Easter Traditions


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Go to church. It is just me and the Hubby - We pay more attention to the Sacrament talks, and lessons. 

 

Probably our discussion at home while we eat brunch will be more about Christ, his atonement and resurrection. We normally discuss, re-hash and finish Sunday lesson's during brunch anyway. 

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I'll go to church. My ward has an annual Easter music thing in the evening, which I usually attend.

 

And, I don't care how old he is, I make my boy a 'basket' (usually grass in a Tupperware container these days) and I make 'Easter bags' for the missionaries.  I just like to do it, and since there are no grandchildren to spoil, I might as well spoil the missionaries.

 

I grew up with ham at Easter, however, even though the son is an omnivore, neither of us eats pork, so no ham.  I have no idea what we'll eat.

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My family is multifaith... But the one thing we all have in common is that we use holidays as an excuse to go crazy.

Some Easter Fun:

- Painting Eggs

Some years we paint, some years we dye. Painting years are started weeks in advance. Dying usually happens in a mad frenzy the night before. I predict the second one this year. Since I\'ve done nothin but nothin to prep, and we\'re already a week away.

-It\\\'s a rule. When one finds an X on a map, one is compelled to follow that map to the X. No excuses. It must be done.

My chilluns are older now, so we\\\'ve replaced the traditional egg hunt with a scavenger/treasure hunt that\\\'s part riddle, part geocaching, part excuse to go running around crowing in triumph & generally being silly. (We all need more of that in our lives).

We used to have things like scriptures in the eggs (or a nail, etc.), in addition to treats... we now cheat outrageously and have an \\\"I dare you to relate this back to scripture!\\\" game with the prizes in the eggs. This game can sometimes get dangerous (but, hey, it proves they\\\'re reading & paying attention!). Prizes include things like ties, games, movies. We start with an empty basket & fill it up.

- Foooooooood Glorious Fooooooooooood.

LOL... I really do serve lamb.

Usually in the form of gyros.

We also do a bit of a Pessach &/or Naw Ruz tradition with new greens, an egg, etc.

- The annual \\\"This year we\\\'ll have city-chickens\\\" never happens crusade.

Self explanatory.

Some years we get really ambitious and add other baby animals to our list of nevah gonna appen

Q

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I'll go to church. My ward has an annual Easter music thing in the evening, which I usually attend.

 

And, I don't care how old he is, I make my boy a 'basket' (usually grass in a Tupperware container these days) and I make 'Easter bags' for the missionaries.  I just like to do it, and since there are no grandchildren to spoil, I might as well spoil the missionaries.

 

I grew up with ham at Easter, however, even though the son is an omnivore, neither of us eats pork, so no ham.  I have no idea what we'll eat.

My wife still gets me a Easter Basket. Nothing fancy...jelly beans and a few other things
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Now that I think about this, I am getting kinda sad. When I was growing up, we'd go to my great aunt's, who, with my grandmother, was a fantastic cook. There was all kinds of food, dyed Easter eggs (we used to give them as gifts to our relatives - do people do that anymore?), and the adults would all have a "taste" (some liquor). I guess people were more mindful of what they said in front of children back then. I certainly saw liquor bottles, but no one ever said 'Do you want some whiskey?' or whatever. They were asked if they wanted a 'taste.'

 

Interestingly, when that great aunt got Alzheimer's, it manifested itself by her getting up in the middle of the night and going into the kitchen to cook.

 

There were tons of dressed up kids and adults and we all had a great time. Many of those people are long gone now, which is sad. So me and the boy are reduced to scrounging in the fridge.

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This may seem blasphemous to some people but starting when my kids were young they not only got chocolate from the Easter Bunny but they also got a DVD. A few Easters ago, the DVD selection for my grown, agnostic children had a Zombie theme to them. My son being a non-religious almost anti-religious person found that to be the best Easter ever just for the fact that the Zombie theme seemed appropriate for Easter due to its "back from the dead" similarity. :)

 

M.

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This may seem blasphemous to some people but starting when my kids were young they not only got chocolate from the Easter Bunny but they also got a DVD. A few Easters ago, the DVD selection for my grown, agnostic children had a Zombie theme to them. My son being a non-religious almost anti-religious person found that to be the best Easter ever just for the fact that the Zombie theme seemed appropriate for Easter due to its "back from the dead" similarity. :)

 

M.

Well how can blasphemy exist to a non believer?

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As a child, Mom and Dad would hide our Easter Baskets in the house. If we found someone else's basket, we were not to tell them.

 

There would be colored eggs, a chocolate bunny, jelly bean eggs and those marshmallow cream eggs (ick- hated them!), and those kind like the peanut foam only shaped like eggs - didn't like them either. No one did, except Grandma. 

 

For breakfast we would have Norwegian sweet bread with the candied fruit (citron, cherries, currents) in it. Scrambled eggs, bacon (lots and lots of bacon), cantaloupe/honeydew/strawberry and juices. Grape, orange or grapefruit.

 

Only after I was 8 yrs. old, did we start going to the LDS Church in the morning. Sunday School started at 8 am. We would come home around 9:30, hunt for the baskets, then eat.

 

At 3:30 PM the Uncles, Aunts and cousins came over for Ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole, asparagus, Moms yeast bread dinner rolls (the size of mini-loaves). Lemon jello with shredded cabbage & carrots & raisins salad (served with a spoonful of Miracle Whip. All sorts of home made pickles: Bread & Butter, dill, sweet, crab apple, watermelon rind. Canned ripe and green olives. Celery & carrot sticks, radishes, green onions. 

 

Dessert would be Angel Food Cake with your choice of fresh strawberries, Mom's canned blackberry pie filling/ apple pie filling. 

 

After the relatives left at 6 PM, around 7pm we would make sandwiches out of the dinner rolls (sliced to make two mini-sandwiches, ham and pickles. 

 

Mom would make Dad his lunch to take to work later that night. Home made bread and ham sandwiches. She would put a variety of pickles in a cleaned cottage cheese container (this was before Rubbermaid and zip-lock bags). 

 

One Easter we had a Beef Roast instead of Ham. I love ham - that and corned beef are my all time favorite meats. But this roast we had, almost turned me away from ham and corned beef. It was huge too - Uncle Buddy brought over his fancy bar-b-que the night before and they put that roast in it to cook overnight. It was dark pink in the center when we ate. 

 

MMmmmmm - I normally wanted all of my meat cooked nearly to the cinder state - but that pinker center of the Roast is what was served to me, I ate it and thought I was in heaven!!! My Uncle Buddy and I sopped up the beef juice with dinner rolls too - something I had never done before. 

 

Oh, the number of people eating was: 7 adults, 3 teenagers, 10 children from 11 yrs old to infants. Mom and Grandma did all the cooking. The Uncles paid for the meat - but Mom cooked it. 

 

Oh, and that was the only holiday we wore Sunday Best clothes. Dresses for the women/girls, and slacks (pressed jeans) button up shirts for the men/boys. All the women wore aprons to protect their clothes. Grandma made new ones for Easter. 

 

After dinner, while the kids who could reach the table and sink put away the food and did up the dishes, the adults went outside to have their coffee, cigarettes and cigars (Daddy smoked a pipe).  Us kids (me and my siblings) were LDS, the rest of the family were *Heathens*, per Grandma. 

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This may seem blasphemous to some people but starting when my kids were young they not only got chocolate from the Easter Bunny but they also got a DVD. A few Easters ago, the DVD selection for my grown, agnostic children had a Zombie theme to them. My son being a non-religious almost anti-religious person found that to be the best Easter ever just for the fact that the Zombie theme seemed appropriate for Easter due to its "back from the dead" similarity. :)

 

M.

 

I actually find this approach admirable. You are finding ways to keep your children integrated in the family tradition, despite their ulterior perspectives. I’ve noticed many parents try to use force/discipline in response to deviation; it’s true, you can in fact beat a square peg into a round hole, but you destroy the peg in the process.

 

As for my Ishtar tradition, I mostly just visit my mom (which I try to do frequently on Sundays anyway). Although I put up a cynical front, I do secretly enjoy the fact that she still does the whole ‘easter basket’ thing.

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I didn't sleep very well the night before, so I was cranky and short tempered at Church. Had to go out to the car and pray for Father to keep His hand over my mouth and to banish the cranky's from me. 

 

By the time church was over - seemed like 6 hours and not three - guess it being 80 degree in the building on a 78 degree outside day was adding to my *mood* - I wasn't going to go home AND cook.

 

Hubby's birthday was the next day - so I just bypassed home and went to the next town north of us. There is a restaurant (Bar & Grill) called Szabo's. I knew that their regular menu which included Prime Rib on any day is a winner for us, and if they had an Easter special that just might work too. Their Easter special was: Your choice of any of the nightly specials at the nightly special price. Tuesday is 16 oz. Boneless Rib Eye Steak for $11.95. We got the Rib Eye. Husband kept calling it Prime Rib. What-ever. It was good. Even the fat was good. 

 

Yesterday for his birthday we drove down to Coos Bay. He just wanted to get out and drive, and at his old job one of his co-workers always sang the praises of Coos Bay Oregon. I drove, so he could sightsee. We stopped in Florence, OR and ate at the (ugh) Taco Bell. 

 

Then on to Coos Bay. 82.5 miles from home. There was next to no traffic until we hit Florence proper, then again not until we hit Reedsport and all of the little towns after that. 

 

It rained off and on. Some of it came down in sheets. West coast rain I can handle - easy to drive in. When we got to Coos Bay I asked him where to now? He didn't have a clue! So we just drove until I could turn around and then we headed home. 

 

We started out late really. Hit Florence at 2:45 PM. It was 6:45 pm when we got to Yachats, OR - I knew there would be nothing open closer to home, so we stopped at the Luna Sea Fish House there ( http://www.lunaseafishhouse.com/ )- back in 2010 Thanksgiving weekend, we were visiting Oregon and ate there. Good sea food! 

 

Husband had tired of his adventurous mood and ordered their 100% Organic Beef cheese burger & house fries, I got the Slumgullion. Never had that before - figured if I was experimenting with a new seafood dish the best place to do that was the restaurant owned by an ocean fisherman!

 

Good- good - good! Would have had the Chef's Seafood Platter (special for that day) - except it had crab, which I am allergic to. Didn't have my antihistamines with me - and knew I would never make it home before the worst of it hit me. 

 

Husband wants to go there again, in the afternoon and have some of their Alaskan Salmon that the owner caught this last season. They sell it for $22.90 a pound raw, Salmon (grilled or sauteed) and chips with their coleslaw is only $16.00. 

 

To think he had never eaten salmon before he married me. When the AZ grocery store was selling Atlantic Salmon for $4.99 a pound, I just couldn't pass that up. He has been in love with salmon since. 

 

The Easter Bunny knew if he/she left ANY sweets, it would end up getting caught and made into Wednesday night stew. 

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This past Easter was the wierdest Easter ever.

 

First, my husband's family couldn't make Easter Sunday work out because all of them are now in different Stakes (our Stake split into 3!) and everyone had different chuch schedules.  We did not want the late dinner because it is FCAT testing the next day for the kids and so they would have to be in bed really early...

 

So, we moved the event to Saturday... but then my family couldn't make it because it is Holy Saturday which, in Catholic Observance is reserved for meditation and fasting...

 

And then 3 sets of Missionaries were supposed to spend Easter with us bu they couldn't make it on Saturday because they had to prepare for the Easter Ward Activity and they couldn't do it on Sunday because of some other thing...

 

So, we ended up with 3 Easter Events at our house - Friday with the Missionaries, Saturday with my husband's Family, and Sunday with my Family!  It was awesome...

 

My youngest kid is already 10 years old so my husband made the tactical decision to do away with the Easter Bunny presents... my kids woke up Easter Sunday and wondered, "what happened to the Easter Bunny"?  And we said, you know there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny... and my kids said, "But it's just wierd not having something to look for on Easter morning, so can we just pretend there's an Easter Bunny?".   Hmmm... so we told them, we'll bring the Easter Bunny back next year...

 

Anyway, back to that Saturday, we were singing gospel karaoke and my mother-in-law loved a song I picked to sing.  She taught Relief Society on Easter Sunday and she asked me if she can have the lyrics of the song for her lesson... and I'm like, I'll do something better... I'll show up in your RS and sing it for you... So, I ended up spending Sacrament and Sunday School with my spouse and children and RS at my mother-in-law's ward which worked out perfectly with the different time schedules... She thought it was the greatest gift she's ever received at Easter EVER.  Yep, I'm her favorite daughter-in-law.  :-)

 

Anyway, I gave the FHE lesson that I posted on one of the threads on here (I can't remember the title, but it was something about helping somebody with their Easter Sunday talk) to my family on Easter and we watched the little video, The Mediator and it was super cool.

 

If you wanna hear that song I sang for my mother-in-law's RS lesson, I'll figure out how to post that video...

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We always have an Easter egg hunt. There is always one small egg that ends up in dog poo every year. Most years it just stays there and no one is gain enough to grab it. This year my youngest son decided his bag wasn't full enough and he would approach the traditional Dog Poo Egg. He carefully retrieved it from the poo, delicately unwrapped it and ate it.

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My youngest kid is already 10 years old so my husband made the tactical decision to do away with the Easter Bunny presents... my kids woke up Easter Sunday and wondered, "what happened to the Easter Bunny"?  And we said, you know there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny... and my kids said, "But it's just wierd not having something to look for on Easter morning, so can we just pretend there's an Easter Bunny?".   Hmmm... so we told them, we'll bring the Easter Bunny back next year...

I can't imagine stating that there is no Easter bunny; considering the Easter bunny is no nice and thoughtful by leaving goodies and anything else that kids (young or grown) will find wonderful. I'm hoping the Easter bunny will always come to my house, even when the kids are old and grey. ;)

 

M.

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I can't imagine stating that there is no Easter bunny; considering the Easter bunny is no nice and thoughtful by leaving goodies and anything else that kids (young or grown) will find wonderful. I'm hoping the Easter bunny will always come to my house, even when the kids are old and grey. ;)

 

M.

Amen to that
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