It turns out that when I had misgivings about Ella perceiving Santa as a strange old guy coming into our house, I was spot on. This is the conversation that occurred in our house last night, starting at supper and finally ending at bedtime.
Dave: Ella, do you know what we are going to do Saturday night?
Ella: What?
Dave: We are going to leave a little salad on the table when we go to bed and the Easter Bunny is going to come and eat it.
Me: (in my head) What in the world is he thinking?!
Ella: (thinking hard) Daddy, you're just tricking me!
Laughter, followed by:
Ella: I don't wike Easter Bunnies.
Dave: (laughing) I know you don't.
Then there was more worrying and repeating of salad and Easter Bunny, etc. Fast-forward to bath time.
Ella: I'm going to eat all of the salad so the Easter Bunny can't have any!
Me: You don't have to worry about the Easter Bunny; he's not coming in this house.
Ella: Mommy, I want you to sleep with me all night long so the Easter Bunny doesn't come in.
Me: Dave! Get in here and fix this!
Dave: Ella, do you know what I'm going to do if the Easter Bunny comes in? I'm going to kick him in the bootie.
Me: (in an undertone to Dave) I was thinking more like telling her you made it up and it's not real, not telling her that we will kick animals.
A few minutes later.
Ella: Mommy, I want you to shut the door really tight so the Easter Bunny doesn't come in.
Me: The Easter Bunny isn't real. Daddy was just pretending, just like he was pretending that he had a Wocket in his pocket (also at bedtime; also not appreciated). If you see an Easter Bunny at the store, it's just someone dressed in a costume. There are real bunnies, and people like to look at and talk about bunnies at Easter, but there is no Easter Bunny and no one is coming into our house.
It continued until I finally reminded her that I would come to her or she could come to my bed if she woke up scared during the night. She did. Four times between 9:30 and 1:30, when she finally got in bed with me. She didn't wake up again after that, but she did sleep velcroed to my body. For once, I did not feel bad that there might not be room in the bed for Dave.
Dave did redeem himself at bedtime when I heard him talking to her about Jesus and Heaven. This morning, Ella told me that her memory verse for this week is "Jesus is risen!" I told her that was exactly right, and that's what Easter is all about.
She will get an Easter basket Sunday morning, but she picked it out herself at Target (of all things, she picked the Spiderman basket). She picked out her own chocolate bunny, though she doesn't know that I bought it. We also picked out a basket and some plastic eggs for Luke, and she knows I plan to fill them with Puffs since he can't have chocolate yet. We will dye eggs Saturday morning. She's having a party and an Easter egg hunt at school today. We will go to church Sunday morning - but we do that every week.
While I haven't put as much emphasis on the death and resurrection (yet, becuase she's not even 3) as I did about the birth at Christmas, she does understand that this holiday is about Jesus. So, the Easter Bunny myth has been dispelled, but I expect to spend many more nights reassuring her that no one will be coming into our house.
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