Disappointing Dye

I absolutely LOVE dying Easter eggs. As a kid, my Mom decided one year that eggs were cheap and it was something we all liked, so she started buying a dozen eggs for each of us. How cool is my mom? We loved it. And probably because of her attitude, I have so many happy memories wrapped around this tradition. Like the time when my oldest sister Leah, in High School, announced that she was too old to dye eggs any more. We accepted this. It wasn't a very big deal. So then when Leah's friends came over and saw the rest of us dying eggs, they all got excited because their parents wouldn't let them dye eggs any more (what kind of parents are these?) and asked if they could join in on the fun. We were actually a bit annoyed, because that meant less eggs for us, but it was worth it to watch Leah eat her words as she and her friends joined us!

When I was a grad student I decided to throw my own Easter egg dying party, and my Mom once again came to the rescue by offering to pay for the candy I wanted to buy for it. (Thanks, Mom!) So I invited a bunch of friends over, and we had a nice time. But the highlight of the party was afterwards, when Craig was leaving. No one else was ready to go yet, but Craig and I were going on my ward's temple trip to Manti the next morning, so he wanted to get to bed. Rather than kiss him good-night in front of everyone, we opted to sit in his car and chat for a few minutes before he took off. We'd been dating for about four months by then, and as we sat talking away, Craig suddenly got quiet. I finally asked him what was on his mind, and he turned it around and asked me what I was thinking about. Being way too up-front, I told him I was just wondering where our relationship was going, to which he responded, "Yeah... It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

Then he paused (probably gathered his courage a bit) and said, "So I'm thinking, maybe get engaged next month and then get married this summer?"

It was one of the happiest nights of my life.

And since then, dying Easter eggs has taken on a whole 'nother joyous aspect.

I did have Easter egg parties the next couple years, but then when I should have had the 4th one it was so soon after Kendra was born that I just couldn't pull my act together in time, and this last year seemed too soon after having Kendra's Birthday party (go figure), so it just hasn't happened. But I'm determined to do one next year! Consider yourself warned!

Anyway, we did, of course, dye eggs as a family. Unfortunately, they were all out of the Paas brand at Target. The only egg dye kits they had left were either the weird ones (who really wants to bother with marble and tie-dye?) and then some other brand called Dudley's. Well, the Dudley one had nine colors, which is my only real requirement, so I went ahead and bought it. Bad idea. I should have looked more closely at the kit.

Let me just ask you: who really wants to dye their eggs brown??? And even if you did want to, you could just dip the egg in all the other colors! You don't need a cup of brown dye! And then there were colors listed on the box that weren't even there-- no purple, and if there was both a red and a strawberry, then I certainly couldn't tell them apart! But there were two greens, which was not mentioned. (Was one of the greens meant to be something else?) And some of the colors were just plain wussy. I like my colors to be as vibrant as possible-- my favorite thing is to leave an egg in each dye for as long as possible so they get as much as they can out of it. They're so pretty that way! But that wasn't going to be worth it with this dye.

Anyway, I was disappointed. But the kids didn't really know or care, so I guess it doesn't matter. Next year I'm getting the good stuff. For my totally awesome party, which you can consider yourself invited to. Till then!