Easter Week - Holy Week

To me Easter Week-Holy Week has always been my favorite holiday week of the year. You're not rushing around like Christmas. When we were kids you got a new "Easter Outfit" for church on Easter Sunday. We had to dye Easter Eggs early in the week so the food coloring would be gone from our hands before Sunday. You got the week off from school. There were always lots of Easter Egg Hunts to decide which to go to, who was coming to yours. They couldn't all be on Sunday.

Mom and Mammaw would be deciding what to have for Easter Dinner and how many people would be there. It really didn't matter, there was enough food to feed an army. Who ever heard of only one meat for a holiday dinner. What if someone didn't like ham. you better have a platter of fried chicken and a beef roast also, and you know how your Dad loves pork chops. I can hear them now.

When it came to food, more was always better. Who knew how many desserts you would end up with. It seemed everyone who came thought they should bring a dessert. We had pies, cobblers, usually peach or blackberry, always a Carrot Cake and Jam Cake. Most importantly it was our first freezer of homemade ice cream after a long cold winter. I don't care how many ice cream makers they invent the flavor will never be like the old-fashioned hand churned. Ice cream has to set and ripen you know.

There were so many church services to attend starting with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and finally Easter Sunday. My favorite Easter Service has always been Sun Rise Services. When I lived in Florida our church had Sun Rise Services on the beach. There is nothing more beautiful.

The big event when we were little was "What would the Easter Bunny bring". There was always three Easter baskets left outside the "Back Porch" door for my brother and sister and I. These were homemade, because the store bought ones didn't have enough stuff in them. They had lots of chocolate candy, jelly beans and something wrapped in gold foil that I didn't like so I traded them for something else. Of course there was a little stuffed bunny. All of this sat in a basket with that green grass stuff and covered with cellophane with a bow at the top. I think we got Easter baskets until we graduated from high school.

So this week we will be planning Easter Dinner and a little more spiritually tossed in to help us remember the reason for the season.