Family Updates

Happy Belated Easter

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We definitely did! The first week of April we got a small bunch of daffodils and pussy willow branches. We decorated the branches with the Easter ornaments I’ve collected over the years. I remember the Easter trees from Germany when I was little and have made one for us since Eric and I got married, but traditions like this one have so much more meaning now that we have Johann and he is old enough to understand and participate.

When Johann is older I will teach him how to make pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs). Our current circumstances have made me appreciate even more what my greatgrandparents and their families went through to establish themselves in this country when they immigrated here. They survived the joblessness and poverty with less than we have and rose above it. I wasn’t always given a positive picture of them as a child, but as an adult, I am proud to be one of their descendants. Our unique mix of Ukrainian and German traditions combined with the ones we’ve created ourselves will be one way we will give Johann a sense of who he is and where we come from. I want him to be able to honor and celebrate that.

The last few days before Easter Johann and I made a construction paper egg garland for the dining room and a white bunny door decoration. Johann made sure the rabbit had a white cotton ball belly button. Saturday morning we made sugar cookie dough. That evening we dyed Easter eggs. Johann helped Eric cook dinner while I prepared Johann’s Easter basket and hid it. Easter Sunday we baked rabbit, duck, lamb, egg and carrot cookies with pastel shades of sanding sugar, after hunting for plastic Easter eggs, playing with spring stickers and eating rabbit and duck pancakes.

On Monday we went to the craft store to get the supplies we needed to make the wooden egg farm project featured in Nick Jr. magazine. Johann added a horse, and later a cat and a dog, to the list. Over the course of the following week or so we made Old MacDonald, Mrs. MacDonald, the horse, the cow, the hen, the rabbit, the sheep, the pig and the chick. The basket is painted to look like a barn. We have to go back to get more wooden eggs for the cat and dog. The hen in this project was intended to be a rooster by the craft project designer at Nick Jr., but he made one fatal error.

Johann asked me what it was and I told him it was a rooster. He said, “No it’s not. It’s a hen.” I repeated what the magazine said. He asked me and that was what was written on the page. He insisted it could only be a hen. When I asked him why, he said the comb was too small to be a rooster, so it had to be a hen. I told him I saw his point, but they intended for it to be a rooster. Johann’s reply? “It’s a hen, Mommy.” At that point I let it go. Eric was surprised, because usually it’s him in that situation, not me. The thing was it wasn’t important what it was and Johann was right. The comb was too small to be a rooster. The folks at Nick Jr. didn’t take into account that a 3 year old would notice this oversight. So yet another lesson in unlearning the restrictions placed upon us in school to follow the directions and rules without any deviation, creativity or critical thinking!

Eric has posted more pictures from our Easter week in the Gallery, be sure to visit…