There was something magical to the search, the hunt, the mystery. Something that was not replicated in any other holiday event, save perhaps finding the pickle ornament at Christmas.
I wanted to lose the eggs that you had to keep every year and always ended up losing them and buying more. I wanted to lose the focus on candy and little trinkets to fill said eggs. I wanted to adopt a tradition that was capable of growing with us.
And so it came to me. The Easter Scavenger Hunt.
The night before Easter my children go to bed giddy. They know that upon waking they will immediately embark upon a frantic search that is our equivalent to the Amazing Race. They rise from their beds and rush to our room where we give them their first clue. This clue, a poetic cryptic message, leads them to another clue, and so on and so on. They rush about the house, yard and garage on various hunches searching for the next clue, there are about twenty of them. The prize at the end is their Easter gift, something they have been pining for. A book, a doll, a gadget. There is also a chocolate bunny in each of their stashes.
This is a hunt that has made Easter almost as exciting as Christmas. Each year the clues get more cryptic and they really have to use their noggins to find that next clue. This year they worked separately for the most part and only worked together on the final few.
Clues were hidden in some very tricky places, inside the piano, inside the sewing machine's tool compartment, inside a bottle of ginger, in books of poetry and books on cities. The book clues are Alecia's favorites, requiring her to use the index to look up something or to search the table of contents for a chapter title that might have been eluded to in the riddle. Sometimes one clue is a hint to another and sometimes the references are really tricky. This year was the hardest yet, but the girls loved it and asked that it be even harder next year.
My hope is that every year it will get more and more elaborate. It is a great tradition that can grow with them, from now into adulthood. I have some great plans for when they are able to drive!
