Sunday, April 5, 2015

Easter Traditions

Easter is my favorite holiday.  Now Jack might say that Halloween is my favorite or he might say, " What about Christmas?"  Well, I do enjoy all holidays because it gathers friends, family, food, fun and traditions. Everyone has their way of enjoying and honoring the reasons for the seasons.  Growing up, Easter was always centered around Church and family.   We do the same here.  Twice a year our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) has General Conference.  It's held in Salt Lake City and the two day conference is broadcast over the Internet or by satellite for us to watch. That means no traditional church on that weekend.  I'm not always crazy about it when it lands on Easter weekend.  I enjoy dressing up for the day and seeing all the kiddos in their new Easter duds!  But the messages that are given are always good and inspirational...plus the music is wonderful from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Today we had a smaller gathering than usual.  Our oldest son and his family came home from vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama just in time to enjoy the day with us.  Unfortunately, the Grandkiddos spent the day with their Mom and her family since we had them last year...divorce makes holidays harder.  But we had beautiful weather...sunny and 60de! It made the traditional egg hunt after our Easter feast a lot of fun.  We only had 2 littles that hunted for eggs, but they enjoyed it!
Phil, Addy, and Lexi colored eggs last night.
Some had glitter...very pretty!
One of my traditions that I grew up with is baking a cake in the shape of a lamb. I have a cast iron lamb mold like my Mom's and it never fails to bake a delicious cake. It's a pound cake and I flavored it with lemon this year...good stuff!
Glitter chalk was in the Easter baskets and we had some very sparkly pics on the driveway! 
The hunt was on! Addy was eagerly searching with basket in hand.
You never know where an egg might be found! You have to look up...
And down!
So Spring has sprung and all over the house it's flowers:
And bunnies.
Some pulling eggs and even some musical ones...I'll spare you listening to that one!
We had fun with my son Jack and his girlfriend Evelyn and her daughter Megan. We Skyped with our son  Craig in Oregon, Portland.  Our son Jordan came over early in the day with Eddy but wasn't feeling good at all and didn't come back for Easter dinner...or maybe lunch since we ate around 1:30.  Craig and his family have their traditions and some are similar to his that he grew up with and I'm sure they do some that his wife, Amy grew up with.  It doesn't matter how you celebrate as long as we remember the real reason for today, and that has nothing to do with bunnies, eggs, candy or glitter chalk.  Because He Lives is a wonderful, short video that says it better than I can. If you have a moment, go and watch.  Happy Easter!

14 comments:

Shady Del Knight said...

Hi, dear YaYa, and happy Easter to you and your wonderful family! I'm very happy to learn that your iffy weather cooperated, allowing the grandkiddos to get out and enjoy the egg hunt. When I was little my father was president of the local chapter of the Lions Club. A few days before Easter the Lion members and their families gathered in the basement of a York restaurant and hard boiled and painted a couple hundred eggs. That event was followed by the annual egg hunt in a field adjacent to a park. Good times.

I'm sorry to read that Jordan and Eddy needed to leave early. I hope you sent them both home with doggie bags.

Once again, happy Easter to you, dear friend YaYa, and enjoy the coming week!

betty said...

Happy Easter! I loved reading about your celebrations with your family; seeing the lamb cake brought memories of our later growing up years; my sister and mom got into cake decorating and they would make a lamb cake every Easter, I'm sure from the same type of mold as yours :) Always great to celebrate and get together with family, especially this wonderful day of celebration with what Jesus did and who he is :)

betty

gin said...

I enjoyed the video. We had the lamb cake, also, growing up. I'm glad some of your boys and their family was there for the holiday with you! Hoping Jordan is feeling better soon. Blessings to you!

Rick Watson said...

That sounds like a delightful Easter Yaya. We love Gulf Shores too. We go there a couple times a year.
If he came home via Interstate 65, he came within a few miles of our house. We live about 50 north of Birmingham.
We had two egg hunters yesterday too, but it was fun watching them scurrying about.
R

Kim said...

That lamb cakes brings back memories. Someday I will find the picture. I think it was my 2nd birthday and my grandmother had a neighbor lady make me one that looked just like that. Of all my birthday cakes I think that was my favourite.

Willow said...

Aww Was so nice to pop in and see your Easter fun ~ always love that lamb cake ! Hope Eddy is doing well. Sorry for the absence my blog was compromised
with malware :( Pulled it private to see if someone more techie could figure it all out for me and have gotten nowhere with it , got discouraged :( Miss everyone figured I can at least pop in and say hello from time to time.
Glad you had a beautiful Easter ,
Hugs Willow

Christina said...

I love me some Easter, too! Because He Lives is an amazing, tear-jerker video. I actually love General Conference on Easter, but I think it's mainly because of the season in life I'm in and because of Casey's calling. We get to actually relax! :) Looks like you guys had a great time, even though the numbers were small. I think we're totally going to do glitter eggs next year!

B. WHITTINGTON said...

Easter is my fave holiday too. For me it signals new beginnings. Nature is waking up and the air is somehow fresher. I feel happier. That's probably the sun. Which we are now seeing here in Oh. Well not today as it's raining. But still. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm happy to be home and working on my novel. Have a great week.

Nonnie said...

It looks like you had a lovely day at your house and I love Easter, too. Because He Lives is one we sang yesterday, too. I love it! I have never seen a lamb cake before. I have a sweet little lamb I put out every year. I'm going to have to remember the cake and the glitter for next year.

Sad to say you are so very right about divorce.

acorn hollow said...

I always love to hear about your holidays and your Easter sounds lovely.
cathy

Stacy said...

Love that video, so powerful.

Kay G. said...

Lovely, JOY-FILLED post which is just right for this joyful holiday!
I love your Lamb mold for a lamb cake, someone at my church has one and makes a cake like yours, it is so beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the pictures...they're lovely...and sharing what you did with family on Easter.

Easter was fun when I was a child; I have wonderful memories of both the Easter Bunny and dressing special for church. Mama always made me and my sister new dresses.

I think General Conference back then was rarely on Easter Sunday. Now, at my age, I don't care about the dressing up part. I just like staying in with my daughter and watching/listening to the sermons through the amazing technological devices we have today at our disposal.

MunirGhiasuddin said...

Love these wholesome family Easter traditions and the way you blog about it. God Bless you all.