TRADITIONS!

There is something to be said for traditions. Take dying Easter eggs. My grandmother, (my children's great-grandmother, and my grand children's great-great-grandmother) loves to dye Easter eggs. My mother told me grandma would dye the eggs, even when her own children were grown. Now that is a love of Easter eggs.

Well, when Amy and Anne were small, we thought it would be fun to have great-grandma come dye eggs with us. The Saturday before Easter, she would come to our house and help my kids with the dying process. That was over 20 years ago. We added Natalie to our family and changed residences twice. We have also added Jace, Ryan, Aliyah and Xander. And we are still dying Easter eggs on the Saturday before Easter.

It is such a wonderful tradition that Anne and her family and Natalie and her family drive up from St. George so we can continue. My grandmother is now 99 years old, but she wouldn't miss a chance to see her family and dye Easter eggs!

Last time Grandma and I were together, I missed the picture opportunity. Not this time!

Xander has learned the game of hand stacking (I'm not sure if that is the right name, but it's where you alternate hands with another person and take turns pulling the hand on the bottom of the stack and placing it on top.) He liked it when Great-Great-Grandma played it with him.

Aliyah loves Great-Great-Gram. She was telling her all about her egg.

The kids did not want to stop dying the eggs for a picture! You can tell this is early in the process because Aliyah's and Xander's hands are still clean.

There are no pictures of Jace or Ryan this year. The reason is they decided to go see if they could round up some tickets to "Wicked" for Anne, Nat & Amy. They were both rewarded for their efforts. Jace and Anne scored tickets for the Saturday matinee while Ryan, Nat, and Amy scored tickets for the Friday evening show. All thought it was amazing!!

Xander started with a spoon, which was soon taken away because he caused too much of a splash for mom's liking.

Aliyah is pretty good with the wire dipper. She thought the egg-dying process was a great way to spend and afternoon.

All of "the kids" dying Easter eggs. I boiled 26 eggs. Natalie dyed 3 and the remainder were dyed by "the kids"--all 3 of them!

Aliyah thought the straightened wire egg dipper looked like the soap bubble blower. She was blowing through it and pretending there were bubbles.

She made sure Great-Great-Gram participated also. She also used it as a finder. She put it up to her eye and looked up, asking, "Where's Great-Great-Grandma?" She would then turn her back to us, turn around and look at Grandma and say, "There she is!"

The other part of the tradition is lunch. Grandma makes her famous potatoe salad and we have ham and potatoes. I really hope we can do it again next year with everyone.