Crocheted Easter Peeps

The thing I love best about holidays is that I get to see them through my children’s eyes.  The glow of holidays long wore off as an adult, as they turned from magically anticipated days into delicately treading family dynamics and a heap of bills.  But since my children have gotten to the age where holidays are the greatest thing in the world, they’ve brought the memory of joy back.

Easter was one of the first holidays to lose its luster.  The chocolate and candy became dietary no-nos, the beautiful dresses and hats that my mother would dress us up in gave way to a more relaxed dress code, and after my grandmother passed away, all the traditional foods she would slave over to make from scratch were given up in favor of bakery-purchased goods and a handful of hard boiled eggs.

But we as a family have been slowly starting to long for and turn back to the olden days.  I have everything prepared to spend the day today simmering and stirring to make my grandmother’s Easter cheese from scratch, and have a lovely sundress waiting for me in the closet.  All of my close family is taking spontaneous steps all in the same direction, putting forth just a bit of extra effort, and it shows.  But it shows most of all because of my children.

They’ve inspired all of us to make the holidays just a little more special, to appreciate the changing of the seasons and to be joyful without abandon.  We’re going out of our way to make it as memorable for them as we remember in our own childhood.  It’s amazing what tiny little people can do for an extended family, isn’t it?

And so, in light of this, I whipped something up to be used as place settings at our dinner on Sunday.  These adorable little crocheted Easter Peeps took only a few hours to make up and will be around for years to come.  They’ve already been “hatched” out of plastic eggs, taken for a trip up into a treehouse, and visited Spider-Man.  And their adventures still haven’t ended.

The pattern is a free Ravelry download, found here, and here is my project page as well.

These little things, the little bits of extra effort that go into creating memories not just for children, but for us as adults too, are truly the things that make the days special.  I hope to keep making the holidays and seasons distinctly unique as the wheel keeps turning.