Tag: #traditions

Happy Easter!

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Easter means so many things: spring, new growth, hope, love and forgiveness. I can’t think of a better reason to celebrate. One of the ways we do that at our house is to host an extended family Easter brunch and egg hunt every year. We typically have between 30 – 40 people and so it is fun, delicious chaos. If you have followed my blog, you know that I am a big believer in traditions, particularly for kids, but even adults rely on these to build security and maintain a solid foundation. It makes you part of a tribe.

Whether your tribe is made up of friends or family does not matter, the benefits are the same. A tribe provides you with a sense of belonging. You have people you know that you can count on. You share an identity and often a history that cements the relationships. It is a support network. And research shows that being part of a community or tribe fosters mental and physical well-being. For a tribe to stay together you have to be willing to overlook irritations that will inevitably come up. You have to be committed to seeing the good in each other and overlooking any petty annoyances. It is all part of the give and take of making relationships work. The benefits are well worth it. So, if you do not have a tribe, start one. It just takes a few dedicated people to get the egg ball rolling.

I credit my mom (A Tribute to My Mom) and dad with starting and keeping our tribe together. They initiated so many of the family traditions that we carry on today and the Easter brunch and egg hunt is one of several. Since I am posting this pre-Easter this year, the pics are from last year’s brunch and egg hunt.

My dad smiling as he is surrounded by family on Easter. We are so blessed that he will be joining us again this year.

The Easter brunch

How do you feed 30-40 people in your house? With a lot of help from the tribe. Everyone pitches in and brings a dish to share. We have settled into a nice routine where one couple always brings the sausage, one the fruit, one the ham, another couple does the eggs, I make the cheesy potatoes dish, etc. It all works. My creative SIL always brings the bunny decorated cupcakes (featured image above) which is a big hit with the kids.

Tables are put up in almost every available space.
My brother and SIL scrambling the eggs at the last minute (left). There is never a shortage of food.

The Easter egg hunt

The week before Easter Mr. U and I spend a good hour filling plastic eggs with candy. Everyone brings eggs to hide too, but you can never have too many eggs at an egg hunt, right? A few golden eggs are filled with money to entice the older kids to keep hunting after the easy eggs have all been snatched up.

After brunch the adult hiders head outside to get creative with their hiding places. Anywhere within the designated area is open for hiding. No place is too high or too low to hide an egg. As the kids get older, the hiders have to get more creative to stump the finders. Of course, every year they are so creative that we find a well-hidden egg or two later in the summer.

The hiders will stop at nothing to stump the kids.
Son #2 is burying this egg in the ground.

The kids are corralled inside while the eggs are being hidden. Of course, they are trying to peak out windows to get a head start on where to find the eggs. When it gets close, the kids scramble to wait inside the door. We used to try and let the littlest kids out first, but that never really worked. Then we tried asking the older kids to leave the easy eggs for the littles, but that is impossible. Who takes the time to decide if that colorful egg is an easy one or not? Besides, who can pass on picking up an Easter egg right under your feet? Hence, why we just hide tons of eggs. There is more than enough to go around.

The kids waiting impatiently to be let out the door to start finding.

I wish you a very happy Easter however you like to celebrate it. It is the mark on the calendar that tells us sunnier days are coming. Enjoy!

Happy Easter from our house to yours!

Let the Christmas Season Begin

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

It is hard not to get swept up in the Christmas hype too early. It seems like the stores, social media content creators, and anxious people are playing Christmas music and putting out decorations prior to Halloween. As I get older, I am really trying to enjoy and appreciate each season, each holiday, even each and every single day, like it was my last. Because, well… we never know. So, soak it all in. That is why I impatiently patiently wait until after Thanksgiving to delve into the Christmas spirit. In full transparency, I do try to do my Christmas shopping early. (Fair warning, photo blast ahead.)

Thanksgiving recap

Thanksgiving is the period at the end of the sentence before we jump into Christmas. It is the calm before the storm of activities, baking and wrapping. I thought I would share a brief follow-up to my previous post, Thanksgiving Traditions & Change. We had a wonderful dinner at our son #2 and DIL’s lovely, welcoming home. Of course, the best part was that we were able to have almost all of our family together. (Unfortunately, Son #1 and his wife, who live halfway across the U.S., were not able to make the trip for the short weekend.)

The table decorations had a gorgeous woodsy, copper theme.
Son #2 working his magic at the Traeger.
Abundance.
Son #2 (aka, “king of the Traeger”) cooked the best ham and smoked turkey I have ever had. Sooo good!

Everyone chipped in and brought dishes to share. The hosts thoughtfully had “to go” containers and encouraged everyone to take home leftovers. Of course, leftovers are one of the best parts of the Thanksgiving meal. And yes, I am one of those people that takes pictures of food. Matter of fact, I took so many pictures of the food and table that I hardly got any of the people. Hum… I wonder if this says anything about my priorities?

Son #4 (who doesn’t cook) even helped with the appetizers.
DIL #3 & her mom made some delicious pies.

On to Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving, our little city kicks off the Christmas season with a parade and fireworks. The day was crisp and sunny, so Mr. U and I decided to brave the crowds and drive into town to enjoy the festivities. One of the advantages of being retired is that we were able to go early, before things got too busy and every available parking spot was gone. We started the evening off with a glass of wine at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. We snagged a perfect table overlooking the water and watched the sunset.

The view from our table.

It was hard to tear ourselves away from the view to head down to main street for the parade. Not to mention, “baby it’s cold outside.” By the time we got down there the crowds were gathering. Our small city is flooded with people for the event. Below are a few pictures from the parade.

The Grinch seems to be quite popular this year. Dr. Suess has always been one of my favorite authors. When I was a kid, our neighbor gifted us with a whole pile of Dr. Suess books that she no longer used. It was probably the best hand-me-down that I ever received. It opened the world of Dr. Suess to me. I read those books to my younger brother over and over again. It got to the point that he was tired of listening long before I was tired of reading. Fast forward a generation and I was reading them to my own kids. Move forward another generation and I am reading them to my grandkids. So, thank you to Dr. Suess for being such a fun, creative author. And…leaving us with The Grinch.

After the parade the loudspeaker comes on and they say the obligatory thankyous. Then the crowd swarms over towards the lake to watch the fireworks display.

Mr. U trying to stay warm waiting for the fireworks.
The fireworks were well worth the cold.

The grand finale of the evening is the lighting ceremony. The announcer leads the crowd in singing Silent Night together. It is powerful to hear that many people honoring the reason we celebrate Christmas. Then there is a countdown until all of the lights come on. Workers have been hanging lights on the trees and surrounding area for weeks preparing for this moment when they all come on at once and everyone claps. We clap for the lights. We clap for the fireworks. And we clap just because we are thankful to bear witness to all the people gathering together to celebrate everything that is wonderful about this season. With all of the sadness and turmoil in the world, it is a blessing to know that most people are good, and that we share a common love in our humanity. Let the Christmas season begin!