9 things I promise I’m going do this Easter.

Somehow I blinked and we jumped straight from Christmas to Easter. Somehow only yesterday I was taking down the Christmas tree and today I am gobbling up a warm hot cross bun slathered in butter with my cup of tea.

Does it get better than Easter? It’s like Christmas with less stress, fewer relatives and more chocolate. But Easter does bring its own host of issues and etiquette dilemmas and a whole slater of craft.

Oh so much craft.

So, in order to tackle it I am setting myself up a contract. A list of promises to myself. A list of challenges to meet.

This Easter I promise:

1. I promise I am going to do the damn craft without crying, screaming, or throwing a tantrum.

(That’s me who throws the tantrum).

I promise not to groan when they get out the glitter and not to get out the vacuum cleaner half way through the crafting.

I will silently watch the teeny tiny pieces of cut out paper fall to the floor and hold back the deep seated itch to clean it up before the kids even get the little fluffy chicken out. I promise I will refrain from going in to organise the cotton balls and paddle pop sticks to minimize the mess.

I will let them paint and paste and blow icky sticky yolk out of eggs as much as they damn well please without asking them to please be tidy, to not get the glitter everywhere and to ( for heaven's sake) watch the carpet.

I will delight and exclaim over each painted egg and cotton wool bunny.

Because its craft and its meant to be fun right?

2.  I promise I am going to let my kids do whatever they want for the Easter hat parade and not fall victim to the competitiveness.

I won’t mutter a word when they say they want to stick leaves and twigs sticks all around the edges of their paper hat instead of the cute little Easter egg cut outs I bought for them.

I won’t blink an eye when they mix the paint colours so much they turn into a mushy, pooey brown. If that’s the Easter hat they want to walk around the school oval in then that’s the hat they shall construct.

I won’t even cast a second glance at the one Poppy Montgomery’s mother (so obviously) made for her in glorious duck-egg-blue and Easter-yellow feathers and sparkling faux-hand-painted chocolate eggs. I won’t compare and contrast. I will let them do it all themselves.

And I shall stand proud.

Because that’s the idea right?

3.  I promise I am going to remember to do the shopping for Easter lunch well in advance of Saturday afternoon.

I promise not to leave it to the last minute when the rush to Woollies is like the rush to buy Madonna tickets and the wait in the queue is like the wait for her to come on stage.

I will be organised and I will have my list and stick to it and I will not be there at 6pm on Saturday fighting over the last of the hot cross buns with the rest of the unorganised folk.

4. I promise I am going to remember to buy fish for Good Friday.

I will not have to serve those members of the family who insist on sticking to that fishy tradition tuna straight from the can because I just happened to forget that Good Friday equals fish.

5. I promise I am not going to eat the Easter eggs before Easter..

Even if I just have the tiniest craving for an itty bitty chocolaty egg I will resist.

I will not gorge on them all at 9pm on Good Friday evening, starved after a measly meal of tinned tuna and have to rush out to buy more on Saturday. They shall survive.

6. I promise I am going to I am going to let my mother-in law give my kids a ridiculous amount of Easter eggs..

and I will not complain that they’ve had enough already and couldn’t she be more creative in her gift buying.

7.  I promise I am going to I am going to remember to put out the Easter Eggs after the kids go to sleep on Saturday night.

I will not wake in a haze on Sunday morning and hurriedly have to distract three excited little chickens while the “Easter Bunny” rushes around dropping chocolate eggs at hastily thought out locations.

8.  I promise I am going to I am going to let them be kids and restrain myself from saying “you’ll be sick before breakfast”

Even as they gorge on too much chocolate all at once I will remember how I too used to delight in the ability to feast on chocolate at 6am for just one day of the year.

I also promise when they ARE sick before breakfast I am not going to say "I told you so." I will just smile inwardly at all the uneaten chocolate I can instead eat later that day.

9. Lastly I promise I will tie the dog away before I put the eggs out for the Easter egg hunt.

Because vet bills on Easter Sunday are super pricey...