Egg Rocks!

One of my favorite memories of my Aunt Julie is about a tradition she started when I was a little girl. She came over one day before Easter (she may have been babysitting us, I don't remember) and she had all of us, including my cousins, go out into the backyard. She told us that Easter was coming, and that she had a special project for us.

Every Easter, the Easter Bunny hides eggs all around for children to find. When the sun sets on Easter Day, any eggs that were not found become rocks. What we were to do was find those rocks - they needed to look as close to an egg as possible. Round and smooth. When each of us found a rock that passed inspection, she told us we were to put it under our pillow on the night before Easter. This was to make the egg warm, and then the Easter Bunny would be able to find it, and he would leave a reward in exchange for the egg rock. So we all did, and what a pleasant surprise to wake up Easter morning to find that our Egg Rocks had been exchanged for Jelly Beans!

One year, my cousin Jenny, our friend Betsy, and I went a step further. We painted the egg rocks for eachother. I still have that egg rock sitting on my shelf. For some reason, the Easter Bunny decided I could keep it (don't worry, he still left candy.)

Once the Easter Bunny left chocolate under our pillows. I know he meant well, chocolate is a favorite at our home, but when we woke up it had melted all over our pillows. It was quite a mess. Needless to say, he never left chocolate in place of an egg rock again.