Of Easter Delights

Easter this year was delightful. We started it off last Saturday by coloring eggs (thanks again to Kayla for heading that up) followed by a wonderful potluck and Easter egg hunt at Ben and Kayla's new house with some other family friends. As an aside, I also got to meet B. and K.'s neighbor, who filled us in on all the local neighborhood gossip. He assured Ben that he was well educated and therefore an accommodating and communicative neighbor. (He is one of two or three people in the country to have a graduate degree in casino gaming.) He seemed like a right decent chap. He also informed us that he grows his own pot--purely for medicinal purposes of course--some occasional neurological issues, I believe he said. He should be a fun fellow to get to know!

 

Back to Easter. Friday for our school snack, the kids and I made the little pastry balls pictured below. A sweet neighbor friend gave me the idea. The crust is actually refrigerated crescent roll dough with a large marshmallow wrapped up inside and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on the top. As it is cooking, the marshmallow completely melts, leaving the inside of the pastry hollow. Can you see where this is going? Yeah, the crust represents the tomb, the cinnamon represents the spices and ointments used to annoint Christ's body after he died, and the disintigrated marshmallow represents, of course, the ressurected Lord--no longer in the tomb. Anyway, it was a quick, easy, and yummy activity--just the kind we like here at our house! This same dear neighbor (who is also LDS) also gave us some little Christ/tomb cutouts, where the kids could color the stuff, and then cut out a rock, put a brad in it and affix it to the tomb, and then roll the rock back and forth. (Did that make any sense at all?) We had them color that on Sunday while Curtis read the resurrection story from the Bible.

 

And finally, my favorite part of the secular aspect of Easter--hiding the baskets! Not to brag, but my skills in hiding Easter baskets are unparalleled--ask any of my relatives who have been to my house over Easter! I will admit, it helps that our Easter baskets are rather small--we have a tradition in our family that we make little "nests" out of rice crispie treats, complete with green tinted coconut "grass." (I also like them because they don't fit a lot of candy inside! Don't tell my kids! Or husband!)

 

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention my fruit bouquet. In my attempt to create more healthy traditions for the holidays, I thought it would be clever to make one of these cool edible bouquets one sees advertised around holidays. How hard could it be, anyway? Just a few pieces of fruit on skewers. Well, let me tell you, this is one tradition that will not be repeated. Not if I want to survive with my hands intact. As it was, I got punctured by those darn skewers multiple times. So did Toshi, who was assisting me. I can see why the companies that make these things charge $80 a pop! It is hard trying to stick all those sticks into floral foam without the fruit slipping down and the stick...well...sticking you in the hand!

On the bright side, Toshi and I's efforts were duly appreciated, which I am grateful for.