We've enjoyed our first English Easter celebration. It began with a performance by Tim's school last week. The students performed a number of Easter songs and took turns sharing information about the history of Easter in the UK. The school also had a contest: Tim's class had to decorate an Easter egg with a Spring theme, and Class 2 had to create an Easter garden, which are miniature gardens made like dioramas. All of the entries were very creative, and we were proud of Tim for winning one of the awards for his class (of course, with only 7 students in the class, his chances weren't that bad).
Both Tim and Maddie came home from school last week singing "Hot Cross Buns". Hot cross buns are an Easter tradition in the UK, so we gave them a try. The ones we got from the supermarket were basically a raisin bread, and I was the only one who liked them. However, a friend of our made ones from scratch, and we all loved those.
On base, they had an Easter egg hunt for the children. Due to the weather, it was in the gym. To make it fair (and more challenging) for everyone, they broke the children into age groups, and gave each child a card with one or two stickers. The children then had to find an egg that matched the sticker(s) on their card to redeem their prize bag. It was a good idea, and most everybody (except Maddie) had a great time. Maddie was terrified of the Easter bunny of course, and just wanted to go home. Ah, good family fun!
We woke up Easter morning to a beautiful view of freshly-fallen snow! What a surprise! This is the most snow that we've seen since we've been here (probably around 2 inches). The kids were so excited, and Ethan ran outside with the camera to take a few shots of our neighborhood.
We had a nice Easter morning. The kids enjoyed their Easter egg hunt, and were relieved that the Easter bunny was aware of our new location. We tried out a different church (we've been to 3 or 4 churches since we've been here), and enjoyed some good worship as well.
In the afternoon, we had three friends come over for an Easter dinner. We missed being with our families, but it was so nice to be together with friends. We each brought some traditional Easter
food from our families (including Granny Libath's corn pudding, and the bunny cake we used to make when I was a kid), so it helped it feel like home. We did start one new tradition, though: lamb! As you may imagine, this is the area to be if you'd like to find fresh lamb. We were able to buy some from a local farmer, and it was just delicious!
2 comments:
Hey, that's the exact same bunny cake my mom used to make for me! How cool is that!
I made hot cross buns one year and they were very good. I tried one from Panera this year and it wasn't very great. Too dry. I guess I'll have to stick to the homemade variety.
I'm making Ina's coconut cupcakes this week for a shower for Sam's fiance. I thought of you and Krista and the delicious cakes you guys have made for showers. We miss you guys. Happy Easter!
Happy Easter Strykers!
That's funny about the Hot Crossed Buns--I don't know if I realized they were an English thing. I'll have to try making them sometime.
Natalia has a Mary Engelbreit nursery rhymes book and she LOVES singing the Hot Crossed Buns rhyme.
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