she doesn't know when to shut up.