A Magical Easter Weekend

How do you celebrate Easter? Thousands and thousands of families with children will include some of the traditional holiday activities. This includes spending time coloring Easter eggs, preparing special treats, writing letters to The Easter Bunny and of course playing Easter games and having a fabulous dinner.

Many people will begin Easter Sunday at church, but long before that time they will enjoy discovering what The Easter Bunny brought them the night before. This is especially true for kids.

I have found that if I want a holiday to turn out great I need to plan for it. So I am sharing with you my plans for Easter weekend 2011. 

One of my first concerns is what I will serve for Easter Sunday dinner. The traditional dishes I serve include baked ham, potato salad, candied yams, garden fresh green beans, and deviled eggs. But of course, I have a tendency to get carried away when I am preparing holiday meals.

One of my favorite dishes is peas with cheese. I prefer frozen peas. With that in mind a friend shared one of her recipes with me and I plan to try it out on Easter. You begin with 2 of the larger packages of frozen peas. 

You cook the peas according to directions. In the meantime you crumble up a cup ½ of your favorite snack crackers. This can be any kind at all, from the typical Ritz style crackers to wheat and herb flavors. Add 2 – 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the crumbs and then mix in 2 – 3 melted tablespoons of butter.

After placing your prepared peas into a serving dish you simply use the crumbs to ‘frame’ the peas. This will be a quick and easy dish and I think it sounds delicious.

One other dish that will be on my menu is glazed carrots. 

I use the ‘baby carrots’ for this. Once they are cooked tender I drain off the liquid and I add my special glaze. To make it I simply mix 1 frozen orange juice concentrate (thawed), about ½ cup brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons butter in a skillet and heat until hot. Then I pour the mixture over the carrots and mix. This is a family favorite.

When it comes to desserts my rule is I have to have at least 3. I still haven’t decided what they will be.

One of my other priorities is to ensure that my craft box is well stocked. I know the younger kids will spend time writing letters to The Easter Bunny and creating holiday craft projects.

I also try to ensure that The Easter Bunny makes a stop at my house. That means I have to have whatever I need to create a beautiful Easter basket filled with lots of goodies. I generally use an oversized basket because I only prepare one and it is shared by everyone that visits my home during Easter.

Besides adding a few special decorative touches to my home and ensuring that everything is in order, that’s about all the preparation I do for Easter. My goal is to make sure that my friends and family visit, that they have a good time and have plenty to eat, and that even while focusing on Easter Bunny letters we keep in mind what the holiday is really about.

Coloring Easter Eggs Together Can Create Cherished Memories And Stronger Family Bonds

The day before Easter my kids and I dye our Easter eggs. We dye several dozen eggs to be used in our egg hunt on Easter Sunday. I put the eggs in a big bowl in the center of our picnic table outside. Dying the eggs outside makes cleaning up any spills much easier. Each of the kids has six cups with the all the colors of the rainbow to choose from. I also give each one of them a rubber band, a small sponge and white crayon to decorate their eggs.

They all take their places at the table and choose an egg. Trenton drops an egg into each of his cups. He runs off to play while he waits on his eggs to change color. Jackie and Doyle wrap rubber bands around their eggs to make swirl patterns. A warm breeze is blowing making this a perfect day to be outside. The sky is a brilliant shade of blue with white marshmallow clouds in the sky. While the kids work on their eggs they talk about writing letters to The Easter Bunny.

Sally and Melanie draw designs on their eggs with the crayons Trenton stops by the table every few minutes to check on his eggs. He likes his eggs to be bright and vibrant. When each of the kids finish with an egg they place it in one of the drying trays. Sally says we should include a picture of all our Easter eggs in with our Easter Bunny letters. The truth is, the brightly colored eggs would make a pretty Easter picture.

The girls sometimes take some of their eggs and draw stems with leaves on them with the white crayon. Next they put the eggs into the dye. When the eggs were the color they wanted they set them aside to dry. When the eggs had dried completely they took the sponge and made little flowers atop of the stem. Jackie said that she wanted to email a letter to The Easter Bunny and add a picture of the eggs.

I dyed a special egg for each of kids to put in their baskets. The kids were allowed to keep half a dozen eggs in their basket. The rest of the eggs were to hide for the big Easter egg hunt the next day. Sally chose all blue eggs to put in her basket around a letter to The Easter Bunny she had written. The girls pick some of the hyacinths that grow along our fence to put in the house. We all like to add a touch of the outdoors with beautiful flowers. I guess spring is my favorite season – I just love all the flowers and newness and I think that is rubbing off on my kids!

When the eggs are all done we look at the master pieces the kids have made. I take a lot of pictures that day. It turned out to be a perfect day. I’ve learned that any day can be made into a special and meaningful day if I let it be. All it takes is a little creativity and effort. I love spending time with my kids. It’s fun to watch them grow and learn and I think these family times help them see that life’s most precious gifts really don’t have a lot to do with money at all. Instead, it’s about sharing good times with the people you love. I hope that we will be blessed with many more Easters as happy as this one.