Easter Shoeboxes & Dotted Swiss

Easter Shoeboxes are what happens when mom cleans the basement during the summer and gives all the baskets, including Easter baskets to Deseret Industries. Something not realized until around 9pm the night before Easter because mom really isn't into helping out the Easter Bunny. Don't get me wrong, I do like Easter and have some rather fond childhood memories of Easter. Let's just say I'm less than enthusiastic about the Bunny part of it--particularly as the kids have gotten older.

Maybe if I would have had girls and made Easter dresses for them every year like my mom I might feel differently. The smell of dotted Swiss fabric always reminds me of Easter. It seems like our new Easter outfits were always made of dotted Swiss. At least the ones I remember. I'm not sure how my mom did it every year, but it seems like when we were younger we always got a new Easter dress. One year I am certain all five of us girls got them! Pretty incredible for a working mom if you ask me. I seem to recall getting purses, hats and gloves one year too, but you gotta love a cute Easter dress made of dotted Swiss.

I'm not sure how many dozens of eggs we colored growing up, but it was alot. It was a family tradition and in my memory pretty much everyone participated. I loved coloring eggs. Karen seemed particularly adept at it, but then that shouldn't be surprising given her artistic bent. Of course there was also the ritual hiding, and rehiding of the eggs on Easter Sunday and throughout the following week until we tired of it or the eggs got too "used" for lack of a better word. Every year there was at least one hiding that did not yeild all the hidden eggs. I have never been able to generate much enthusiasm from the boys for hiding eggs though.
They DO like to color eggs and every year we have done it despite Dennis wondering if we really need that many hard-boiled eggs and who is going to eat them (generally me but Cooper will help out some). This year we did 18 which was just enough for me, Cooper and Spencer to each do six. We managed to squeeze it in between the baseball & soccer games and a birthday party for a relative. We went for the straight vinegar dye for brighter colors. Dyeing eggs, always a fun time.

As a mom, I've never been that enthusiastic about Easter. For some reason to me, it seems like the Easter Bunny detracts more from the true meaning of Easter than Santa Claus does Christmas. So, I try to downplay that part of it. It seems like I am never really prepared for Easter despite the early appearance of it in the grocery stores. I keep putting it off. This year, I didn't shop for the Easter stuff until Friday. Maybe it is because the boys are getting older and even Cooper, despite not saying it, really can't beleive in the Easter Bunny. (He was there when all the Easter candy was purchased). And so, you get Easter shoeboxes because that is the only thing I know we have plenty of when it is discovered we have no baskets. We did add Easter stickers from the egg dye kit to make the shoeboxes a little more festive, but they were still shoeboxes. Oh well.