Happy Easter!

My mom made this brown-eyed panda bear for me for Easter about 35 years ago. My sister got a blue-eyed panda just like it. Mom is very creative. She must have stayed up all night sewing these and putting little goodies in our Easter Bunny baskets. Her artistic endeavors are always outstanding, and she has great skill at giving character to the things that she makes.

I remember walking into the kitchen in the morning, light shining into the room and illuminating the glass-block wall that divided the kitchen from the dining area. These little handmade bears were propped up against the glass wall on the table with their baskets. It was positively magical. I don't remember now whether the dog that de-eyed this bear was my dad's "hunting" dog, Cid, who was notorious for mangling fuzzy things (and the reason my sister's favorite toy was a dog named "Patches"), or if it happened much later at the paws of another dog.

And this is Lambie. A gift from my grandparents, from the year that we visited them in Alaska. The year that I fell in love with shrimp and crab of every kind. I believe I was seven, which would make that about the same year Mom made the pandas. I remember holding onto Lambie in the front seat of my grandparents Ford station wagon. Until my Uncle sold them the Hummer, they have always driven a Ford station wagon, a Country Squire, with the wood panels on the sides. (They still have one just in case Grandma has to drive.) And in it was small, a greenish gold garbage can, weighted with little sandbags, that sat on the hump where the axle goes down the middle of the car floor. And for a long time, a little red booster seat for me, and later, my sister.

So Happy Easter to everyone: the things that you do for little children today will not be forgotten, and may inspire and reappear when you least expect it!