A popular tradition here for Easter is the Easter Egg Hunt. Parents usually hide plastic eggs around the house or around the yard, and the kids are turned loose to go collect them and put them in their basket. We have enjoyed many years of these hunts with the kids, but one year in particular stands out in my memory.
We were on vacation in Indio (near Palm Springs, California) in 2017. Although we were on vacation, we wanted to find a church to go to for an Easter morning service. My wife found one, and we drove there. We were warmly greeted by the congregation, and met many nice people. They talked us into sticking around after the service and participating in the Easter Egg Hunt. They had hidden eggs around the property and parking lot while the kids were sitting in Sunday School.
The kids lined up and headed out with their baskets and the hunt was on. Our daughter was a bit older than the other kids, and so she stayed with us and watched. My son, however, showed no mercy to the gracious hosts and ran around, greedily picking up egg after egg and stuffing them into his basket. After maybe 90 seconds, the hunt was over and all eggs had been claimed. The final results: Out of the 15 or so kids participating, my son had found about 99% of the eggs.
It was a bit embarrassing as we were talking to these wonderful, new people, likely the parents of the kids who had been completely dominated in the Easter egg hunt and seeing our son with an overflowing basket, grinning from ear to ear, as their poor kids stood nearby with a measly one or two eggs in their baskets. But despite his greediness in collecting the eggs, he made it for it by sharing generously with all the kids, so everyone was happy.
Fun expressions
| to show no mercy | to win a competition “by a landslide” (with a big margin). The other football team was clearly better than us, but they continued to score points even in the last seconds, showing us no mercy. We also say “to take no prisoners”. |
| to grin from ear to ear | a common way to describe someone who is extremely happy. |
Helpful vocabulary
| congregation | the group of members of a church. “To congregate” means to gather as a group. |
| Sunday School | sometimes children are taught separately from the adults during a church service, with lessons tailored to their ages. |
| measly | this word stresses the smallness or inadequacy of something. |
Phrasal verbs
| to turn loose | to release, or to allow someone to start something. |
| stand out | to be obviously different from the rest. All of the players were good, but John really stood out as clearly the best. |
| stick around | to stay. The party was supposed to end at midnight, but people stuck around until well after 2:00 |
| line up | to form a line in order to wait for something. The people waiting are “standing in line”. |
| head out | to leave for something. We have to get to bed early, because we are heading out “at the crack” of dawn (very early in the morning) |
| make up for something | to compensate for something. If I do something bad to you, I can try to make up for it by doing something very nice. Example: He was impatient with his girlfriend during the event, but made up for it later by treating her to a nice dinner. Or: We were disappointed with the airline for cancelling our flight, but they made it up to us by offering two free flights. |
