I know, it sounds like a made up holiday, doesn't it? But there really truly is a thing called Easter Monday here in Switzerland. I have no idea why, other than that they wanted an extra long weekend in between Christmas and summer. They also have "green Thursday" which is the day before Good Friday. Like I said, they take their long weekends seriously here. It is also the weekend when 2/3 of the ENTIRE German speaking Swiss population heads down to Italy. The traffic jams are legendary, yet still, every year, there they all are, waiting in a 15 Kilometer long line to get through the Gotthard Tunnel and on down to Italy. (shakes head in wonderment)
The point of all that is to explain why I don't feel guilty that I am just now posting about our Easter celebrations. You see, it still is Easter, according to my Swiss calendar. heehee
Since I was gone all Friday at the Easter Camp, (see previous post) the egg dyeing got postponed until Saturday morning. But of course, I didn't have any actual dye, nor did I feel like running to the store and getting some. So we painted and stamped our eggs with watercolors and Mommy's inks and rubber stamps. Didn't compare to the fun they had last year dyeing eggs with Grandma (that got brought up numerous times), but at least it got done.
We let them dry during lunch, and then Chris and I hid them and the plastic eggs I had filled with candy all over the downstairs. We usually go to one of the local parks and hide them there, but seeing as how there was a good 3 inches of snow on the ground, we thought it best to stay indoors.
The kids had a blast running around the house looking for the eggs. Some of them were in what we thought were quite obvious places, but the kids walked right past many of them. When it was obvious the big kids had way more eggs than Noah, we had them take a break and let Noah look on his own for a bit. This picture was taken during that time. How many eggs do you see? He saw none at first, but eventually found two of them. :)
Hint, there are two blue ones, and one light purple one.
Sarah found the very last egg, which was lying in plain sight on the floor, and all the kids had walked past it at least a dozen times. Chris kept telling them, "There's one more. Just look. It's on the floor." Took a good 5 minutes for her to spot it. Too funny.
Sarah and Sophie had the sweet idea to leave carrots out for the Easter Bunny, because, in Sarah's words "Maybe he will have to rush out to deliver the candy and won't have time for dinner and he will be so hungry when he gets to our house." So they each set out a plate with two carrots sticks on it, and guess what? He ate them!
After a nutritious and oh so delicious breakfast of chocolate bunny it was off to church. My four children and three others were all that showed up for Primary. Many were at the Easter camp, but a lot were off on vacation as well. Good thing, too, because Sarah had a talk that I totally forgot about. So we just said a few sentences about how she misses Jesus and always wishes He would come again soon and sat down. That way there was more time for them to decorate their paper Easter baskets and fill them with grass and candy. I know they mean it in the best way, but come on! A little spirituality on Easter Sunday of all days, isn't gonna kill the kids. But that' s just how things are done here now. 🙁
We invited the Missionaries over for lunch, but the buses weren't running as regularly due to it being a holiday. Poor Elders were stuck at the train station for 30 minutes, in the cold, waiting for a bus to our house. They didn't have our phone number to call and ask for a ride, but they do now! The kids love when they come over, especially Elder Harrison. He is so cute with the kids, being the second eldest to a family of 7 himself. He even got them to all eat their peas by making a race out of it. Nick even ate the ones that had barbecue sauce on them! The man is a genius, I tell you. We concluded the Easter festivities by watching "The Testaments". I had made really cute egg-shaped cakes for dessert, but after all the candy of the morning, and Jello at lunch, no one was interested in them, so we saved them for today.
It snowed constantly the entire afternoon and evening, so we just stayed at home and relaxed in the warmth. I had a little discussion with Noah about how Grandma was worried because he wasn't eating any fruits and vegetables. His brain and body need them to grow properly and keep developing as they should. He said, "I told my brain we have to eat fruit. But not today." This evening we had Kaiserschmarren and applesauce, and I gave him a small bowl of it to eat. He really wasn't happy a
bout it and said "I will pay you sixty dollars to not eat fruit!" He definitely knows how to tickle my funny bone.
That is too cute! I would totally take the 60 bucks. Sounds like you all had a great Easter. I wish we had an Easter Monday.