Traditions

We have a variety of family traditions centered around Easter. We color eggs, of course, which is always fun. Our dying session was on Friday and things were so mellow that I didn’t even think to take any pictures. We do our egg hunt on Saturday, so yesterday we hid the eggs, let Malia find them and then ate egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs for lunch. That has also become a tradition since our kids are old enough now that they will all eat egg salad…Matthew excluded of course. While he is eating waffles with eggs every week with no reactions, he’s not quite ready for whole eggs. But he does enjoy helping peel the eggs. I’m not sure why, but that means fewer for me to peel so I can’t complain.

Today’s Easter baskets held a chocolate bunny for each kiddo and our traditional gift that reminds them of the Savior. This year Kev and I created some picture boards with clips that will allow the kids to swap pictures out their wallet size pictures of Christ whenever they desire. We’re thinking forward to the near future when both Daniel and Nathan will be living in places with limited space like dorm rooms and missionary apartments. We wanted something compact enough to travel with them wherever they go. One of our neighbors runs his own carpentry business and was happy to help us create some amazing looking boards. They look about a million times better than they would have if I had painted them.

Dinner this evening held more traditions. No matter what I suggest for Easter dinner, my family always wants ham and cheesy hash brown potatoes. In the name of simplifying, I did get them to forgo the rolls this year, but that was their only concession. Pretty much the only menu item I’m allowed to switch up is the veggies. But that’s ok. It is a delicious dinner that we don’t eat all that often. And if I want to try out other holiday related foods, I just do it in the week preceding the actual holiday. Kev’s parents usually join us for dinner on Easter but with COVID still rearing its head, we packed dinner up for them so they could enjoy it at home.

Our traditional Easter dessert is hot cross buns. This is a once a year treat and last summer’s binge watching of the Great British Baking Show gave me a couple of tips that made this year’s buns both look and taste just a little bit more amazing. I’m actually tempted to make them more than once a year. Or maybe I need to use those handy tips to expand into some other types of sweet rolls. Of course, if I do that too often, I might start to expand literally…

But back to the point. I love my family traditions. And I find I’m even more jealous of them than usual knowing that in the next year another of my children will be leaving home. It’s a strange thing to be contemplating the fact that in the fall only 50% of my children will still be living at home. So I cling to our traditions and I find that my family does as well. In coming years, I know some traditions may need to be modified, some new ones may be established, and some may no longer fit our needs. But for now, we cling to our traditions and treasure our time together. After more than a year spent in closer proximity to each other for longer periods of time than usual, we all still value our time together and in fact, I think we love it all the more.

 

Ears First

Pancakes are an extraordinarily versatile canvas and as such, they have become a staple in my fun food arsenal. Plus, I love pancakes so it’s a win/win situation. This year’s Easter version was just as fun to create as it was to eat. I was never one to eat the ears of my chocolate bunnies first, but with bacon on the menu, the ears were the first to go. Yum!

 

The Best Smell in the World

A month or so ago, Rachael’s daughter Kate, who is Malia’s age, made bread almost entirely on her own. Rachael shared a picture of Kate and her amazing loaf with all of us. Malia thought that was pretty neat stuff and not wanting to be outdone, decided she had better get her act together and learn to make bread. We set aside this morning as bread day and with only some guidance and instruction from me, Malia crafted some delicious loaves of her very own. I have a Bosch so she didn’t learn to knead it by hand, but that’s the next step.

Malia’s interest in helping in the kitchen has waned quite a bit over the past few years and I’ve actually missed having some helpers. Knowing Kate is becoming a cooking whiz has rekindled Malia’s interest and I love it. Not only do I love having her help, but I love knowing that she wants to learn to be a proficient cook. That is something I’ve worked to teach all my kids and I’m glad she is once again a willing participant in Mom hosted cooking lessons.

The house smelled amazing all day and the boys were terribly happy to sample Malia’s success. To be honest, I was terribly happy to be a taste tester as well. Warm bread is the ultimate comfort food and always brings to mind feelings of safety and security, thoughts of home.

 

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

None of the big holidays would seem complete around here without some fun food. With Easter on the horizon, our family home evening treat was destined to be Easter themed. The kids are on spring break this week, so they were on hand to help create this evening’s delectable dessert. Malia was the only one who helped me shape the cookies, but Matthew hopped on over to help when it was time to decorate. The cookies were very easy to create. The hard part was making everyone wait to sample them. They turned out super cute and just as tasty. Hooray for fun food!

 

It Looks as Good as it Tastes

Of late I’ve discovered that I really enjoy having something decorative on our dining room table. We’ve done a lot of flowers which has been great except for the times when I pick something up and then have allergy issues from the flowers. Sneezing and having itchy eyes kind of takes the enjoyment out of the blooms. With that in mind, I decided we needed something fun for the Easter season and hit Pinterest, of course, to find some cute ideas. Once I had a plan, Malia became my cohort in crafting. We shopped the dollar store, the craft store and the grocery store to find just the right elements and then she helped me create a masterpiece. Malia and I are both pleased with the results of our afternoon’s work. Now the kitchen smells like marshmallows and chocolate. It’s a pretty appetizing alternative to flowers. And although the Peeps are going to get hard pretty darn quickly, my family is looking forward to eating the Cadbury chocolate eggs after Easter has passed.😉

 

A Hunting We Will Go

With a recent announcement from our stake leadership, weekly youth meetings have finally resumed. One of the very first activities the young women planned was a COVID safe Easter egg hunt for all the primary age children. We have not been given permission to hold primary meetings of any kind as of yet, so the young women went to every house that has primary aged children and did a small egg hunt for each family. What an amazing service for the little ones who have had no primary of any kind for over a year. Malia was so thrilled. My mama heart is full of gratitude. These girls and their leaders are amazing. 

Dulce de Lightful

With my current food trend focusing on cheesecake, I was unable to resist a cookbook called “The Cheesecake Bible.” This tome contains three hundred ways to make my mouth happy. After poring over its pages, I selected my first experiment. My latest delightful cream cheese creation was a luscious dulce de leche cheesecake. I could eat this stuff all day. It’s probably a good thing I’m required to share with my live-in taste testers. 😉 

Let the Band Play!

Tonight was an exciting evening. After a year of cancellations and disappointments, Matthew finally got to participate in a band concert. Due to the C-word, this was only his second concert ever. He was in beginning band last year and beginning band is not ready for a concert in October, so his first concert was in December. His next concert was scheduled for last March. In fact, it was scheduled for the week that things shut down. It went from being a normal performance to a streamed performance to being completely cancelled in just a couple of days and was one of his first COVID related disappointments. After a year of no performances and streamed concerts during the normal band class period, it was amazing to be back at a concert. No matter how good the recording or the stream, it can never come close to imitating live music. There were COVID precautions in place, of course, including each band having their own performance time rather than having one big concert, required masks and social distancing, but despite all that, it was glorious. Matthew is in the intermediate band and enjoys that, but he loves the jazz band. His joy in the music and the opportunity to perform were evident in his face. It was so fun to see his face light up with excitement.

This is a baby step toward normalcy. Sometimes it feels like things are never going to be the same again and in reality they may never be exactly the same, but every time we regain a bit of our lives, it feels like a win. I had not realized just how much I had missed the live performances and being able to support my kids as they get back some of these events brings me joy.