Friday 10 April 2009

We have a family tradition ...

… egg rolling.

Every Easter.

Up until five years ago I hadn’t met another family that did it. We take it seriously, very seriously indeed.

… we have a trophy.

For those of you who are not with it (ahem) … we paint hard boiled eggs, find a hill and roll our eggs down it. The egg that gets the most points over three rolls is the winner. The owner of said winning egg receives the trophy, which is proudly displayed until the next ‘egg roll’.

In t'olden days, when I was a child it was simple. Paint egg, find hill, roll egg, slap winner on back, well done.

Now the rules are a little lax.

I follow the old style method of ‘place and release’. Placing my egg on the line and releasing it.

I have never won the trophy.

Other family members, I shall name no names, favour the ‘egg toss’. The wrongdoer appear to be applying the ‘place and release’ method but at the last minute tosses their egg to gain speed and distance. This causes much bickering amongst the family and the word ‘cheat’ is bandied about. We have over ten family participants and it can get a little heated.

When the winner has been presented with the trophy we have lots of leftover eggs. One year, pre small children, we decided to have an egg pelting session which ended abruptly when a Grandparent received a black eye.

Since then we have taken a cricket bat and taken it in turns to bash the eggs (away from other people).

This week I received an email from my sister. I realised the excitement was brewing when she asked for verification of the rules.

She wanted to know if she could use more than one egg?
No, you may not. If you want to show off your artisitic abilities then we shall admire your extra eggs and say 'oooh', but they will not be submitted. One egg is sufficient.

Could we make the rules on trophy winning clear?
Yes. The winner wins the trophy.

Anything else?
Yes, we are going old school. We are using the ‘place and release’ method. Anyone found to be using the ‘egg toss’ will have points deducted from the total and people will point and mock.

After 30 years I might stand a chance of winning the trophy.

I keep finding the husband staring off into space and I think he must be thinking about work. Then I realise, he is a graphic designer, he is already designing his egg in his head.

Like I said, we take it seriously.

13 comments:

Working Mum said...

Love the Mike Egg!! When I was little I made a Kermit the Frog egg with cardboard legs and arms. Not so good for rolling though!

Enjoy the egg rolling and good luck!

Mum Gone Mad said...

Egg-cellent! (sorry!) what a great tradition, just wondering how messy does it get? Or do those works of art make it to the bottom of the hill? Have a great easter luv Karen x

nixdminx said...

I prefer egging. That's taking potshots at people and places you don't like anymore. I got chucked out of brownies for doing it. I haven't done it for years, but this year I'm tempted to, if only the price of eggs was not so high. Am I the only one that puts a hole in the egg and takes out the yolk and the white with a straw before painting??? I hope you win the trophy...

b said...

Reading your posts bring back happy distant memories of when we did this when the kids were younger, now they are not interested! By the way,I have just awarded you an award on my site, check it out here http://familylife-brenda.blogspot.com
Hope you have a great easter.

Stephanie said...

I will admit I have never heard of such a thing. Sounds like a fab tradition!

Noble Savage said...

What a fun tradition! And that Monsters, Inc. egg is fantastic, well done.

Tim Atkinson said...

You'd better get training for London 2012...

KindaSassy said...

You take cricket bats to the eggs? Not fans of egg salad I gather?

BookChook said...

It sure beats eating too much chocolate (groan).

Why not introduce a new challenge? Chuck the raw egg off the roof and see whose doesn't smash. Parachutes allowed.

Unknown said...

Wow, you guys really do take this seriously! Sounds like tons of fun.

Jane
P.S. Thanks for joining my blog.

Mum's the word said...

Fab tradition and fun too (when everyone plays by the rules).
Growing up we used to dip the eggs in food dye and decorate them. It was all very subtle in design.
Good luck, hope you win!

AGuidingLife said...

Any update on the winner this year? was there any 'fowl' play?

Auntie K said...

The Trophy has made it home to one very happy daughter who let out a wee tear of delight. BEst egg roll yet!