Easter: A Photo Diary

Abigail (in blue), Suzanna (under the covers), and Hillary (on top of me) came in to wake me up. They were oh-so-sweet, but they had an ulterior motive: they wanted to search for their Easter baskets (hidden by the Easter bunny), and Mommy had said they had to wait until I was awake.

It didn't take long for them to find their baskets, each of which was stuffed with two pairs of flip-flops, nail polish, a Webkinz stuffed animal, gum, a mini-gumball machine, and Hawaiian Punch flavor packets for water bottles. The Easter bunny also brought three other items for our daughters to share: a nail art kit, a box of sidewalk chalk, and a new game for their Wii: Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3. Determining names for the new Webkinz animals was an important part of our morning, and the new Wii game was an important part of their afternoon!

We found one of our bowls stuffed to overflowing with candy. And the Easter bunny must read my blog to know that we needed (translation: I wanted) an immersion blender!

We went to church this morning dressed in our new Easter outfits. No, your color monitor didn't suddenly turn to black-and-white--those are the actual colors of our clothes. When we were shopping for Easter dresses for the girls, the prettiest, best-fitting, and most age-appropriate (i.e., non-slutty-looking) ones that we found were in black and white, so Susan and I went with that theme, too. (Thank you, tripod and timer function on camera, for making these family portraits possible.)

Aren't they cute?! (And look: no more snow in our front yard!)

And aren't we cute?!

After church, we ate brunch in the fellowship hall. It was served by teenagers at our church who are raising money for a mission trip that they're going on this summer, and it was tasty: pancakes and syrup, sausage links, scrambled eggs and cheese, fried potatoes, Butter Braid pastries, fruit juice, and coffee. It tided us all over until our Easter supper around 5:00 P.M. Susan set an Eastery-looking table and prepared a number of super-delicious foods. Read on!

We drank strawberry bellinis: fresh strawberries puréed and combined with either club soda (for each daughter) or spumante (for each adult).

For appetizers, we ate more fylte egg from last night (Abigail and I made enough for both meals) as well as this salad: mixed greens and herbs, grape tomatoes, red onion, and cucumber in a red wine vinaigrette, topped with sunflower seeds toasted on the stove, and garnished with a Parmigiano crisp baked from grated fresh cheese.

Susan made buttermilk biscuits for our bread.

This! Was! The! Best! Ham! Ever! It was a bone-in ham, so right from the start it had that automatic tastiness going for it. But Susan coated it in toasted spices (fennel seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, chili powder, thyme, salt, and cinnamon), drizzled it with honey, and basted it as it baked on a bed of celery stalks. I am so looking forward to ham sandwiches this week and ham-and-split-pea soup Thursday evening.

Susan drizzled fresh asparagus in olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, roasted it, and topped it with freshly grated Parmigiano cheese.

Susan made red, white, and blue mashed potatoes: smashed potatoes and garlic with crispy bacon, butter, heavy cream, ground pepper, and bleu cheese. Awesome!

(Yep, that's a Jell-O gelatin egg near the glass of spumante. It brought balance to an otherwise potentially too-classy meal.)

We were too full for dessert right after supper, so we cleaned up the kitchen and helped my sister Sandy (who lives several states away) get her Web camera and microphone set up for Internet telephone conversations via Skype. Once it was working, we got to see her, see her cats, and see her rushing out of camera range to chase after her cats. Finally we were ready to enjoy a sweet treat. Susan baked a lemon/sour cream pound cake and topped each slice with homemade lemon curd and homemade whipped cream that she had folded together. She topped each serving with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. It was heavenly!

Here's hoping that your Easter was as wonderful as ours was!