Monday, April 18, 2022

Easter


Since we retired, Tim and I don't use our alarm clocks. I'm always up by 8. We were going to church for William's big moment. He was acolyting for the first time. Church starts at 10:30. Much to my horror I overslept, waking up at nine. 

After church, it was home to collect a broccoli salad, a tossed salad and a chocolate cake. We headed straight out to my sister's house for the family celebration. This year was about 35. My sister makes the hams and a pot of potatoes. Everyone else brings a dish to pass and it is a feast. 

I hid the eggs for 'the littles', the youngest of the kids at my sister's family celebration. The eggs are hidden along a little trail that goes through their property. It actually used to be the old highway, before the new highway was built. Now 40 years later, it has grown over and become a path through the trees. 

So I hid the eggs along a stretch of that path and after dinner, I led them out to where they were hidden. The oldest, Greyson, was running along the path to tell me something. His eggs bounced out of his bucket every step of the way. Behind him came Eli (or Levi...they are twins and I cannot tell them apart) in his little boots chanting, "Got! Got! Got! Got!" as he picked up them up as quickly as they bounced out. Never fear though, there were plenty of eggs for everyone. 

My sister led the older kids on their hunt on another side of the property. 

Later, the kids opened their eggs on the front porch and blew bubbles from the wands that were my contribution to their celebration. Eli and Levi were too small to be in the middle of that chaos, so I sat inside, blowing bubbles in the air as they smiled and pointed and said, "Got! Got! Got!" together as they popped the bubbles coming down around them. 

Someone else's contribution to children's fun were little crafts. My great nephew selected a small wooden catapult.  My nephew looked in horror at the box and said, "Nope! I HATE those kits. They never go together right!" He bailed. His wife and I assembled it, as Nik separated the pieces. Bill was correct. It was poorly designed and the pieces didn't fit right. Bill wandered back to laugh at us as we fumbled through the assembly and commented, "This is why there is a gender pay gap!" (Funny man. They who won't do, critique!)  But, with a few modifications, Angela and I finally assembled a working catapult and there was unbridled joy when a cherry tomato nailed the target right between the eyes,

It was a nice time with family, a celebration at a time when those celebrations (and family) seem more important than ever, and I was grateful for every minute of it.

I can't sleep tonight. I meant to do the second post on Chester, but discovered that I need to recharge a battery to do the picture transfer. It will have to wait. 

The house smells nice. The ham bones (my sister made two hams) simmer in a crock pot with celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. Quite a few Easters ago, my sister was going to throw the hambones out. I was shocked and said so out loud. This is how it came to be that the hambone (or the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving) is automatically set aside for me. 

Tomorrow, I'll remove the hambones from the crock pot, mince the meat that has cooked off the bone, and add the beans soaking over night on the stove. We'll have bean soup for supper which is perfect. We will spend the day doing drywall work, so it will be an easy supper. 

It is also supposed to snow tomorrow and Tuesday. They are calling for four to six inches, and so a hot bowl of soup will hit the spot.

13 comments:

  1. Oh what a wonderful day.
    Snow though??? Our Spring is finally here with weak but warm-ish sunshine.

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  2. You and your sister made great Easter egg collecting memories for the children. Enjoy your soup.

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  3. Sue does, or used to do, the turkey stew thing, but we’ve never been ham people. I do sometimes buy a very small one for the occasional sandwich, but that is not the same thing.

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  4. I always get the ham bone also, and the turkey frame on Thanksgiving. Turkey Frame soup is the best thing about the turkey! One year I had about four people save their turkey frame for me. I froze each one and used them all, one at a time.

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  5. Man I wish I was closer so I could get a bowl of that bean soup!

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  6. A great family gathering by the sound of it. I laughed at the cherry tomato hitting the target.

    I think even devoid of any meat ham bones will flavour if boiled.

    Is snow and drywall work compatible? I don't really know what drywall work is.

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  7. Drywall work is indoor work, Andrew. Sheets of drywall are 'hung' on the wall, and screwed on. They will be taped and mudded and sanded down and mudded again, and sanded smooth again, until they are pleasing to my supervisor (Tim). At that point, they can be primed and painted. At that point, 'drywall' turns into just plain old 'wall'. We got the ceiling done over the weekend. One thing about drywall? I have had fun before in my life, but I can tell you that it never happened while I was holding my end of a sheet of drywall. 'Nuff said.

    Ed, if you lived closer to us, you'd surely be invited for soup. We'd also let you help with the drywall. We're nothing if not generous!

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  8. Sounds like a fun day! I had the dinner at my house and my sister brought some of the food. I made the ham so I got the ham bone! I have put it in the freezer for now and will use it to make split pea soup soon...
    We had a bit of snow last night - just a dusting on the grass, melting on the streets and sidewalks. My daffodils are hanging their heads - but still blooming!

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  9. what a great family day and tradition. Keep it up.

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  10. It sounds like a wonderful day. I'm glad to know that we're not the only ones still getting snow.

    My mum always made green pea soup with the ham bones.

    I made a meal and took it down to my mother in law and we visited my father in law in the hospital. It was a good day.

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  11. Egg hunting takes me back to the days of my children's young days. I don't know anyone who does it now (or if I do I'm completely unaware of it).

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  12. Really, Graham? They are very popular here. The city puts one on, several kid oriented groups do them, the fire departments...

    It has not started snowing yet, but man, the wind is something fierce. The gusts are so strong you can scarcely walk.

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  13. That's quite a celebration. I barely even noticed it was Easter! Bravo for getting that catapult to work!

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