(Feel free to skip ahead to what you want to read)
What's new with Ashleigh?
This is a very busy time of year for our family. The other day, I mentioned how our Easter traditions begin on Palm Sunday. Well, they continue on Good Friday when we dye our Easter eggs.
When I was a child, my mother would spend a couple of days during Lent hollowing eggs. It involved a sewing needle, a large bowl, and a lot of time and patience. Then one night (probably well before Good Friday, knowing my mother), we would dye the eggs. Sometimes we added the shrinkwrap and/or stickers. Some years we bought the glitter paint that went on the eggs. When the eggs were dry, my mother would display them on the kitchen table along with all the ones from previous years that had not cracked. The beauty of hollow eggs were that they could last for years.
When I was in second or third grade, I was sitting at lunch one day when one of my classmates pulled out an egg she had dyed for Easter. I was fascinated that she could eat the eggs she had dyed. Until that moment, I had never known it was an option! (Then again, at the time, no one in my family actually ate hard-boiled eggs.)
Of course, my husband grew up with the hard-boiled egg tradition. And he eats them. So when we had a family of our own, we dyed hard-boiled eggs. Somewhere along the way, the tradition became dying eggs on Good Friday. And, because my children make a mess, we always do it on the floor. To me, that was common sense, but my in-laws found it strange the one year we did eggs at my brother-in-law's house.
I boil the eggs early, either in the morning or maybe on Thursday or Wednesday. Then Friday night, we lay the craft tablecloth on the kitchen floor (it's the same one we use for carving pumpkins and painting Christmas ornaments). We have lots of dye cups, egg dippers, and wax crayons. While I mix the colors, the kids (and Mr. Stevens) write on their eggs. Then, they get to color the eggs.
The younger ones will stick with one color and are usually done in a few minutes. As they get older, though, the kids have learned to use multiple colors. Sometimes they color the entire egg in a few colors to create a unique shade. Other times, they dye part of the egg at a time to create a striped effect. They are very creative and I love seeing their creations each year.
One year, I hope to introduce my children to hollow eggs. But since they enjoy eating their eggs, I don't think they will mind learning it later in life.
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