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Blog archive

March 2025

About Senior Solutions
03/28/2025

Building a Bridge With Journey House, A Home Base for Former Foster Youth
03/28/2025

Come for the Knitting, Stay for the Conversation... and the Cookies
03/28/2025

Creating Safe and Smart Spaces with Home Technology
03/28/2025

Finding Joy in My Role on The Pasadena Village Board
03/28/2025

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!
03/28/2025

Managing Anxiety
03/28/2025

Message from Our President: Keeping Pasadena Village Strong Together
03/28/2025

My Favorite Easter Gift
03/28/2025

The Hidden History of Black Women in WWII
03/28/2025

Urinary Tract Infection – Watch Out!
03/28/2025

Volunteer Coordinator and Blade-Runner
03/28/2025

Continuing Commitment to Combating Racism
03/26/2025

Status - March 20, 2025
03/20/2025

Goodbye and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
03/13/2025

What The Living Do by Marie Howe
03/13/2025

Racism is Not Genetic
03/11/2025

Bill Gould, The First
03/07/2025

THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY
03/07/2025

Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art
03/03/2025

Empowering Senior LGBTQ+ Caregivers
03/03/2025

A Life Never Anticipated
03/02/2025

Eaton Fire Changes Life
03/02/2025

February 2025

Commemorating Black History Month 2025
02/28/2025

Transportation at the Pasadena Village
02/28/2025

A Look at Proposition 19
02/27/2025

Behind the Scenes: Understanding the Pasadena Village Board and Its Role
02/27/2025

Beyond and Within the Village: The Power of One
02/27/2025

Celebrating Black Voices
02/27/2025

Creatively Supporting Our Village Community
02/27/2025

Decluttering: More Than The Name Implies
02/27/2025

Hidden Gems of Forest Lawn Museum
02/27/2025

LA River Walk
02/27/2025

Message from the President
02/27/2025

Phoenix Rising
02/27/2025

1619 Conversations with West African Art
02/25/2025

The Party Line
02/24/2025

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
02/17/2025

Dreams by Langston Hughes
02/17/2025

Haiku - Four by Fritzie
02/17/2025

Haikus - Nine by Virginia
02/17/2025

Wind and Fire
02/17/2025

Partnerships Amplify Relief Efforts
02/07/2025

Another Community Giving Back
02/05/2025

Diary of Disaster Response
02/05/2025

Eaton Fire: A Community United in Loss and Recovery
02/05/2025

Healing Powers of Creative Energy
02/05/2025

Living the Mission
02/05/2025

Message from the President: Honoring Black History Month
02/05/2025

Surviving and Thriving: Elder Health Considerations After the Fires
02/05/2025

Treasure Hunting in The Ashes
02/05/2025

Villager's Stories
02/05/2025

A Beginning of Healing
02/03/2025

Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire
02/02/2025

Hurricanes and Fires are Different Monsters
02/02/2025

January 2025

My Favorite Easter Gift

By Edward A. Rinderle
Posted: 03/28/2025
Tags: easter essay, ed rinderle, pasadena village

Every year as Easter approaches, I think back on my childhood days with my family in New Orleans. Church was a feature every Sunday, but Easter Sunday brought something special:  the music!  I delighted in the lively hymns we got to sing on that Sunday.  The music was glorious, and I relished sitting next to Dad and singing along with him.  Easter music was indeed a great gift, but not my favorite Easter gift.  

Back home on Easter Sunday, another gift from my parents awaited:  an Easter basket filled with fake straw planted with Easter candy!  The candy came from the Elmer's candy company.  (Alas, there was no See's to be found back then.)   At Easter time, Elmer's produced a variety of “eggs” - candies roughly shaped liked eggs but flat on one side and covered with colorful foil wrappings.  My favorites were Caramel Fudge and Maple Nut.  Oh, were they good!  But the Easter baskets were not my favorite Easter gift.  

One year I bypassed the Easter basket and opted instead for Elmer's top-of-the-line Easter treat – a thick-shelled oval of chocolate wrapped in gold foil.  To my childhood eyes, it looked as big as a football!  The hollow shell was filled with Elmer's signature “gold bricks”:  little cubes of chocolate and nuts wrapped in more gold foil.  Yes, Top-of-the-Line for sure, but still not my favorite Easter gift.  

In addition to the candy, my folks sometimes had another Easter surprise in store.  In preparation, Mom would gather a few eggs from the grocery and magically blow out the contents leaving the shells intact.  She would then turn the empty shells over to my Dad to work his own brand of magic.  He would dye each egg a chosen color, then glue carefully folded paper onto it.  Next he would paint his creation with a fine brush.  And voila!  He had transformed the egg into the likeness of an animal!  I remember best the pink pig and the multicolored chicken.  They were works of art, but they were not my favorite Easter gift.  

No, my favorite Easter gift easily bested any of these other Easter delights.  For while my favorite came only once, it has lasted for a lifetime.  I received this precious Easter gift way back when I was only three years old.  For on Easter Sunday of that year, my sister was born.   

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