Hoppy Easta!

Hoppy Easta! It’s what I heard over and over again growing up in an immigrant Italian family during this time of year. It was really comical for a whippersnapper like myself to overhear my Italian mother totally destroy the phrase, “Happy Easter” when any one of my relatives stepped foot into our home for an Easter dinner! I know, I was such a jerk back then but I conveniently blame my older brother for encouraging my insensitive behavior—he was older, he should have known better! Anyway, out of total frustration and annoyance, my mother simply reverted back to speaking Italian so she wouldn’t have to hear us snickering at her accent every time she attempted such a Holiday greeting—and sometimes, she’d put us right back in our place by saying, “you try and say something in Italian” to which we responded with dead silence! So “Buona Pasqua” it was before she returned to the oven to check on her roast of lamb and potatoes. I have no idea what made me think of this memory considering my mother still says Hoppy Easta (no bunny-pun intended) and I still jokingly laugh when I hear her say it but it was the first Easter memory that came to my mind while photographing Mamma Biscuit for this post! I guess I thought that Mamma’s “Easta” dress made her look a bit like an old Italian lady from the mountains of Calabria—or one that works at a bakery on Arthur Avenue! It’s part apron and part house dress and that gingham pattern can totally double up as a table cloth for any table at any restaurant down on Mulberry Street in Little Italy!

So here she is, our toothless Italian pug giving her best “Ciao, Francesco Rinaldi” pose in front of Mr. Easter Bunny! Really, the Easter holiday would not be complete without a visit from the Easter Bunny here at the Pug Palace. After all, what better way can Mamma Biscuit commemorate the betrayal, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ than to carouse around with an egg-pushing, jellybean-hoarding stuffed bunny? By the way, that was a rhetorical question, stop thinking about it, there really is no other better way!

Anyway, this Annalee Easter bunny was a gift that my mother gave to us four years ago and we just love him! Ok, maybe he looks like the neighborhood child molester dressed as the “Easta” Bunny but Mamma seems to like him—we’re just careful that she doesn’t accidently sit on his lap while she scours the apartment looking for Easter eggs!

Speaking of the Easter Bunny and Easter decorations, Mamma’s annual Easter tree is up and has been for the past three weeks. It stands in our living room corner in all of its Easter glory bringing us a much needed Springtime cheer in the never-ending Winter we’ve been having.

Created with three bushels of pussy willows, aquamarine colored eggs piled at the bottom of the vase for aesthetic support and trimmed with vintage hand cut paper ornaments, cracked eggs, glass birds and paper carrots—this display is one giant Easter extravaganza!

I’m always amazed at how good Mamma Biscuit is about not bumping into any display we put up in the home with her stout frame—Christmas must have taught her a thing or two about maneuvering around home decor within our living environment, that’s for sure!

The Pug Palace would not be complete during any Holiday without some cute and adorable vintage pieces scattered about!

After fifteen minutes of Mamma Biscuit running around the Easter Bunny in her gingham dress, she suddenly morphed into a cross between Loni Anderson and Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills—in other words, she turned into a duck! That’s right, don’t adjust your monitors at home because Mamma Biscuit is bringing you all duck-realness—just in time for the egg hunt!

I seriously couldn’t stop laughing as I put this crazy costume on her! I felt like I was the mother from A Christmas Story forcing poor Ralphie to try on that damn pink bunny suit that his aunt made for him on Christmas morning! All Ralphie wanted to do was run outside with his new Red Ryder BB gun to shoot his eye out but his mother was relentless! Well so was I! I just had to get a photo of my little dumpling in this duck costume that I picked up several months ago from the clearance bin at her groomers establishment—ONLY 5 BUCKS!

At any rate, both Loni Anderson and Taylor Armstrong and their respective botox-injected bills have nothing on Mamma in this get-up!

So in our best broken English accent, Mamma Biscuit and family would like to wish you all a very Hoppy Easta—and if you think we’re gonna sacrifice any lamb for the occasion, you can forgettaboutit!

Enjoy