I love being with family during holiday seasons and Easter is no exception. And, of course, most of my favorite activities happen around a table!
Ukrainian Easter Eggs
One of the Easter traditions we picked up over the years was making Ukrainian Easter eggs. Now, let’s be clear, what we do isn’t the official designs. None of us have the patience for that. We do simpler designs. Some of us start with an end design in mind and some of us create as we go. Either way, it’s fun to see a design take shape as the layers of dye and wax build up only to be revealed at the end when the wax is melted off. Here are a couple of our favorites.
Paska - a.k.a. Easter bread
Another part of any holiday is the food. For Easter we have a special bread called paska. It is a bread that is typically lemon flavored and served iced with sprinkles. Growing up, every family had their own version of this recipe that they swore was THE BEST. Recipes from both of my grandmothers have been passed down and sometimes, very carefully, modified. I now have a bread machine version which isn’t necessarily as good as my mom’s was but it’s a lot faster to make and gets pretty close. I have so many memories of enjoying a piece of paska while sitting around the table with family.
Family Time
And of course, the best part of holidays is that they give us an opportunity to be together with the people that mean the most to us. Life gets so busy that it can be hard to make time for spending time together in the midst of regular life. Holidays help us to plan ahead a bit and be intentional about being together. So just sitting down over a cup of coffee or a board game makes any holiday special.
