It’s that time of year when I usually make multiple phone calls to my mom to make sure that I am still getting an Easter basket and that it includes chocolate bunnies from Wegmans.

Wegmans is my favorite grocery store back home as they make amazingly delicious chocolate chip cookies and muffins daily. We also have a cookie called a “half moon cookie” back home, which is a shortbread cookie with black and white frosting. The cookie can have either a vanilla or chocolate flavor, but Wegmans occasionally does them with a chocolate chip cookie. My mom, multiple times a year, sends me cookies because she knows how much I love them and how much I miss them.

Whenever I go home, I come back to New Mexico with a suitcase full of Wegman’s coffee, onion bagels, cookies and muffins. The bagels get frozen so they last a little while, but everything else pretty much gets devoured.

Mom knows how much I love those chocolate bunnies and this year I asked if she could send me more than usual. When I got my chocolate bunnies, I ate one right away. I also beheaded another one as I was writing this column. There are a few smaller ones and two big ones that will be greatly enjoyed with a big glass of milk.

Easter was always a fun day in my family and one of the only days I didn’t get yelled at for eating chocolate for breakfast. I would normally eat as much chocolate and Peeps as I could before it was time to go to church.

My mom’s side of the family would then come over in the afternoon and my grandma would make her delicious ham that was drenched in syrup.

There was always an Easter egg hunt. I would either sneakily watch my grandma hide the eggs or try to find them when she wasn’t looking. She normally caught me and then would rehide all of my eggs. There were always certain spots we knew to look for the eggs, but most of the time she did a fantastic job hiding them. She would end up having to tell us if we were hot or cold because there were always a few we couldn’t find. My favorite hiding spots were around her oregon, as I spent many days playing that by myself or with her.

Besides the Easter basket we got from mom and dad, we also got chocolate from grandma. Now, it comes in a little white box in the mail, but it’s still an Easter basket. My first year out here, she sent me a whole box of shoes along with chocolate bunnies, Peeps and my nail polish. That was a fantastic year. She was getting rid of her shoes and thought I would enjoy them. The Uggs she sent were definitely helpful that winter.

My first Easter out here, I spent it with my family up in Colorado. That was a great weekend as we decorated Easter eggs and then went to the beach. Last year, I spent it with Nate’s family and we had an Easter egg hunt.

I’m not sure what I’m doing this year, but I don’t think the chocolate bunnies will make it that far.

Caitie Ihrig