Easter Traditions

Easter is coming up here soon and so Damien and I have been talking about Easter traditions.

My family would always dye eggs the day before Easter for the "Easter bunny' to hide that night while we were asleep. The Easter bunny would also bring us each our own Easter basket which contained a chocolate bunny, a few Cadbury eggs (my favorite), Peeps, some malt-ball eggs and other small candies, and a little something we wanted like a CD or t-shirt.


A couple of of years we went to my grandparents' house in Bountiful for Easter. It seems like every time we went my grandma would be the one to hide the eggs. Whenever she would hide them, we would always end up not being able to find at least one egg because she had hid them so well. It must have been all of those years of practice. When we would ask here where else to look she wouldn't be able to remember where else she hid them. For the next day or so we would still be looking for that one egg we couldn't find the day before. I think we always found the missing eggs eventually.

In Damien's family, the girls would get Easter dresses and the boys would get new ties along with some of their favorite Easter candy. They would usually do an Easter egg hunt outside on Easter with the plastic eggs filled with candy and coins.


As many of you know, Damien's mom Rita lives in New Orleans. There is a candy company called Elmer Chocolate there that makes special Easter candy that is only sold down in that part of the country or online now. Each year a little before Easter she sends us a package of this amazing candy. I look forward to that package every year. Especially because she always puts some Cadbury eggs in with the other candy!


Damien and I have been wanting to start some Easter traditions of our own and are wondering what some of your favorite Easter traditions are.

What does your family do every year to celebrate Easter?

Our Calling

I have forgot to mention that our "new" calling (as of October or November of last year) is family history consultants. At first when we got our calling, Damien and I didn't know that much about doing genealogy work, but we have been learning.

I am so excited because I have been able to find information on 38 family members so far! It is so exciting to find out information about your family and where you came from. It is so interesting to me and I love doing the research. I feel like I am solving a mystery every time I am searching for a new person and their family.



One of the best sites I've found for finding historical records like Census records and immigration records is Ancestry.com. It is a paid site, but if you live close to BYU you can access Ancestry for free on-campus in the library. You can also search EllisIsland.org for free if your ancestors immigrated through New York.

Damien has also found some information on his family and I think he is enjoying a bit too!

New Goal

My new goal is to try at least one new recipe a week until the week we move. (No, we still don't know where we are moving. Hopefully we will know by the end of April.) I started last week by trying three new recipes from my first issue of Clean Eating magazine. My in-laws got me a subscription for Christmas. I really like the magazine. They have a lot of healthy recipes that make you feel good after you eat them and the taste delicious.

I tried Skillet Chicken with Mushrooms, Lemon-Grilled Chicken & Bulgar Salad, and New Potatoes with Parsley & Chives. All three were very delicious! Here is my version of the Steamed Potatoes recipe:


Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. small potatoes (I used small red potatoes and quartered them)
• 1 tbsp. fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped (I used fresh Italian parsley)
• 1 tsp. dried chives or you can use 3 fresh chives
  
• 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• salt
  
• ground black pepper (optional)
  

1. Fill a pot with 1 inch of water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Place quartered potatoes into the boiling water, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender. About 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Add parsley, chives, oil, salt and pepper to taste and toss gently. Serve hot.

**You can change the amount of parsley and chives to fit your taste. The amounts given in the recipe are approximate. Also, you could always try other spices if you don't have parsley or chives on hand.

Enjoy!

For access to Clean Eating recipes, click here.

Picture Update - Winter

Damien decided to change the light bulb like this.


We decorated our apartment for Christmas. This is our Christmas tree.



We visited Damien's family in Everson and my family in Spokane. My mom made dinner one night and this is what happened.

I got the most beautiful Kitchen Aid for my graduation gift. I have made many delicious items in it!

Damien likes to clean the beater for me!

I got a haircut.

And so did Damien.

I made quiche for dinner the other night.


And our King Cake arrived today. I have already had two pieces! YUM

Picture Update - Fall

We were back in Provo towards the end of summer and beginning of fall. We decided to throw a New Orleans party for our friends. We made red beans and rice, corn bread, and bananas foster.
Damien even helped me cut the sausage for the red beans and rice.

Becki, Alisa, and Karly.

Damien and Bre.

Adam, Nate, Damien, Travis, and Rachel.


We did another hike to Stewart falls.

Damien had a birthday! I confiscated almost all of his packages and so he thought everyone had forgotten about his birthday. The morning of his birthday I grabbed all of his packages out of their hiding spots while he was in the shower. He was very surprised to see this when he came out.

In his birthday attire.

We celebrated by going to dinner.

Damien had sushi.

I had delicious chicken!

And we finished it off with chocolate cake.


We had a few apple off the apple tree outside our tree house.


We bought a pumpkin from the farmer's market, but never got around to carving it.


The leaves were beautiful around our apartment.



We decided to do a hot dog roast with out friends. Our landlords have a fire pit in the backyard so we used that.