It must be Easter. . .

. . . if I'm making my favorite pink bunny cookies!


They're cute, tasty and a cinch to make. And it's about as close as I come to an Easter tradition. We weren't much for holiday traditions in our family. No Easter baskets or egg hunts. Never went trick-or-treating. Occasionally got green milk with our cereal on St. Patty's Day. Usually opened our Christmas gifts in the morning, youngest to oldest. We did once flirt with a new tradition when Mom declared a "Make-it-Yourself" Christmas and we all had to handcraft gifts for each other spending less than $2.

The result was pathetic, but memorable: pipe cleaners stapled to pieces of wood and meant to be sculpted for fun; crooked home-sewn ties and hideous nightshirts made from discarded fabric circa 1970. Our lack of Easter traditions has always bothered me, though. I think my parents rejected the chocolate bunnies and egg hunts in favor of the religious meaning of Easter. But unlike many other Christian faiths, Mormons don't have much in the way of Easter ritual. We don't mark Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday or Good Friday. Sure you get the occasional resurrection hymn on Sunday. But I've been known to sit straight through church and forget entirely that it's Easter.

When I was 17, I decided that should change. I talked my Dad into co-conspiring with me and we hauled the family out of bed early Saturday morning on Easter weekend. We bundled into the VW van and drove up to a lookout over Provo where Dad and I set up the propane stove and started cooking pancakes. The rest of the family stayed in the van, shivering and grumbling as the sun came up and the cold April wind whipped through the canyon. The wind kept blowing out the stove's pilot and the pancakes never got more than half-cooked. It was a disaster. My family still teases about it. But can you blame a girl for wanting to make a holiday special?

I declare bunny cookies for all this Easter! And tomorrow I'm wearing a pink dress to church.