Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Fun or not

Easter is one of the most tradition-filled holidays at my house. Every year the local grocery store has their anniversary celebration, which includes 10 cent hot dogs, as well as cotton candy and ice cream cones for 25 cents (originally they were 10 cents, but inflation hit last year). Another fun thing is the fact that the grocery store tapes papers with numbers on the floor of the store and intermittently calls numbers. If you are on the number, you win a bag of groceries, which includes potato chips and bacon, among other things.

This year was a bit different. Mom was out of town and the cousins, aunt and uncle weren't down. Also, Loo, et al. didn't get here until 5 p.m. on Saturday. Also, the rest of the family is sick with colds and are trying to limit their public exposure. As such, I was the one left with the tasks of getting the cotton candy and hot dogs, as well as the groceries needed to eat unhealthy all weekend. The cotton candy line was non-existent, so I got my 10 sticks (what is the correct term for a thing of cotton candy?) for FarmerBoy to consume almost entirely himself. I then went to do the grocery shopping and they did not call any numbers while I was in the store. I tried to dawdle and everything, but still no number calling. Finally, I went to get the hot dogs, which had a 45 minute line. I would have just gone back in the store to buy the stuff for hot dogs, but was told there were no hot dog buns in the store. Sheesh! Anyway, I finally got my hot dogs (limit 20 per person), only to remember I needed chicken for Saturday's dinner. I returned to the store for chicken and food coloring and continued home. I would like to say that this tradition is much more enjoyable with other people to stand in line with.

Saturday went fine and dandy. I boiled 4 dozen eggs, and made 17 cups of egg dye, properly labeled, so that I would know what I was getting. I also made a "Special Mystery" color which involved putting a random number of drops of all the food colors. I then set the colors out in the color of the rainbow to easily find the colors I needed. Also important--2 dozen eggs were brown ones from the chickens, and 2 dozen were white for more variety (yes, I do realize that I have OCD tendencies, but doesn't everyone?). Several of us died eggs, and pictures are posted above of the egg dyeing experience. Anyway, the coloring went well and I got supper made and potato challenge and the tradition is done for a year, and next year people better show up in time to help me stand in line for hot dogs!

3 comments:

sue said...

Sorry to have missed the hot dog tradition. It's not very fun to wait around for them alone.

Beee said...

I was very bummed not to be there this year. Such is life when you get married. Spouses don't really get why some of us enjoy the ranch. They want to create "new traditions" which to me sometimes translates into sitting around and staring at the walls, or in this case, getting aggravated with each other over doing taxes. Not my kind of fun, would have rather been down standing in line with you for hotdogs.

Moo said...

Sue and Bee, I missed having you down for the fun festivities, but really I was more bitter about my immediate family. You guys live further away and thus are excused, due to high gasoline prices.

Bee, please pass the following onto your husband. "I think that creating new traditions is a great thing to do, especially as newlyweds, but arguing over taxes isn't a suitable new tradition. You have to replace one fun tradition with another fun tradition. For instance--making homemade peeps for Easter or hiding eggs for each other. Taxes are not fun and are not considered a tradition in anyone's book, so Nanner, nanner."