The Saturday Post: Egg inspiration edition

Tonight Jim, Brianna, Andrea and I will color our Easter eggs. I thought I was being fairly creative by breaking with tradition and buying all we need to try decorating our eggs using Kool Aid. Well, let's just say our colorful eggs to come ain't got nothing on these interesting creations, some of which I plan to try out next year.

Today's question:

What is your most tried and true egg-decorating technique?

Easter in an empty nest: 9 no longers

1. No longer do I set out Easter decorations. At least not this year. Maybe next year. Or maybe at least a centerpiece for Easter dinner this year. Maybe.

2. No longer do I buy Easter outfits.

3. No longer do I referee arguments during egg coloring over who got the purple first, who dipped their "dirty" blue spoon into the yellow, and who is copying whom on the designs drawn with crayons.

4. No longer do I have three girls in the pew next to me covering their ears so they don't jump at the strepitus at the end of the Good Friday Tenebrae service.

5. No longer do I remind my daughters at bedtime on Easter eve to make "nests" with their baby afghans for their baskets so the Easter Bunny can easily find them for filling in the night.

6. No longer do I nibble on carrots left for the Easter Bunny.

7. No longer do I play Easter Bunny at all.

8. No longer am I awakened Easter morning by little ones—or big ones—tiptoeing down the stairs to see what the Easter Bunny left in their baskets.

9. No longer do I have to say again and again and again to "Put the candy away NOW and go get ready for church."

I miss all that.

Well, maybe not No. 9.

Because I still say that.

Only now I say it to Jim.

Again and again and again.

(Just for old time's sake.)

Today's question:

How has Easter changed for you in the last few years?

Lone cascarón

Once upon a time, I was a Girl Scout leader. During the eight years I was privileged to warp shape the minds of little Daisies and Brownies, my troops and I engaged in awesome — and some not-so-awesome — activities. One that I remember each year around Easter is the creating of the cascarones. It was one of the most successful crafts of my tenure.

Cascarones, as I enlightened my followers, are confetti-filled eggshells (cáscaras) broken over the heads of others to bring good luck. It's a popular tradition of the Hispanic culture, often seen at weddings and especially at Easter time.

Cascarones are pretty simple to make. Here are the steps and some photos:

1. To hollow out an egg, gently whack the smaller end of a raw egg with a knife to create a wedge for prying off the end.

2. Gently remove the end of the shell, creating a hole about the size of a 50-cent piece.

3. Gently remove the raw egg inside by letting it drop into a container.

4. Gently (yes, "gently" is the key to most of these steps!) rinse out the egg, using your finger (gently) to remove any egg white sticking to the shell. Set aside to dry.

5. Once the egg is completely dry, decorate the outside as desired. Gently, of course. A simple method with children is to use markers, as I did (hastily) with this example. Some traditionalists color the egg with commercial egg dyes typically used to color Easter eggs. Don't decorate with stickers as they prevent the shell from breaking during the fun.

6. Fill the decorated egg with confetti. Packaged glitter confetti from a craft store is best because it's most gleefully messy festive. Or use a hole punch or paper shredder (the "cross-cut" ones work great!) to make your own from colored paper.

7. Using a glue stick, carefully line the edge of the hole and glue a square of tissue paper over the hole. Allow glue to dry completely. Store egg in a safe place until the festivities.

The year of the Girl Scout cascarones, my family stepped out onto the front lawn Easter afternoon to crack wishes of good luck upon one another's noggins. We laughed and loved and left layers of confetti in the grass. Tidbits of good tidings were visible through the blades of green grass for months. Years after, a glint of gold or green confetti would often catch my eye as I sat on the porch swing, swaying and smiling as I remembered the multiple cascarones we cracked that festive Easter.

This year, I have one lone cascarón. Made for this post. With only a single egg to crack upon the head of a loved one, I'm considering which of those I'll be spending Easter Day with most needs a smack upside the head dose of good luck. Jim, Brianna, and Andrea best beware.

Unless, that is, a little Googling reveals the cascarones tradition has no rules discouraging the cracking of the goodies upon one's own head. Because these days, I'll take good luck any darn way I can get it!

Today's question:

What special memories do you have of decorating Easter eggs?

The color purple ... and pink ... and yellow

Jim and the girls and I have attended the same church for many years, so it's the go-to place for Easter and other Christian holidays (as well as most Sundays in between). Easter Sunday usually means lots of pink, yellow and purple outfits will be in display, worn by little girls in frilly finery, moms and grandmas donning Easter bonnets. Even Dads and Grandpas sheepishly sport pastel shirts and ties, succumbing to threats subtle pressure from their wives.

That's what we usually see at Easter service.

At yesterday's Easter service, there was no sea of pastel, no Easter bonnets. It didn't seem that many of the outfits were even new. In fact, lots of folks were wearing worn jeans or khakis -- fairly typical of a regular Sunday, but not Easter, the Sunday of all Sundays.

It was odd. And a little sad. It underscored the fact that new Easter outfits weren't in the cards for anyone this year, not just my family. Despite the optimism sparked by recent unemployment numbers, it seems economic recovery has yet to become reality, at least to the degree that we all felt new outfits were a priority.

I know, I know. New Easter outfits aren't really all that important. We all still sang just as loudly, still exchanged customary Easter greetings, and appreciated the trumpets, Easter lillies and C & E crowd not typical of regular Sunday services.

But like so many other traditions of Easter that have fallen by the wayside, traditions I wrote about here, I missed the pastels, the bonnets, the little girls twirling in their fancy dresses and white patent leather shoes.

Easter just didn't seem as Easter-y as usual.

If nothing else, though, I keep telling myself -- and this is the optimist in me struggling to keep its head above water -- at least I didn't stick out like sore thumb this year. As I worshipped in my dark clothing, I fit right in, I looked much like everyone else. This year it didn't matter that I prefer basic black (dark gray this time, to be exact) to frilly fuschia, Pepto-Bismol pink or buttercup yellow.

Worthy of a hallelujah? Probably not. But the way things have been of late, I'm taking comfort where I can get it.

And I'm thinking that -- if our financial picture gets a little rosier in the next year -- I just might buy a rose-colored outfit to match, for next year's Easter service. In honor of things looking better, I think that maybe, I just might be able to do pastel.

And a bonnet? No bonnet for me, thank you very much. I truly cannot do that. Nope, no matter how sunny things get, you won't catch me in a bonnet -- for Easter or otherwise. Pink I can consider doing. A bonnet? No way!

And to that I can give a hearty "Hallelujah!"

Plus an adamant "Amen!"

Today's question:

If you could wear only one color of clothing for the rest of your days, what color would you choose?

My answer: Black. I'm not a depressed/depressing kind of person; I just prefer black.

Another one bites the dust

Coloring Easter eggs has always been a pretty big deal in our house. Each year after the Good Friday Tenebrae service at the Lutheran church we've attended for more than 20 years, we'd head home and color eggs as a family.

Like our Halloween pumpkin-carving rituals, the egg coloring involved everyone competing for the very best design. Also like our pumpkin-carving rituals, someone usually ended up in tears or -- during the teen years -- huffing off to their room for a host of hormonal reasons having nothing to do with the design competition.

But it was fun. Really. We have lots of happy pictures and warm fuzzies to prove it.

This year for the first time ever, we won't be coloring Easter eggs. All the girls live on their own and our only grandson lives too far away to come over for a dip in the dye with Grandma and Grandpa. And I really can't see egg coloring as a couple on the Good Friday agenda for me and Jim.

So we'll go eggless this year.

There's a domino effect to the decision to not color eggs. Having no colored eggs impacts our Easter morning breakfast, as we've always eaten our colored eggs on Easter morning, along with blueberry muffins and sausage links. It made for an easy holiday breakfast before the family dashed out the door for church service in our new Easter outfits.

Oh, that's another thing: We're not buying new Easter outfits this year. There's really no reason to as we have plenty of dressy duds and really shouldn't spend the money this year.

With the delivery of Easter Bunny baskets having ceased delivery last year (although the girls will always get SOMEthing from E.B. but don't tell them that), it seems the last vestiges of our old-time Easter celebrations have bit the dust. The children are grown; the traditions of childhood are no longer relevant.

I should be sad about the change, as I've always worked quite hard to create memorable holiday traditions for the girls. But that's the key and the reason I'm not too broken up about this Easter's empty nest: It's always been work ... a lot of work ... done mostly by Mom.

So  I'm kind of glad that this year I don't have to color eggs or go shopping for outfits (especially when the girls -- and I -- often preferred black to the pinks and yellows and greens typical of Easter finery) or stay up waiting for kids to fall asleep just so I can fill a few baskets or help three little girls crack and peel and wash their colored eggs for breakfast.

Nope, we're having an adult-only Easter celebration for the first time. First up: A breakfast menu of Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd and Fresh Raspberries. Then Easter service, with our oldest and youngest daughters joining us.

After that, it's anyone's guess. We're all grown-ups now and I no longer need to set the day's agenda in advance.

Except for one thing, that is: I need to ensure time for a Skyping session with Bubby. I want to see my handsome grandson dressed in his new Easter outfit as he tells Grandma all about his basket of goodies from the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs Mommy peeled for him for breakfast, all before he, Mommy and Daddy dashed out the door for Easter service.

Knowing the beloved family traditions that once defined Easter in our house are continuing with the next generation make it much easier for this generation to bid them farewell and move on.

Today's question:

What's your favorite Easter tradition?

My answer: Breakfast as a family. Family dinners have always been a given in our house, but family breakfasts happened rarely ... usually only on Christmas and Easter.