The Easter Basket. If you feel a little tingle of nerves in your stomach because this is your first Easter Basket with diabetes………relax. Today’s article provides a few ideas and I am going to ask those with experience to jump in here as well and add what they do; so you have choices on what YOU CAN do on Easter morning.
In our house, after Kaitlyn was diagnosed with diabetes, we made a few adjustments. What you need to know here is that I am my father’s son when it comes to holidays. My dad, God bless his soul, would take holidays like Easter and Christmas and take them out of the stratosphere on the amount of ……well…….everything that his six kids would get. My mom and dad were the living examples of doing without, so their kids could; period.
Easter was no different. Our baskets looked like the candy department at Woolworth, (ask your parents they’ll tell you). Peeps, chocolate, malted eggs, jelly beans, marshmallow chocolate covered eggs and bunnies, and the biggest chocolate rabbit you have ever seen with a candy eye of blue for us boys and pink for the girls with a matching bow around their neck (which we ate around until it was the last piece when we would remove the bow and pop the last piece in our mouth. Every year.
Well our kids got the same treatment. Well on October 26th, 1992 that had to change in our house. And when Easter rolled around my panic was obvious. “I need to do this or there would be no tradition.” Ridiculous thought as that was, I had it.
Another reminder here is that this is pre-pump days and all the wonderful tools we now have for better management. So what to do? It was/is always important for us that our kids…….well stayed kids……and we knew that sugar would be needed at times, especially to deal with lows, so giving a basket would not be a bad thing. But we also knew that we probably should make some adjustments and we did.
Sugar free mints and gum came in handy. Little girl accessories from Claire’s were always appreciated, trading cards, videos, colorful painted eggs, make-up and lipstick as she got older. In short, much of the candy was replaced with small gifts—-think stocking stuffers on fake green grass in a basket with no stocking. Crayons, coloring books, stickers, books, a pair of cool socks or a shirt all made for great gifts.
And eventually the candy was outnumbered by the gifts that could fit into the basket. Wrapped in spring-styled wrapping paper. Kids love opening gifts and to be honest the few peeps and jelly beans we left in there were more than enough along with the gifts we gave.
Let us know what you do in your house?
And ever year, perhaps smaller than what it used to be, sits a chocolate rabbit which gets eaten, probably just a tad slower than before diabetes. But that is not such a bad thing. And with boluses and everything else we can now do; well Easter is Easter in our house just like every other house.
My kids are all older now with the youngest being 18, but they still like their Easter Baskets with a mix of candy, and small gifts, and a chocolate rabbit that gets the area around the bow eaten last. My dad would like that; Happy Easter everyone.
I am a diabetes dad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’