Easter "Hoppiness"

With Easter weekend upon us my kitchen feels empty. My mother-in-law has invited us to Easter dinner on Sunday, so I don't have to plan and cook a feast. (That's her job, this year!) School has been hectic, so I did not dig through the boxes under the stairs to find my Easter tree (the one the cats always knock all the little ornaments off of and use for hockey pucks). Neither have I pulled out the spring silk flowers to replace the winter ones in the vases on my mantle. My son – a.k.a. six foot two and shaggy – has not colored eggs for several years now. (As a matter of fact, the basket went away altogether when I bought him a chocolate bunny and a CD for Easter 2007.) Thus, I am considering decorating eggs, making a bunny cake, and coloring "placemats" on my own. What's a mom to do? After all, one of the best things about having kids is getting to participate in all the holiday rituals with them. Then they get too old (and too cool) for the whole thing and crafty moms are left without an excuse to decorate.

Just for kicks (not), I looked up Easter crafts yesterday hunting for something fun to play with. I came across directions for Ukrainian-style Easter eggs that have intricate designs made with a wax resist technique. The eggs are dipped in progressively darker colors beginning with yellow and moving through a rainbow and ending in black. To finish, the wax is gently melted revealing all the layers of color. These eggs were then drilled, blown and shellacked for posterity. While they looked fabulous, I'm afraid they exceeded my artistic ability and time constraints. In addition, I'm pretty sure my beloved feline squad would assume these shiny, labor-intensive creations were meant solely for their entertainment. (If you think those cats just walk all over me, rest assured they do - especially at 3 a.m. when I'm dead to the world and they want to play.)

Another possibility presented itself in decoupaged eggs. This one is actually a possibility since I have enough talent to cut out pretty flowers and springy pictures to apply to empty egg shells. While these, too, would probably meet an ill-fated end at the paws of my babies, they might fare better since the paper and glue will give the egg some stability. In addition, they will not be as difficult or time consuming to create. The website I looked at had ribbon running through the eggs with little tassels at the bottom. The eggs were then hung on a tree branch that had been scavenged from the yard, painted white, and planted in a pale yellow bucket filled with sand. How springy! I'll probably just toss mine in a glass bowl and see how long it takes for them to disappear under the furniture! (I could probably save some time and effort by using nail polish to decorate ping pong balls.)

In addition to eggs, Easter calls for some kind of baked good. Aside from a prefab bunny shaped pan, there are a myriad of directions available for bunny and other Easter-themed cupcakes, many of which include coconut to create the "fur." Since Jeff has pronounced coconut as "the devil's nut," and our son has nodded his acceptance of this fallacy, I generally do not make anything from it knowing no one will eat it but me. Really, what's the fun of making something yummy that no one else wants? It just saps the joy out of the labor. So, it's probably time for some rolled vanilla sugar cookies plied with Easter shaped cookie cutters. (Whenever I mention making rolled cookies at work, someone comments that they are only for Christmas. However, at the yuletide I always make spicy ginger cookies and save the lovely white sugar crisps for spring.) It seems to me that egg shaped cookies offer the most opportunity for decoration. I like to ice them all with a coating of white frosting and then go back to add stripes, polka dots, or little stars in pale pink, yellow, green, and blue. When it comes to decorating cookies, my son is always ready to "help." Of course, his idea of helping is creating the strangest designs known to man. For example, last Christmas I cut out several gingerbread men for him to decorate, and was presented a war zone filled with monsters and zombies. The bright holly green became Frankenstein-like faces and the berry red was laced across broken off hands and feet. (My son's really not as disturbed as he sounds, but he does have the warped sense of humor that runs in our family. Someday I’ll tell you about my brother’s fun-with-foil escapades. ) Thus, I am hesitant to hand over any eggs, bunnies, or chicks for his maniacal application of icing (yet, we all know I will because I'm really a pushover.)

To finish my holiday decorations I downloaded some coloring pages filled with Easter bonnets, lavish eggs, dancing bunnies, and trite sayings like "Hoppy Easter." These will become our placemats for the weekend when colored and covered with clear contact paper, which I stock in my craft closet for school projects. I know it's silly, but when work becomes stressful and demanding, the best balm I know is to spend some time acting like a kid again. These projects - especially the pretty cookies - will perk up the weekend and my kitchen in no time. Happy Easter!