Easter Sunday

Similar to our Thanksgiving feast with friends, we also host an Easter dinner every year. Our first friend holiday was a few years ago on Easter, and all of us auditors (me and the guys) were stuck in town during busy season while everyone else left town to be with their families. So we all decided to have our own Easter feast together. And then our holidays-with-friends celebration began.

Unfortunately, on that first Easter Sunday feast, I had to work a 14 hour day. (No, that was not a typo.) They don't call it busy season for nothing. So the boys had Easter anyway, without me. (Yes, I missed an Easter feast at my own house.) And since it was all boys, they named the feast "Bro Easter". (No, they do not regularly use the word "bro". And yes, they still call it Bro Easter even though the girls in our group have attended every year since then.)

all the boys (not quite all of the original Bro Easter attendees)

Because I missed that first Easter feast, I have a new appreciation for the ability to celebrate this holiday. Though I miss being with my family, I also have a new appreciation for the ability to see our friends over the weekend and especially to celebrate holidays. And celebrate, we did.

As much as I enjoy decking the halls for Christmas, I really don't do any other seasonal decorations besides some kind of wreath on the front door. Of course, I like the idea of decorating for each season, but realistically it's just too much work for me. The most I branch out for seasonal decorations is at Easter when I bring out a welcome bunny that I got a few years ago. I got him last year, and thought he was cute enough for a dollar.

no I did not make this wreath... I believe it is Michaels post-Easter sale a la 2008

I also LOVE dying eggs. This is a girls-only activity since the guys are too cool for stuff like that (obviously did not occur during the inaugural Bro Easter). I kinda failed at it this year though. I had so many supplies last year that I didn't even think about it. We had plenty of eggs, and one dye pack, but I ran out of vineger so we had to use some kind of rice vinegar from the Asian market that didn't dry nearly as pretty as regular vinegar. I also didn't have the kits, so we had to use spoons to dip the eggs, cartons for them to dry, and the killer....no wax crayons to decorate. Thankfully Kim came to the rescue and had the great idea to use rubber bands. They worked pretty well and saved us from having all really plain, boring eggs. Note for next year, remember to get more kits!

a few of the finished products

meanwhile, the guys hung out on the couch :)

I also hid plastic eggs around the house for everyone else to compete in an egg hunt every year. Even though I can't participate, I find at least one plastic egg around the house every month after Easter... so far I've already found 3 this year!  I hid over a hundred so it's somewhat impossible to remember where they all are. It's always fun to find easter eggs in October, right?

prizes for the winners!

winners!!

We had plenty of candy for the non-winners too (and leftovers ever since...)

Reese's eggs and Cadbury Creme eggs - by far the two best Easter candies! my favorites.

We make everyone dress in their Easter best (even though we think they all secretly like to dress up anyway). And like Thanksgiving, everyone must contribute towards the potluck meal. We keep outdoing ourselves with every holiday, which has me excited for this year's Thanksgiving meal already! Too soon...?

pretty flowers from Chris and Shawn, thanks guys!

The guys always come up with some outrageous meat for us to eat. The highlights this year were a rack of lamb and a turducken stuffed with crawfish (who knew that even existed?). For anyone who hasn't had a turducken, it's a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken, and instead of regular stuffing like we've had before, they chose crawfish instead. Great choice, guys.

even more delicious than it was beautiful

The guys were also excited that the Master's was on Easter Sunday, so we spent the rest of the day glued to the TV (somewhat to my dismay as I do not enjoy golf). And since a few of them went to UGA they were especially excited when Bubba Watson won.  

Hope you all had a very Happy Easter!


 PS - A big thank you and shout-out to Shara for sending me pictures of the girls and our eggs! :)