Dyeing Easter eggs

 One of the things about Easter when I was growing up that I love to think about is dyeing Easter eggs.  It was something I looked forward to every year. It was always so exciting when I knew that Mom had bought home a Paas Easter Egg Coloring packet.  We would set aside a night to dye our eggs.  The pack had somewhere around 8 different colors in it.  They were tablets that we would put into separate bowls and add hot water and vinegar.  Watching the tablets dissolve was always so much fun because the tablets were not too revealing as to their true colors but once they dissolved, a rainbow of bright colors would evolve.

Lowering the hard-boiled eggs into the bowls and watching the dye take over and do its job.  How vibrant the egg would be depended on how long you left it in the dye. Once you were satisfied, then the egg had to be placed on a towel to dry. It always felt like it took forever for them to dry.  We always wanted to hide them immediately but no, we had to wait.  That felt like agony LOL But once they would dry, they would get hidden around the house and then Bill and I would search all over for them.  One year, Mom hid one in her hand.  We could not find that one, the last Easter egg, to save our lives.  But when she revealed that she had it in her palm I guess the egg had not dried as much as she thought because her hand was bright blue.  I remember it was a Wednesday night, and she then had to go to choir practice with a blue hand!

It was always a time of fun during the Easter season.  Our dyeing was basic. In those days there were not swirls or tie dyes or decals for the eggs.  If you wanted something two toned, you had to hold half of the egg in the dye with half of it out for what seemed like hours.  Then you had to put the hold the bare half down in another color.  It almost never worked well but it was fun to try.  Still, it was always fun.  And anytime I smell vinegar, it does not matter if I'm cooking with it or cleaning something with it, I always think of dyeing eggs.  It's one of those Easter memories that I cherish.