Easter 2010

For the last 3 years, Matt and I have had the tradition of hosting the Easter holiday in our home. Each year we invite our families (and this year, friends) to join us. I always look forward to this holiday being "my" holiday, not my mom's or my grandma's holiday. I get to be in charge and make new traditions and continue them each year. I know the way we celebrate will change as the years pass, but hopefully we'll always continue the tradition of hosting this specific holiday.

Here's a recap of our weekend. A few years ago, my mom bought me some great Easter cookie cutters, and if you know me well, then you know I'm always looking for a good excuse to bake and decorate cookies. I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies on Thursday night, since they are Matt's favorite, and he has a way of subtly letting me know that he doesn't appreciate all the crazy cookie recipes I try and prefers I stick to his favorite. I also wanted to bake some sugar cookies with my Easter cookie cutters. Last year, I set out to create them all on my own. That left some bad memories in my mind of a frazzled Angela frantically throwing icing on miniature cookies fretting that company might arrive before the mess was cleaned up and the floor mopped. Because I didn't feel like repeating that experience, I called in reinforcements this year. My friends Erica and Andrea came over Friday morning to help me decorate them. It's so much more fun to decorate them with friends. Plus they took some home, so we didn't have leftover cookies for weeks after Easter. The time went by so much faster, and I enjoyed getting to spend time with friends while we decorated.

Ready to get started!

The finished products

The carrots were my favorite. I didn't think they would turn out well, so I only cut out 3 of them, but Andrea and Erica did a fantastic job decorating them. I take no credit for them. Next year, I'll definitely make more carrots.

My parents arrived at our house Friday afternoon. Matt only had to work a half day on Friday, so he was home too. We visited for a little while and then broke out Settlers. How come it seems that all we do anymore with company is play that game? After one game and a half, we headed to dinner at Olive Garden. Afterward, my mom and I and Erica had tickets to Rain, the Beatles Tribute at the PAC. It was part of our season ticket package. And well, let's just say that after the show we decided not to get season tickets for next year, but just buy tickets for the shows we want to see. Maybe that will let you know what we thought of it.

Saturday morning, my mom and I both had appointments to get our hair cut. We had a fun girls' outing, and Andrea did a great job on our hair. It was fun to see her new salon too. Meanwhile Matt and Barry spent some time at Lowe's and they installed a mount for a flag pole by our garage. We can finally display our OSU flag when football season comes around. When my mom and I got back, Matt's parents had arrived. That afternoon, I had some things in the kitchen to do to get ready for Sunday. My mom helped me and we made potato salad, deviled eggs, a lemon poppy seed cake for breakfast on Sunday, and a cake that was part of our dessert for Sunday. Afterward we finished our Settler's game and then went to dinner at Los Cabos. After dinner we came back and you guessed it, played more Settlers.

Sunday morning we headed to church and it was a beautiful Easter service. It never gets old to hear about the sacrifice Jesus made for us and hearing how he conquered death so that we can live. Each night leading up to Easter, I read the Easter story out of each of the gospels, and I could read it again and again. Our Lord is so good!

We took a few pictures before we headed to church on Sunday.
Rhapsody was so funny. She was in the other room playing with Missy, but once she figured out we were taking pictures, she ran over to us and stood at our feet. It was like she was saying. "Hey don't forget about me. I want to be in the picture" So we had to take another one with her in it.

After church, we finished a few preparations for Easter lunch. Barry cooked his famous ham, that was soooo good. We also had potato salad, deviled eggs, fruit salad, baked beans, green beans and bread. It was delicious. Our friends Jason and Andrea came to join us for lunch and it was nice to have a full table to celebrate with us.

Ready to Eat!

I made a strawberry trifle for dessert.

After lunch, we introduced our families to the game, catch phrase. We had bought it a couple of weeks ago to play when we had couples over to our house for our Dinner 6 group, because we thought it was a good ice breaker game, but we ended up not playing it then. It's an intense fast-paced fun game, and I think everyone enjoyed it. Afterward, Matt's parents headed home, and my parents and Jason and Andrea and Matt and I played another game of Settlers. Then my parents left, and Jason and Andrea stayed and played another game with us. We really like that game if you can't tell, and Jason and Andrea are officially converted since they now own their very own game :). They left around 5:30. We cleaned up a little, ran an errand and then came home and took Rhapsody for a walk since the weather was so beautiful.
I had such a great Easter weekend and made some precious memories. I can't wait for next year!