This Easter was the first one where Annie was old enough to really “get” how things work with the Easter Bunny, and I was entrusted with a very important responsibility – to buy the goodies to put in her basket! I was pretty excited about this job as I drove to the supermarket, but what I didn’t realize was just how stressful it was going to be when I got there.

I realize my understanding of Easter baskets was a little out of date (on account of the fact I hadn’t gotten one in a good quarter century or more), but I had no idea just how out of date. Instead of a small section where I could grab a chocolate bunny, some peeps, and a bag of mini-eggs (the basic food groups of Easter candy), the store had an entire aisle dedicated to Easter candy!

Just how out of my league I was became painfully clear when I reached for some mini-eggs and realized they weren’t plain chocolate (like the ones from my day), but Reese’s peanut butter cup. I spun to the woman next to me, cackling like a madman.

“This is incredible! These are peanut butter cups! They’re peanut butter cups shaped like mini-eggs!”

The woman smiled politely as I grabbed another bag.

“Ooh! And these are Nestle Crunch mini-eggs! I can’t believe it! This is AMAZING!”

The woman slowly backed away as I discovered that basically every candy brand – M&Ms, Snickers, even Starburst – had an Easter candy version.

Suddenly, my plan of buying the plain, ol’ chocolate candies I enjoyed as a kid seemed pretty boring. Should I get those as planned? Or buy some of these new flavors? After ten minutes of deliberating between the old fashioned chocolate mini-eggs and the Reese’s peanut butter cup mini-eggs, I finally gave up and got both.

Picking the right chocolate bunny proved stressful, too. Heather had told me to get a small one (so Annie wouldn’t totally overdo it on sugar), but when I saw the giant bunnies on the shelf all I could think about was how excited Annie would be to see one in her basket. My eyes drifted back and forth between the giant bunny and the small bunny. The giant bunny (Applause! Fireworks! Hooray!) and the small bunny (boo, hiss, fizzle).

Suddenly a little devil popped up on my shoulder. “Psst,” he said. “Just buy the giant bunny. And if Heather complains, remind her how much Annie will love it!”

“Good point, Devil!”

I snatched up a giant bunny and headed toward the check-out. I only made it a few feet, however, before guilt got the best of me. I texted Heather this photo of the giant bunny and a more reasonable sized bunny with a message saying I planned on getting the big one because it was more fun:
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Heather’s response? That even the “reasonable” one was bigger than Annie needed. Sigh. I put back the giant bunny.

As if all of that was traumatic enough, Peeps now come in different colors! I stood there a couple minutes, trying to decide on the right color of Peep, when Heather sent me a text that read: “Are you almost done? You’ve been there almost an hour!” Oops.

Next year it is so Heather’s turn to go buy this stuff.