Rolling Easter Eggs Anyone?

When Todd and I got married, and Easter-time came, there was a lot of excitement among his family memebers over the coloring of Easter eggs. Yes, this is something that I have always done growing up. We would color the eggs, leave them out for the Easter bunny to come hide them, and then scurry around the house the next morning, making sure to find every last one -- or else weeks later, we may regret being unable to find that one last egg when the entire house is filled with a putrid, sulfur-like stench. This did happen on many occasions, by the way.

The fate was not to be the same for the eggs that were so delicately colored and decorated in Todd's family. I was baffled when that first year, I overheard his mom and sisters planning a time to "roll" the eggs--hence, the excited flurry they were in. The tradition has been in their family for generations and is as follows: After the eggs had been decorated, the family would take them to a very large, long, very steep hill and proceed to roll them down. I'd thought they'd all lost their marbles until I went to my first egg-rolling event. There is something rather enjoyable in watching the eggs gain speed, bouncing as they hit rocks or dirt mounds and in seeing how far they will actually go. We have contests. Races to see which one will go fastest, farthest and which one will remain uncracked for multiple rolls. I'm proud to say that last year my egg arose triumphant above the rest -- rolling, unbroken, for an enitre 8 rounds! This is something my kids look forward to every year and it is well-worth the $2.50 spent for 2 dozen eggs. I admit, though, that if I had spent a particularly long time on decorating an egg and thought it was darn pretty, I wouldn't roll it. I still have some in my fridge, saved for. . . . well, I don't really know.

Over the years, I think others have picked up on this nifty tradition of ours because there always seems to be a growing number of people doing the same thing. The seagulls, too, have figured out the time of year to swarm Murray park in hopes of feasting on hard-boiled, colored eggs. This year, however, one seagull got too close for comfort. We had just hiked the hill after a successful roll and Todd noticed a nice doo-doo on my poor baby Colby's head! Pictures may be coming of this---Eeewww!

So, horray for traditions! This one's a keeper.