THE EASTER BUNNY STRIKES AGAIN!

When my husband and I were children we attended the same grade school in a small Iowa town. Every year at Easter our teachers would make up little baskets for each child, and every day a different child would have a basket hidden somewhere in the room. In it would always be some little treasure chosen especially for that child. It was a tradition that we all loved and looked forward to every year.

Our Easters for our own children have been made special by this tradition year after year, but as our two daughters grew older it became harder and harder to surprise them with something special. The usual candy was accepted with delight, but we wanted to make this a tradition that stuck with them with a true "treasure" to remember each year.

I had the brilliant idea of adding some tiny diamond chip earrings to each basket when the girls were 11 and 13, and my husband thought the idea was terrific. I found just the right earrings and eagerly awaited the excitement of our daughters on Easter Sunday.

Funny, though, on Easter Sunday there were half a dozen little baskets sitting on the table and I had only prepared two! What was going on?

I handed the girls their baskets and both my husband & I were pleased that they were so happy with their special gifts. They immediately put the earrings on and exclaimed they felt like princesses.

My husband turned to me and said, "Now it's your turn to find your treasure honey!" as he handed me a basket. Beneath the malted milk eggs and jelly beans I found a perfect little sapphire, unset and waiting to join the three other matching sapphires I found in the other baskets.

"Honey, I wanted this to bring back the memories of how wonderful it was to find your own personal treasure for Easter, and I want to thank you for being MY Easter treasure every year. Tomorrow we'll go pick out a special setting to put these in."