New Traditions: Easter

My family has been completely matriarchal for as long as I can remember. All hail, Queen Rose! Most things we did, we did for my grandmother – and not in that begrudging, we have to sort of way. But because she was the glue that kept it all together and we love her. Now that she’s gone we’re having to find our ways.

My children and I always ventured home to St. Louis from wherever we were living with our Easter baskets and dessert in tow. But this year is different, the family is still gathering but I’m opting to stay home. We’re going to work on building holiday rituals in our own home, with our own rules and less travel. [And we’ve plans to start meeting half way for family dinners in Columbia, MO every other month. So I’ll still see everyone, and maybe even more than before.]

How do you do that? Most often it’s recreating the food and experience that you know. But we eat mostly vegetarian and ham is gross. And Lola would be the only little kid for an Easter egg hunt (which she wouldn’t mind because she’d get all the eggs!). So I’ve been scouring Pinterest, like we all do, in search of the new normal. I’ve been hoarding some Easter/spring pins here if you’re interested, too.

Pinterest never lets me down with a million options to make all things perfect and right! I found this blog with 14 Easter traditions shared by other mom bloggers. I like peeking in on what other people are doing and being inspired (read stealing) by them.

I really like #2 visiting a farm and #5 a big brunch because we love to eat. A lot. And we always dye eggs, so we’ll be doing that for sure. Here’s a video I did showing you how to quickly dye eggs with frozen fruit.

I also found this post for egg wars where you try to crack the other person’s egg. That sounds pretty fun and might need to be incorporated!

We’ve a community that we’re part of here that is hosting a pot luck with some activities for the kids, so that’s on the list. And the Easter dress for Lola – always the dress! I still remember shopping for a dress with my mom (often the day before) and sometimes being able to get a bonnet to match. There was an Easter where we went to a friend of my mom’s for Easter brunch where they had a ton of vintage hats for the kids to choose from – I still remember it and still love that day.

Oh, and black jelly beans are a must. No one likes them so I get to have them all!