Egg Dyeing Simplicity--A Lesson for all Traditions.

We did all of our egg festivities during the week before Easter since we knew we would be out of town for Easter weekend. So on the Tuesday before Easter we did our egg dyeing. It was simple and so perfect. I so love all of our small and simple traditions we have (and are) creating. I truly believe that traditions are kind of like a special glue that holds a family together.

As Katrina Kenison says, "In simplicity there is freedom--freedom to do less and to enjoy more."

In her book, Mitten Strings for God, she relates a story of a friend:

"Two weeks before Easter, I visit a friend whose children are the same age as mine. When I arrive, she is just cleaning up after an afternoon of coloring eggs with her son and daughter. There are Ukrainian masterpieces, painstakingly created with special tools, dyes, and wax. In addition, they have made stenciled eggs, brilliant glitter eggs, and marbleized eggs, all from kits ordered from a catalog. Some of the eggs feature paintings of flowers and bunnies. Others have been blown out, colored with vegetable dye, and arranged in a basket filled with real, growing grass, planted in March so that it would reach its peak for Easter weekend.

"While the children head outside to play, my friend sweeps glitter off the floor, scrubs the table, and washes tiny paintbrushes. The results of their labors are breathtaking, and I ooh and ahh over every egg. They are beautiful. But, she confesses with a sigh, she has done most of them herself. The Ukrainian kit proved too complicated for the kids, and the stencils were difficult to do. The children each made a couple of glitter eggs, but they ended up with glue all over their hands and soon lost interest. 'Next year,' my friend says, laughing, 'we're going back to the basic $2.99 kit from CVS!'

"What message do our own excesses send to our children? In our efforts to create special occasions for them, are we losing sight of what's really important? Are these elaborate productions crowding out the kinds of simple, heartfelt celebrations that truly enrich our lives and delight our children?"

And then at the end of the chapter, she gives us these last words of wisdom:

"Yesterday we colored our own Easter eggs. Taking my friend's experience to heart, I kept it simple. Five bowls of colored water.  There was magic enough in that."

And so it was for us as well.

Simple Magic.