Easter Archives - Northern California Style

Well, I finally got the cold everyone else in my family had. I thought my superior hand washing made me invincible! Besides my cold, I’ve had a terrible blogger’s block. I don’t know if it’s being unwell, but I just couldn’t seem to get it together! I finally put all my tidbits into this meandering post. Here’s a few thoughts and ideas I wanted to share about Easter, my favorite holiday!

For my Easter table this year I went a little out of the ordinary. I love my striped runner, so I used my burlap candle holders for poseys of hydrangeas from the yard and added colored eggs and antique looking bunnies. When I set this for brunch, I will add white plates, green glasses from my grandmother and soft yellow or light green cloth napkins and more eggs. Something about this combo looked fresh to me. I like the mix of burlap, black and bits of pastels from the eggs and flowers.

Easter holds many dear memories for me. My brother Peter and I, would dye eggs with our parents and have a hunt at home on Easter morning. When we were very small our grandmother also started doing a special hunt for us. On Easter day there would be a note attached to her front door with a list of candy to find. It was signed by the Easter Bunny with a bunny print (her cat’s paw), next to the signature! We usually would run to the backyard at that point and proceed to go nuts looking for Peeps and chocolate bunnies in flowers and bushes while our aunt, uncle, mom and dad gave hints. I was horrible at this hunt and my younger brother Pete of course was always finding my candies before I got to them!

Grandma also served along with that hunt, a ham dinner, on pretty pastel tablecloths and napkins which she sewed herself and changed the color of each Easter. The topper to this all was a bunny cake she made with coconut topping and jelly bean face that she took the time to cut from sheet cakes. We are so lucky to still have my grandma with us and this year she will be 96!

One of grandma’s Easter tablecloths in the backyard of my last house. This was Easter a few years ago. with my mom, grandma, sister-in-law Line, and niece Veronica.

After I got married and had my own family, I wanted to continue the tradition of these Easters with my own kids. I don’t do a ham dinner though. I much prefer brunch and my husband Max makes a baked French toast dish that everyone loves and now expects! We have the same kind of hunt as my grandma did. Usually my kids have enjoyed this hunt with their cousins when my brother’s family comes. My parents are always there of course. My grandmother still enjoys attending and bringing the bunny cake! Here is a photo of the boys with her last year.

Grandma Jody and boys with the bunny cake. She dyes coconut pink for the ears.

My boys are 10 and 13, but still get into dyeing eggs. Griffin even did them at age one with a little brush we let use on his high-chair. The last few years we have been doing the Martha Stewart marbleized eggs, which makes them so beautiful! It’s pretty easy too. We don’t poke a hole in eggs though. This year we will do it with their two grandmas visiting from Eureka on Saturday.

Last year. My boys look so different now!

Our finished eggs.

Opening their baskets last year. I just love creating baskets each year and finding all the fun things to go in them. Last year they each got a wallet from the Vans’ store, a book, swim trunks and other small things.