Easter

Easter started off with Mass at St. Leo Church on Broadview Road in Cleveland. Kathleen drove Bob and me there. Father John Ocilka, who was at St. Leo Church from 1994 to 2000, was the guest priest. He offered some amusing insights. Unfortunately, they have escaped me at this time. Audience participation was involved when he asked for traditional foods for Easter. The funniest reply was "takeout".

After Mass, we went to CVS at Broadview and Brookpark Roads (near St. Leo Church) because Bob and I needed milk for our scalloped potatoes and for our breakfasts. Kathleen picked up some cereal because we ran out of the cereal that she likes. It also happened to be BOGO. We then went home and relaxed before Bob and I made our scalloped potatoes. The preparation went relatively smoothly.

After the potatoes were made, we packed our supplies for our Easter meal which was held at Maggie and Mike's house. In addition to our potatoes, Kathleen made baked beans with Italian sausage and provided chocolate candy, cashews, a trail mix like concoction with cashews, almonds, and raisins, strawberry tomatoes, cucumbers, baby carrots, and milk chocolate covered pretzels. Maggie provided ham, corn, green bean almondine, sweet potato casserole, biscuits, Easter Paska bread, Colby Jack and American Cheeses, pineapple, cheesy pretzel sticks, and a potato dish that I'll let you know about after I talk to her (I did not have this item because I was saving room for dessert.). In addition to all the food that she served, she made a salad that she forgot about until she saw it in the refrigerator as we were putting food away. The food was very appetizing.

After we let our appetizers and our main course settle, and the leftovers were distributed, we had dessert. Mandy (She is my niece who is also Kendal and Hayden's sole aunt.) made cheesecake and provided strawberries. Bob brought a nut roll that was made by a friend of a co-worker's mother. Maggie provided a yellow cake with homemade chocolate mock whip frosting, pina colada flavored Jell-o (tm), and Irish Soda bread (I did not have this because I confused it with the Paska bread from dinner.). Once again, the food was appetizing. The participation was smaller than in most years, but we had a fun celebration.

After more food distribution and relaxation, we all left the party with gratitude for Maggie and Mike's hospitality. When we arrived at our house, Bob, Kathleen, and I relaxed by watching television and reading. We did not have a late dinner (The meal was scheduled for 2:00 p.m., but we spread out our eating throughout the afternoon.) like I did on Christmas. However, I enjoyed a concoction made with maraschino cherries, mandarin oranges, (white) marshmallows, and coconut that we call Heavenly hash (By the way, I ate cookies a few hours after my "Christmas dinner".) which Maggie made it for the dinner portion, but I didn't eat it at dinner because it also would have interfered with my appetite for dessert. (Until a few years ago, I did not eat this dish, but now I love it. I guess that my delayed eating of this dish makes me remember the old days.) Easter 2010 will be remembered as a "quiet" celebration.

I hope that my readers enjoyed their Easter celebrations or whatever celebration that you observed.

Next time, hopefully my stories will be 'simple". The next post will be in a few days. I know the topic, but my non-family readers are free to guess the topic. (Hint: It involves a yearly celebration.) Have fun guessing.