A Happy Easter

Late Saturday afternoon we arrived home from our one week trip to San Diego for Spring Break.  That gave us about four hours to prepare for Easter Sunday!  Luckily I prepped with Easter Basket shopping last week before we left town, so I had plenty of approved, all natural candy treats for the kids baskets, purchased from Whole Foods and Target.  (And incidentally, why did it take them 30+ years to realize they should make Lego sets for girls?!?)

The first order of business was to color eggs.  I tried baking the eggs this year instead of boiling, and it worked almost flawlessly.  I placed 24 eggs in the cups of a mini-muffin pan, and baked them at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.  A couple of them cracked, but the rest were perfect!  I let them cool and they were ready to color.

Last year I searched and found an Easter Egg dye kit at Whole Foods.  This year I forgot to buy one ahead of time, so instead of dying the eggs, the kids and I colored them using all natural crayons.  It worked much better than I expected and the eggs looked great.  Even better, there was no dye stains on the peeled eggs which has always driven me crazy in the past.

This morning I tried a new treat and made cinnamon rolls completely from scratch.  I used Ree Drummond's recipe which you can find here.  These rolls were absolutely delicious.  I did make a vanilla icing instead of the maple coffee icing in the recipe (because I was unable to quickly find an all natural maple extract at my regular grocery store).  My brother Leo joined us for breakfast, which was a special treat for us (and for him - they were REALLY GOOD cinnamon rolls!).

These are the rolls before rising and baking.

And these are the rolls after baking and adding yummy icing. 

In the afternoon we headed over to my in-laws' home, joined also by my mom, for an Easter dinner of ham, baked beans, macaroni salad, crispy cabbage salad, asparagus and homemade rolls.  The best part - it was all homemade but I didn't have to make any of it!  We followed dinner with an Easter egg hunt and a homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (which I did make).

Every Easter for the past few years, Darrin and I have hosted brunch for my family.  This year my parents are on their boating trip and my little sister and her fiance are living in San Diego.  Holidays are a great time to realize how much you miss people, and this morning felt strange without them.  While coloring eggs, Ben got very melancholy when he realized my parents wouldn't be here for their tradition of driving the kids around to search for the Easter Bunny (while we were back at home hiding the eggs).  But both kids were able to talk to their Nonno and Grandma this morning which made the kids (and my parents) feel a little better.

It was a very busy day, especially coming off our trip to San Diego, but I loved every minute of visiting with our family in town.  This holiday is about so much more than a bunny, some eggs or a basket of goodies.  I am grateful for the real reasons for this holiday, and for the family we have to share it with, even if some of us are hundreds of miles apart.

Happy Easter everyone!