Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Easter's in the Air

Despite this season of joy, I'm feeling sad because:
 
1.  It was 28 degrees outside this morning. There's still snow on the ground and everything outside is still mostly brown. What if winter lasts ALL year???
 
2.  My kids are all but grown up now and I used to love making Easter crafts and sharing traditions with them. I taught Sunday School for years and working with children (and jelly beans) around this time of the year (and, yes, making it all relevant to the season, not an easy task) gave me a lot of joy. My youngest is 20 now and several years ago she lost all desire to color Easter eggs with me. : (  But I still color the eggs all by myself anyway and will probably continue that tradition, just as my mom did.
 
 
 
Shhh - the real reason I color eggs? Tradition, schmadition. I just love eating egg salad sandwiches for days . . . .
 
We do have another favorite Easter tradition in our family, however,  and that's the Annual Tracy Family Easter Basket Treasure Hunt. Every year my husband hides the Easter baskets that I make for the kids and then sends them on a hunt for them  with wonderfully creative and amusing clues. One year the clues were all in Spanish - the year my son began learning Spanish in the sixth grade. (That one took forever, let me tell you. He didn't think it was funny but we found it hilarious.)  The next  year's clues for him involved NBA stats, I think; much easier.  And now he's mostly fluent in Spanish and teaches in a bilingual classroom. So the joke was on us I guess.
 
My daughter, the incredible speller and "vocabularist" (darn, that's not a real word but it should be), always got clues with BIG words even she had to look up, LOL. Or clues containing French words. Sounds like torture, I know, but, hey, they get candy in the end so what's the harm? Très fun! I often think this is actually much more fun for my husband and a real creative outlet for him so I  like to encourage it. Even though the "children" are 20 and 25, they really don't want to stop this tradition any more than I do. It's still fun to watch them race through the house like little kids, looking for their baskets full of jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and toys gift cards. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I made this Easter basket hunt contingent upon coloring eggs with me the night before?
 
 
*  *  *
Creating something always perks me up and brings me joy. I found this great tutorial for making pretty fabric Easter eggs and I mean to try making some today. I'll let you know how they turn out. It looks pretty easy.

Fabric Easter egg tutorial by Retro Mama
 
Easter,  the season of rebirth and renewal. 
The message is all about Hope, Love and Joyful living. 
 
 
 
 Have a good week and a blessed Easter holiday.
 
 
 

13 comments:

agullainquieta said...

A beautiful tradition. It's nice that you can still continue even if your children are older now. Happy Easter!
kisses

marian said...

My mum used to colour Easter eggs and bake yummy Easter pastries... a European tradition.
Your Easter treasure hunts sound like so much fun and those fabric egg are very cute.
Have a lovely Easter :))

Karen said...

Your family tradition of finding Easter Baskets is very unique and sounds fun. I'm glad your kids still love to participate, I know how happy that must make you feel. I went years without any Easter traditions when my kids grew up. I have grandsons now...5 months, 3 years and 5 years old. The 5 yr. old said he wanted an Easter Egg Hunt in my yard this year. I'm hoping it doesn't rain so we can precede with his wishes.
Have fun making your fabric eggs today. Happy Easter to you and your family.

Unknown said...

Happy Easter. Enh=joy

Louise said...

This is the first year I feel very melancholy for the same reasons. Our three girls all married and we are living in 4 different states. Sniff...I am glad we have all the church services to attend starting tomorrow night. I miss the egg coloring as well for the same reason...no egg salad sandwiches nor deviled eggs. On the bright side I do have a friend coming tomorrow for a sew day. Easter blessings to you and your family!

Jennifer M said...

Kathy thanks for sharing your traditions, sounds like fun. Also the fabric eggs look great, going to have to give them a try myself:)

Tania said...

It sounds like you will have a beautiful Easter, and lots of fun. I have made some of those pretty fabric eggs, and found them easy. Looking forward to seeing your fabric eggs. Have a happy Easter x

quiltgrannie said...

Happy Easter Kathy!! What a fun tradition, I still color eggs by myself too. LOL

Susan said...

Happy Easter to you too, Kathy! I'm with you on the egg salad sandwiches too...it wouldn't be Easter without them!

pandchintz said...

Great family traditions! I hope you and yours have a joyful Easter break and that the weather warms for you soon.

Rosa said...

Beautiful tradition.Enjoy!

mrs. smythe said...

Hang in there with the weather. We had snow this week here in New England...again. I keep telling myself Spring has got to come. This year has been crazy, though.

Pam in IL said...

Wow, it's like I was reading my thoughts. I've been feeling sad too. I hope you had a good Easter and enjoying the wonderful spring weather we had this weekend.

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