Easter in Uppsala. Ingrid and my mum bonded over cooking, of which we did a lot. And we painted plenty of eggs.

We did end up painting some eggs after all.

The problem I have with traditions is that after a while it feels like I’ve already done it all. Eggs with stripes, eggs with dots, eggs with curlicues, eggs with large swirls of colour, eggs with designs of spring flowers and chickens… Done them all so many times that it feels boring to do them again.

This year instead of Easter eggs I made a Valentine’s egg, a Halloween egg, a Christmas egg and a New Year’s egg.

“Tasteful and stylish” is not the aim when putting together an Easter witch outfit.

We painted pretty eggs. They were so pretty that even Adrian, who doesn’t normally eat eggs, ate one.

If it was just about the painting, we could have done many more, but I feel we should paint only as many as we can eat. Which is not a lot. Boiled eggs are a good breakfast food, but not hard-boiled ones. That is not the most delicious way of preparing eggs. Hard-boiled eggs are OK when still newly cooked and warm, but after a day or two… not so much.

After Christmas, Easter, a disco, some birthday parties, and other already-forgotten events, Ingrid’s stash of candy is overflowing. Whenever she sets out to eat one, she pours them all out on the table and then picks among them to find one she wants.

Enough is enough! Now she has them all sorted into little boxes, by type: chocolatey candy, marshmallowy candy, sour candy, and I forgot whatever else.

Easter means decorating eggs, and onion skin eggs are an absolute must according to my mum.

This year we learned two new tricks. One: wetting the onion skins before putting them around the eggs makes them a lot easier to handle. Two: aluminium foil can be used for wrapping the onion-skin-wrapped eggs even though it is not permeable, and is a lot more flexible than paper.

Påskgubbe and påskkärringar, about to fly off to Blåkulla.

We painted Easter eggs, like we usually do.

Two little Easter witches went out with Easter cards they had made and came home with heaps of candy.

Påskkäringar & påskgubbar (Easter witches). And one Easter bunny.