Happy Easter

Wow. What a fantastic weekend.

The weather was gorgeous - mid-70s, sunny, warm, blue skies, breezes and a few puffy clouds here and there.

I was busy from Friday through the moment I sat down to do this post. I'm sure you were all just as busy. Why do we go so crazy trying to make these holidays picture perfect and moments to remember, ALL DAY LONG?

Honestly, I have to learn how to relax a little bit.
On Saturday, I made sissy's carrot cake. My girl got a bit messy. She was covered in carrots. I cleaned her up a bit so I could take her picture. She's quite a hard worker and grated those 4 cups of carrots like a pro.

The Man just keeps quiet and walks around with his marching orders on weekends like this, ie. when we host a holiday. My teens haven't figured out how to do this yet. They seem to think I want their opinion on matters of decorating and cooking when it comes to holiday celebrations.

Silly teens.

The Man just mumbles things like, "Keep quiet and stay out of her way," or "I wouldn't say that if I were you."

But you know what? It all pulls together. Especially when you've got the best sissies in the world. They help a lot. They bring lots of good food and fun. Like the pepper jelly in the picture below. Other sissy brought that (plus a key lime pie) and she's giving me the recipe.

If she remembers. I hope she reads this and remembers to send it to me.
We went to sissy's house on Saturday night to celebrate her birthday. I made her cook.

Okay, that made me sound really bad.

She invited us over, first, and I said, "Why don't we have your birthday cake since our other sissy will be here?"

Since we're all about cake, she thought that sounded like a great idea. To reward her for cooking dinner for the eleven of us, I bought her a fabulous cake from an Italian bakery that I had to drive a half hour to get to. I brought other sissy with me and we had a snack while we were there. Shhh. Don't tell sissy.
We went downstairs and spun some vinyl after we had cake. That was way fun. I haven't listened to an album in years, people, and it was a blast looking through my BIL's collection and pulling out favorites.
My pick? Bennie and Jets by Elton John. LOVE that song!

The girlies played outside and graciously stopped to pose for a few pictures.

After a full evening at sissy's, we headed home. Sissy still had to make whoopie pies and an icebox cake and get a salad ready for Easter. And we still had things to do. Like make a ruffleliere. And arrange some roses in milk bottles.

And don't forget the sangria. That has to get made the day ahead.
This is the best sangria ever. And I'll share the recipe with you.

Sue's Sangria

Make one day ahead:

750 ml. of Pinot Grigio (2 bottles)
3/4 cup peach schnappes (1.5 cups)
6 Tbs. frozen lemonade (whole can)
1/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup)

Mix ingredients together and add fresh fruit. I use peaches, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and pears. The numbers in parentheses are to double the recipe. Trust me - double the recipe.

And I don't always use all the fruits. This time I only used strawberries, raspberries and peaches.
We got up at o'dark thirty to go to sunrise service and it was a beautiful sunrise. After that, we went back to the church for a huge breakfast and got to sit and chat for a bit before we all rushed home to get ready for the regular Easter service.

I had time to give everyone their marching orders and we got the tables set up, napkins folded and beribboned, fabric banner and ruffleliere hung up, flowers arranged, and ham prepared before we had to leave for church.

Whew. I'm tired just writing all the things we did.
The final touches happened when we got home from church. Tables set, eggs stuffed for the egg hunt and food put on platters.
Company arrived and a good time was had by all. Eventually.

After we had sangria and some pepper jelly.
Good night, Irene.