Easter in Vienna, from Emily's Travel Diary

Remember when we tried the kids out in the cold? We did go to Vienna, for five days over the Easter holidays. Here is Emily's report of the trip.

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An Easter Dilemma

When we were young, Easter was a very important religious event. We attended a mass which lasted almost all night long and ended with a great feast in the early hours of Easter Sunday itself. I'm sure it still is important to practising Catholics, be it in the way we celebrated it or a more mainstream way. For me, once my family moved on from celebrating it the way we did when I was young, it all pretty much lost all meaning. Easter was Easter night, it was fun to be up so late and we participated in the mass, it was exciting. I am no longer practising but somehow, possibly because it once was such an important time of year, I cannot bring myself to celebrate Easter in any real way any longer. For it to become simply a day when it's okay to eat lots of chocolate seems horribly fickle.

And yet I'd like to instil some sort of acknowledgement of the holiday in Emily, and in us as a family. I want us to look forward to Easter almost as much as we'd look forward to Christmas. I'm just not quite sure how to go about it. Perhaps turn it into a Spring celebration. We might make Easter trees and decorate eggs and do crafts and have outdoor tea parties. And we all know how much I adore Spring. It would be quite fitting really.

Emily's too young at the moment, there didn't even seem any reason to give her any chocolate today, which is why I'm sitting here this year really thinking about it, because next year I'd like to begin whatever "Easter tradition" we decide to go with. I'd like to be able to think of Easter and have a smile come to my face once again, decorate the house, really enjoy the holiday.

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Finger Painted Easter Cards

I decided a while ago that I wanted to send Emily's Grandparents personalised Easter cards. I searched high and low for ideas (ok, not really, I searched Pinterest) and finally settled on something simple. I mean, let's face it - she's 14 months old, and while I haven't discarded the possibility of her being the next Picasso, I'm not putting my hopes up.

So finger painting it was. Now bear in mind, she'd never encountered paint before. A voice in my head told me I may be being overly optimistic but I was determined to try. I took her out into the garden on a beautiful day, armed with paper, watercolours, a long-sleeved bib, a packet of handwipes and some snacks.





I didn't dilute the paint to keep the colour bright.



The artist contemplates her art and munches on some snacks.

I explained what we were going to do and asked her which colour she wanted to use first. She poked the red. Red it is, then. We used all four colours (the blue somewhat reluctantly) and made some beautiful 14-month old art.



She quickly lost interest (she wanted to eat the paint and when I didn't let her, that was pretty much it) but I had enough for all the egg cut-outs we needed.

The artist seemed very proud of herself...





The paintings were proudly displayed on the fridge to dry.

Later that night, I set to work. I'd dropped by the craft shop the day before and picked up some scrapbooking stickers along with blank cards, and along with a silver pen I'd entirely forgotten I had, I had all the tools I needed for the project.

Many failed egg-shape attempts later, I found a good one online and literally traced it off the screen. I then traced it onto the best bits of finger painting.

Then came the tough part. I had to cut out the eggs. These were my daughter's first ever works of art we're talking about. Cutting into that paper felt like cutting into my heart just a teeny bit (Note to grandparents: you're not to EVER throw these out!!)



As simplistic as they may seem, I was quite pleased with these cards. Here is the finished product!



And the back:


Happy Easter!

Wordless Wednesday: The Easter Bunny