This Easter, I am especially grateful for the Easter message that is central to Christian faith.

It is the message that even in the darkest, most challenging times—which we face head on with full awareness—we will come out on the other side better and stronger than ever.

This Easter, I also am especially grateful for Easter traditions.

One tradition in my family that we love to remember and laugh about—especially my father Tom—is the Easter egg hunt that we had in the yard when I and my siblings Betsy and Steve, along with our cousins Todd, Paul and Wendy, were young kids.

The hunt was organized by my parents Lynn and Tom, Aunt Joanie and Uncle Terry, and grandparents Lillian and Henry.

I have since learned that the ringleader of the entire Easter-egg hunt-operation was my Grandpa Henry.

 Being the promotional wiz that he was—Grandpa Henry was a very successful typewriter salesman back when typewriters were like PCs and smartphones—he came up with a brilliant way to add to the excitement for us kids as we searched the yard for the hard-boiled eggs that we had colored.

Every time one of us kids found an egg, we proudly ran to Grandpa Henry and gave it to him.

And as soon as we weren’t looking, Grandpa Henry went and hid the same egg somewhere else in the yard.

Pretty sneaky of him, for sure. But very clever and grandfatherly too.

Thanks to Grandpa Henry, the excitement of a hunt that probably would have lasted for all of five minutes with the dozen or so eggs that we had turned into a hunt for “hundreds” of eggs that went on for a fun-filled half-hour or so.

Now that were all “too old” for Easter egg hunts, I love to hear my Father Tom laugh about how Grandpa Henry had all of his grandkids fooled.

Maybe we don’t believe in the Easter Bunny anymore. But here’s hoping that we all believe in the power of Easter and holiday traditions!