Paasdag, Tweeste Paasdag, and Springing Forward

Over the weekend, we celebrated Pasen (Easter) and simultaneously griped at the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

Many of the Easter traditions we know in the States are also part of the Dutch traditions for Pasen. On Saturday, Little Man very excitedly colored eieren (eggs) for eating later. While buying an egg dye packet, I made the realization that Paas, a company name seen all over egg dying kits in the States, is potentially a Dutch company (Paas is singular for Easter, Pasen is plural - there's a plural because many Europeans celebrate Easter Monday/Second Easter Day, or Tweeste Paasdag). I didn't have Paas brand coloring, but I thought it was an interesting connection to make.

Anywho, with a small group of eggs, Little Man was quite happy to do some coloring. He's not really at the developmental stage for understanding how/having the patience to do two-tone or multi-colored eggs, but the fact that he has the attention span to let an egg sit in the dye long enough to take the color is a huge difference over last year.

Little Man and the Easter eggs

On Sunday, we got up early - though this is mostly due to the fact that Daylight Savings Time happened over night. Once everyone was awake and dressed, we had our now-traditional cinnamon rolls (or cinnamon narwhals as Little Man calls them) for breakfast. I started making them Saturday night, and since the Little Man was in bed, Zappa helped - thankfully, not so much that we could still eat the cinnamon rolls. I've now made these delicious pastries 3 years in a row now, so I'm officially calling it an Easter morning tradition, though we won't limit the possibility to just Easter morning.

"Help with the butter? Sure!"

After breakfast we made our way via bus/train/bus to Eindhoven, the next big city to the east for Easter morning service at the Anglican church in the area. We decided to do an English-speaking service to feel familiar with what was going on. After the service we headed back home for Little Man's nap and get ready for Easter dinner.

While Little Man was napping, the Paashaas (Easter Bunny) left some goodies in his basket and hid some eggs. A friend also arrived during naptime, and from talking with Little Man it's unclear whether he thinks our friend is the Paashaas or just a delivery assistant to the Paashaas.

On Tweeste Paasdag, we stayed home and relaxed. Most stores and other places are closed or have shortened opening times. The university was closed for Goede Vrijdag (Good Friday) and Tweeste Paasdag, so Mark was able to relax at home with us, which was especially nice since we were adjusting to the time change and we have a lot of things coming up shortly - but more to come on that.