The Ryder Writings: Easter Shoes and Easter Photos

Yesterday was Easter. It was celebrated with the usual family festivities. Easter baskets in the morning, egg hunting, mass, and family lunch and more egg hunting.

The boys got Leah out of bed to hunt Easter eggs, and then it started to lightly rain. Can you tell?

Going forward, I must remember to patrol the pajama selection the night before Easter if the kids our going to hunt eggs in the yard in pj's. This crew looks pretty rough.

As usual, we left our shoes out the night before for the Easter Bunny to leave everyone a treat.

(A photo of our shoes with Easter eggs in them should be here. I took it. I swear. It's not on my camera. I don't know where it is. I could recreate it, but that wouldn't be right, now would it?)

What? You don't leave shoes out on Easter Eve at your house? I never realized this a tradition specific to my family, until my husband and I had children. When he questioned the "Easter shoes," I asked my mother about the root of the tradition. It turns out, the Easter shoe comes from her grandfather, my great-grandfather, John Linder, who lived in Lafayette, Indiana. Grandpa Linder spent his childhood at the turn of the century in a Catholic orphanage. The orphans did not have Easter baskets, so they put out a shoe at the end of their bed. They each received an Easter egg in their shoe.

Since then, Grandpa Linder's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren have continued with the Easter shoe tradition. I think it is a nice reminder of our many blessings during the Easter season.

On a different Easter note, we tried again for a family photo. See last year's post on this topic HERE. We were not with my parents on Easter morning, so there was no one to take a complete family photo of all five of us. However, we have these pitiful attempts at good shot of everyone dressed in their Sunday best.