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“Mama!” Hugo shouted. “Louis took my blue egg!”
“I did not! Yours is right there!” Louis argued.
“No, that’s Emma’s blue egg!” Hugo said back.
“Then what’s it doing in your basket?!” Louis frowned at him.
“Duh! She’s too little for the eggs!” Hugo explained like it was obvious. “I’m her des-egg-nated egg keeper!”
Emma pouted at her big brothers. “Emma big girl! Hugo! No little!”
“Yeah, Hugo,” Louis said smugly, “Emma’s ‘no little!’”
“Mama!” All three of them called together.
“Okay, easy my little peeps!” Adrien swooped in and redistributed the plastic Easter eggs to their original baskets. “You all have the same eggs, see?”
“How do you know that’s mine and not Louis?!” Hugo asked, genuinely concerned.
“This isn’t my first rodeo, kid, I watched those eggs so closely Toph Beifong couldn’t pull the shuffle-bowl scam on me.” Adrien said seriously. “I could clean up in Monte Carlo, but that would interfere with watching morning cartoons with you guys, so I’ll skip it.”
“Huh?” Hugo looked at his dad like he was crazy but Louis smiled a little.
Emma had moved on to playing with the sparkly “grass” in her Easter basket.
“Papa’s sense of humor just takes getting used to Hugo.” Marinette said as she sat down on the floor next to them all. “You’ll be rolling your eyes before you know it.”
Adrien rolled his eyes and mumbled under his breath about his humor being the cat’s meow.
“More importantly, do you all have your three special eggs?” Adrien asked.
His kids nodded and each pulled out three sparkly eggs in red, silver, and gold—though Emma received a little help from Marinette.
“So what, do the three eggs stand for?” Marinette asked, mostly directing her to questions to the older boys since her toddler was more preoccupied with the glitter on the eggs.
“That Jesus died for us and rose again on the third day.” Louis responded.
“Right, bud.” Adrien nudged the red egg in front of his son. “And why is this one red?”
“Becuase-becuase,” Hugo said quickly, eager energy to get his explanation out making him fumble his words a little. “Jesus had the crown of thorns and that hurt and some people said He wasn’t the Son of God but He was and He died on the cross but that was the plan all along because He kicked the Devil’s tushy and then He made it so we could go to Heaven with him!”
It really was hard to stay serious when their son was this adorable. After nearly choking on his cooing—which would have hurt Hugo’s feelings in this case—Adrien nodded. “Good explanation, kiddo. Okay, go ahead and open your first egg.”
Hugo and Louis were used to this tradition and weren’t surprised to find new crosses—Hugo’s printed with a football pattern since he was lately a fanatic about the sport and Louis’ was on a keychain since he didn’t find it comfortable to wear anything around his neck. Emma, however, found everything exciting and clapped over her new, “Pretty!”
“Alright, second egg,” Marinette said. “You can open this one first. What does this stand for?”
The boys opened the silver eggs and weren’t surprised to find it empty. Emma was a little flummoxed, but Louis started speaking before she could get upset.
“The Tomb was empty because Jesus had been res-reserrr—resurrected.” Louis said. “The angel told the ladies to go tell everyone that Jesus was alive and then Jesus appeared to his disciples and a bunch of people.”
“And the angel scared the guards at the tomb!” Hugo giggled maniacally and mimicked what he imagined fainting Roman guards might be like.
Unfortunately, he “feinted” on his brother who grunted and tried to push Hugo off.
“The guards didn’t faint on ME, Hugo!” Lewis complained.
“Oh shock!” Hugo cried and tried to flatten his brother further. “An angel!”
“Why are your elbows so pointy?!” Louis wiggled.
“The terror!” Hugo cried.
Apparently Hugo was a very long, dramatic fainter.
“Mom, do something about this.” Louis gave up and begged.
“Adrien,” Marinette chuckled.
Adrien scooped his youngest son off his oldest and plopped him in his lap. “Guards who are busy fainting aren’t awake enough to stop me from eating all their candy!”
“I’m not a guard!” Hugo instantly sat up and grabbed his basket, shooting his dad a suspicious look.
“And the last egg?” Marinette tried to get them back on track.
“Jesus washes us of our sins and He heals us and forgives us.” The boys said together, both opening the gold egg and then froze.
The last egg was always a little different and Marinette and Adrien tried to do something different—and child appropriate—each year to represent how Jesus’ sacrifice fulfilled God’s promise to break the bondage of sin.
The golden egg was cracked and out fell this year’s token. And the boys froze and stared at it.
As one, Adrien, Louis, and Hugo gave Marinette confused, somewhat judging looks.
“Yay!” Emma picked up her mini hand sanitizer and hugged it.
“Okay, you all complained about the cotton balls last year!” Marinette reminded. “There are only so many ideas I can come up with for being washed clean when I’m sleep deprived and SOMEONE replaced my coffee with that health food, caffeine-free substitute!”
“Yeah, but, M’love….” Adrien snickered. “Jesus doesn’t wash away only 99.9% of sins, so…”
The boys burst out laughing and Marinette shook her head and rolled her eyes, while sticking her tongue out at them, maturely.
“Wait!” Hugo suddenly got serious. “What happens to the other 0.01% of the germs?!”
“I try not to think about it.” Adrien said.
“Mom?” Hugo asked.
“It’s better if we don’t focus on that.” Marinette shuddered playfully.
“Can we do the Easter Egg hunt now?” Louis asked. “Or do we have to wait for Grandma and Grandpa?”
Just then, a bright portal opened up and spat out Bunnyx, who landed on the floor with her parasol bonking her on the head.
The kids stared for a split second before Hugo said, “I thought the Easter Bunny hid the eggs last night, Mama?”
“Sorry, baby catbugs!” Bunnyx dusted herself off and reached into her burrow to pull out a box. “Just me!”
“Auntie Alix!” Louis and Hugo finally ran up to her and hugged her around her waist and legs while Marinette and Adrien got to their feet more slowly.
“I thought you were supposed to be back with the evidence yesterday,” Marinette said after they’d greeted each other. “Did things go wrong after our past selves helped you?”
“Nah, Fluff just WOULDN’T let me come home before we stopped at that place that made her favorite carrot cake before it closed down.” Bunnyx shrugged. “It’s cool, I’ll have all the evidence ready for court tomorrow.”
“Did my baby self tell you to keep justice hopping along?” Adrien asked with a grin.
“Wouldn’t know, I tuned out his puns with my internal cackling at his obliviousness to me trolling him about his future.” Bunnyx smirked.
Marinette shook her head and gave Emma to Adrien so she could plucked the box out of time travel junk out of reach from the curious hands of her little boys.
“Aw, come on, Mama!” Louis complained. “We want to build a Time Machine!”
“Not until you’re eighteen.” Adrien said sternly.
“Adrien!” Marinette pouted.
“What?! I’m encouraging their interest in science!” Adrien said innocently.
“Can’t Auntie Alix at least take us back to see the dinosaurs?!” Hugo pleaded and deployed his kitten eyes.
“Well…mayb—“ Adrien started to waver.
“You are not allowed to have a pet T-Rex, velociraptor, brontosaurus, or any other kind of saurus or otherwise extinct pet!” Marinette interrupted. “We do not have a mind control bowler hat like in Meet the Robinsons and I refuse to clean up after a pet that size’s…refuse.”
“So…what you’re saying is we can time travel as long as we don’t take souvenirs and we can also get a regular sized puppy?” Louis asked hopefully.
“Wait—“
“Puppy!” Hugo cheered with his fists in the air.
“Kitty!” Emma squealed in delight.
“Why not both?!”
“Adrien!”
Bunnyx laughed as she dropped her transformation and took back her evidence box. Making a quick exit and leaving her friends with the hopped-up baby catbugs, she called, “Joyeuses Pâques!”
But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6
English Standard Version