Ankle Socks and Frilly Frocks

Easter 2015

Whilst sorting out my journals this week I came across this list. It was written

 20 yrs. ago and it made me smile and reflect on Easter and why it is so special.

Here’s the list

Easter 1995

Things to do

·      Make and send Easter Cards

·      Mark GCSE Books

Buy

·      Daffodils

·      White socks with a lace frill

·      New shoes for girls (Shiny black shoes with a simple buckle )

·      Stuff for  Easter Bonnets

·      Egg Hunt Stuff

Interestingly I had made a similar list for Easter 2015. (I like making lists!)

Here it is

·      Make and send Easter cards

·      Easter goodies for Grandkids( Bonnets & Eggs)

·      New Clothes for Easter (socks and T shirts)

·      New cushions soft furnishings(yellow/green)

·      Marks Birthday Gift!!!!!

·      Sort out GCSE Practical Grades

It made me think about change and how some things don't change.

I know change is supposed to be good and we can’t live in the past but sometimes I think it’s OK if things stay the same. There are people missing from my life this Easter and everyday I wish they could be with us. However I know that their contribution to my life as a child is helping me to make my family life as fresh as it was all those years ago. Now that's something I wouldn't change.

Well today is Easter Sunday and it’s also my hubby’s birthday so there are several reasons to celebrate. Having said that I have always celebrated at Easter and I have always had that same sense of anticipation and excitement that I get at Christmas.

Spring is in the air, the birds are building their nests and for some reason I enjoy giving the house a good clean!

I just love the freshness that Easter brings. Maybe its down to a childhood where Easter was always celebrated and it is a time I remember fondly. Mum kept the Easter traditions alive and I suppose that's something I am doing in her absence.

On Good Friday I tried to explain to my granddaughter the rules for the day. I’m not quite sure she gets it, but like me and my daughter she will one day just know that hanging out the washing is not allowed on Good Friday and its got to be fish for tea.  These are just some of the things that my mum taught me and I am passing down the generations.

I remember always shopping for new clothes.  In those days it was C & A and Woolworths but now we have Matalan and Primark. I remember mum explaining to me that during Lent it was traditional for church goers in the olden days to avoid wearing fine clothes so when Easter Sunday arrived they would love to wear new outfits to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

This week I found myself in Matalan and I was I was drawn to the white ankle socks and frilly frocks. Now as a child I was not the ankle sock and frilly frock kind of girl but it didn't stop mum taking my 2 sisters and me to the local town and kitting us out in brand new clothes at the local C & A ready for the Easter festivities.

My children and grandchildren, like me, are not the ankle sock and frilly frocks type of girls but after half an hour, there I was at the checkout at Matalan with a trolley full of brand new Easter clothes for my grandchildren, frilly frocks and ankle socks included!

Woolworths was where we shopped for the stuff to decorate our bonnets. This week I went to The Range and B&M. I smiled as I filled my basket with yellow crepe paper, pipe cleaners and brightly coloured cotton wool balls.

Again I remember mum explaining that as well as the new clothes it was tradition to wear a new bonnet to church on Easter Sunday.

Well tomorrow we will be making Easter bonnets but I am not quite sure they will be fit for church!

There will be the traditional egg hunt then we will dress up in our new clothes and spend time with family and friends. If Im lucky there may be repeats of Jesus of Nazareth starring Robert Powell to make my Easter celebrations complete.

In the year she died Mum spent her last Easter making Easter Bonnets with us.

Today my children and my grandchildren as well as my Dad will all be together and we will once again decorate those bonnets. Mum will be watching and smiling and wondering how we would ever have managed without her collection of hats!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter 2010

Easter 2015