What is Easter?

Easter is just around the corner and with kids in the house of course I am wondering how best to celebrate this holiday.

How do we include the fun of the eggs and all while focusing on the real reason we celebrate?

My friend Jessica has a fantastic blog with some ideas about how they will do this and her ideas helped me plunge ahead with some of the ideas I already had and make a plan for how to make this a very special week of celebration.

My four year old asks very serious, deep questions about many topics and I don't want to fill him with nonsense about bunnies and eggs. I want him to have truth, and thoughts to build his beliefs on.Today he kept asking me over and over,"What is Easter?"

In the meantime, what are you going to do to celebrate Easter? What are your traditions in your family and in your country?

Our Easter

We had a quiet Easter. 

My husband had 5 days off- NICE. 

Friday we baked a ton of crackers- I will share that recipe sometime. This was the unleavened bread for the Bible Study. I also made banana cream pie and coconut cream pie to share at our family gathering. We had lunch with a bunch of relatives. In the evening the kids and I attended the Bible study my husband led for the youth.

Saturday we colored eggs naturally- the popular way to do it here.We used curry powder to make yellow ones. You need to let the boiled eggs soak in the solution for several hours. We used beet juice with vinegar for the red ones and natural tea leaves (not sure which ones my husband used) for the green ones. Sorry- but I don't have a picture of the finished eggs. After we boiled them we drew designs on them with a candle- worked wonderfully since the eggs were hot.

I baked Latvian ham/bacon rolls-piragi. I will have to include that recipe on another day. But they were delicious and we ate far too many. With my "leftover" dough I made a delicious sweet bread braid- with lots of yummy toppings and fillings. 

Sunday the kids searched for their eggs so they could eat them for breakfast. They enjoyed egg wars with Teti (Daddy in Latvian). And then were so into peeling their eggs- my kids LOVE hard boiled eggs. 

Then the kids went with Teti to church. It is too hard for me to sit for those hours- so I stayed home. 

The afternoon was spent walking a bit and spending time with a friend visiting Latvia for the holidays. 

How did you spend your Easter?

Valentine's Birthday Party

So a while back I was chatting with our nanny and suggested we have a birthday party for her at my house. It had been a while since we had had a girl's night with the girl's from church- and I suggested something really girly.

She was immediately all for the idea and I was surprised to hear she had never had that sort of a party for herself- with just friends invited to celebrate her.Her birthday is exactly on V-day so I had tons of ideas and inspiration on how to decorate and make things special. 

We wanted to do a number of things: 

• spoil the girls with manicures, hair styling and make-up
• make them feel special with delicious food
• have a part where we talked about godly relationships
• have good food 
• send something home with them to help them remember the evening and  God's plan for godly relationships. 

I had the idea of making cookies on a stick and adding Bible verse. So I made these and I was very pleased with the results. Normally I don't like sugar cookies (because they are just too plain)- but frosted with white or dark chocolate they were delicious!

The cake I made for the birthday girl. Dark chocolate with layers of almond meringue and a rich dark chocolate frosting. 

 

Hair time.

For the snacks for more spoiling I make milk shakes that were pink and then a bit later we had chocolate fondue with fruits, pretzels and small sugar cookies. YUMMY! The girls loved this!

After we had eaten and they had been pampered we played "Things" for a while. Then we closed with my sharing how God taught me to be alone when I was in college and be content in HIM. 

The girls helped cleaned up afterwards and we finally locked the door at 11:00 PM. It was a long evening, but lovely. I was so pleased to be able to have a such a special party with the girls. 

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day? 

 

The Perfect Valentine

Whenever I hear about people sharing their most romantic Valentine's memories or experiences I always think my husband's tops them all. (I know I am a bit prejudice).

Our first Valentine's Day together- when we had been seeing each other for several months happened to be one very snowy day.

When my English lessons had finished for the evening he wanted to take me somewhere. He drove to the only local park and parked at the bottom of the big hill where there is a long stairway to reach the rest of the park. He then had me wait in the car for what seemed like a VERY long time- maybe it was- I think it was at least 45 minutes.

FINALLY he came and had me join him for a walk and WOW was it ever worth the wait.

He had run all over the park with its fresh blanket of snow and put candles everywhere. The paths were lighted with candles. . . just for me. It was the most romantic thing. I felt like I was walking in my very own fairytale or romantic movie.

When we reached the frozen pond he had written "I love you" you in the snow- this was the first time he "told" me he loved me and it was very special.

I will never forget that lovely evening and will always know he is a very romantic man despite what our sometimes overly busy lives allow.

This is now 6 year ago, before we were married and had 2 1/2 kids. But we still try to make time for each other. We celebrated V-day early this year because our nanny's birthday is that day and we didn't want to have her work on her birthday. We went out to a very nice Italian restaurant and my husband surprised me with a sweet card and a vintage style perfume bottle similar to this one. I have always thought it would be fun to have one.

What about you ? What are you doing to do this year to make Valentine's day special?