My Favorite Thing About Easter!

Easter has always been one of my most favorite holidays! After the hustle and bustle and family gatherings of Christmas, I love having another reason a few months later for the whole extended family to gather together. I love how Easter is like a calmer Christmas. Which, it should be, considering that Christmas is about Christ's birth and Easter is about his death and resurrection.

First, instead of presents you hunt Easter eggs and Easter baskets. As a kid, it was soooo much fun. And I find that as an adult, it is just as fun watching the kids hunt the eggs (and you can get your fill of candy while you prepare the baskets ;) ) Dying the eggs was always a lot of fun too. Deciding which patterns to make or what colors to layer on. I always loved to put one egg in the blue color and let it sit as long as I could to get really, really dark.  Of course, candy is a huge part of the hunt. You can't beat Cadbury Cream eggs and Reese's peanut butter eggs. Jelly beans are another favorite, and every year I buy as many different kinds of them as I can. I love how now there are so many different brands and flavors. Brach's will always be my favorite. (the red ones)

Then, after the hunt, you meet up with the family for the main meal. Easter is always ham and mashed potatoes. Always. It was the only time we ever had a big ham, and I loved it. Mashed potatoes have always been a favorite of mine as well. For dessert, my mom would usually make a 3-d lamb cake, complete with coconut wool and green coconut grass. The best part, though, was family. I love any excuse for us all to get together. We talk, laugh, swap stories and sometimes play board games. Even though I rarely spend it with my family, I still love gathering with Jeff's family. They don't have ham, though, but there is usually mashed potatoes.

In college, I started attending  sunrise services on Easter.  Kinda the opposite of the midnight Christmas Eve service.:D The bonding and celebration are things I will always cherish. We still go to church on Easter, but getting up before the sun doesn't really happen lol I do think that church is a very important part of the day, though.

Of course, sometimes Easter falls near my birthday, and THAT was always extra special!

This year, Easter will be my child's first holiday. We won't be able to spend it with the extended family (though we ARE going to have a scaled down Easter meal with my parents) or even go to church, but I think it will be special just the same. It will be a different version of Easter, but it will be OUR version of Easter. And there will still be mashed potatoes next year ;)



I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hop blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.” (make sure you link to http://hopthemovie.socialmoms.com/about)