April 13, 2009

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell
We made it through another Easter. Ever since we built the house I always thought that we would have someone out for lunch after church. I think in the past 15 years we have had guests less than ten times. I must admit I am ashamed of myself. But this Easter we had a total of 10 people around our table. It was nice to have lunch and visit with friends and family. Easter has changed for us since we do not have any little ones at the house to color eggs then the Easter Bunny arrives and hides the eggs. Jennifer was the one who got the biggest ‘kick’ out of the finding the eggs and the few little gifts that were hidden. Jim helped the Easter Bunny hide the eggs and there were times that they hid the eggs too well and they were found later- or should I say the odor gave away the hidden egg. I would rather that the bunny would hide the plastic eggs than the real ones. It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that we needed to count how many eggs the bunny hid so we would know when all of the eggs were found.
When I was little and we would hunt the eggs- my favorite was the solid chocolate eggs. The brightly colored eggs that were large I did not like. I am not sure what they were- but they were prettier than they tasted-it was quite a treat to get candy when I was growing up.
When Jim and I started our own family we did not like the peeps (the colored marshmallow chicks). Since Chelsea has joined our family - she is the peep eater. Jim’s favorite is the chocolate marshmallow eggs and bunnies. Jeff was not a big candy eater- Jennifer liked most anything chocolate-
Easter is not what it used to be when I was a little girl. There was not one Easter hat in church Sunday. I can remember when I always got a new dress and white shoes and gloves for Easter. When Jennifer was little I sat up nights making her a new dress and then we made sure she had the bonnet-shoes and gloves to finish off her outfit. I can remember thinking how cute she looked all dressed up.
Some people have memories of eating a sunrise breakfast early in the morning. We never did the sunrise breakfast as a child. Since we lived out in the country and Dad was still feeding cattle we were doing well to make it to Sunday school and church on time. I never really got into the sunrise breakfast since we ate breakfast at sunrise most mornings anyway. We would have lunch with the grandparents, Aunt Theo and Uncle David at one of our homes. When Jim got in the family and we ate at Uncle David’s. Aunt Theo fixed a wonderful meal that usually consisted of at least two different meats. One meat was something we would consider common, such as ham, turkey, or chicken then she would fix something a little different like- lamb or duck. Jim said that Aunt Theo was an exotic cook. That really tickled Aunt Theo since she was a humble person and did not consider herself a skilled cook. Actually, she was a very good cook and we loved going to her home.
We are looking forward to next year as we will have a little grandbaby to share the holidays. Jim has already told me that he wants to continue his grandmother’s tradition of making sure the grandkids have plenty of candy for Easter. He can remember that his grandmother always sent them a goodie box each year. That was a special memory for him; so next year - look out Chelsea the Easter Bunny is a comin’.