Easter was in the middle of April this year, so I spent a lot of March gathering up things for baskets. I went to the Dollar Tree a few times to get stuff. I like getting stuff people like so I know it will be eaten or used instead of thrown away like past years Easters that I've been in charge of. I even asked advice from people of what we wanted to eat for dinner because I was tired of ham and turkey after the fall and winter holidays. We decided on the chicken, potato and green bean sheet pan meal, but I was going to make them in the roasters. I was really hoping for dry weather on Easter since the weather has been really cold and some areas received a measurable amount of snow.
About week before, I emailed everyone the plan for Sunday. You know, where it was going to be, what time, what we were going to eat and so on. Trish volunteered to bring salad and the salad fixings because she HAS to bring something or contribute somehow. I also told everyone to bring some money for the party fund jar.
By Thursday Kevin, Karla and Tracy told me they weren't going to come. It didn't surprise me. Ever since Grammie left us and Grandpa was put into a care home and Covid, they haven't come around much. I knew they wouldn't, but I invited them anyway. Also, I called Dad to see if we could get some change for the plastic Easter eggs and we talked about how much and the amount that went into the eggs. We decided $.40 in 66 plastic eggs. Everyone would get 6 eggs to find.
On Saturday, I started cleaning the house. I even washed everyone's bed sheets, pillowcases and blankets because they needed to get done because we have pets. I vacuumed the entire house, put away previous holiday stuff into totes, assembled the Easter baskets while I waited for Dad to come over to help me sort the egg money into the plastic Easter eggs. I had to call him to see if he was still coming because I didn't hear from him in a while and thought he was coming after we had talked earlier.
I did a bit more cleaning and he finally arrived. I got all the plastic eggs out, Dad assembled the money and we put a quarter, a dime and a nickel in each egg. I put them in their separate bags, showed Dad the baskets I had put together earlier in the day. He said it looked like I did a good job. He asked if I needed any help with anything else and I said no. He said good because he had some more stuff to take care of that day. I thanked him for coming over and helping me with the eggs.
The rest of the day I spent doing errands, chores, drove into Tumwater to feed Alicia's dogs and made sure I had all the ingredients for tomorrow's Easter dinner. I went to bed late like I always do. It's hard not to on the weekends when you are trying to get a ton of stuff done because you don't have time during the week, or you don't feel like it.
That morning I got up and saw that Ben had gotten home sometime before my alarm went off. I found him in the computer room playing his video games with Josh. I told him, we have a bunch of stuff to do today, can you help with some of it? He said sure. I got Doug to pick up his dog poop in the back yard and he cleaned his bathroom afterwards. I vacuumed, we mopped and put the computer stuff away, arranged the tables and Ben brought the chairs from the garage in. I should have made the mini doughnuts the night before because they were more involved than I thought they were. Oh well. If I ever make them again, I will know better for the next time.
We put the Easter baskets into the room so we could start getting the dining table ready. I got both the roasters ready, did the dishes and I had Ben cut the potatoes and the chicken to get them ready to cook. I lined each roaster with tin foil and continued to do the mini doughnuts. We got the food in to cook about an hour before people were suppose to be there.
His mom, Ed and Amy came sooner than we thought they would, so she prepared her salad and helped get the tables covered with the Easter tablecloths. I knew the morning would go by super fast. The doughnuts took up most of my time. They better be good!
Everything was pretty much done as more people arrived. We just had to wait for the chicken to get done inside the roasters.
When it finally did get done, we dished up, ate chatted and laughed. Trish and Grandma Karen helped clean up while Ben and I went outside to hide eggs and baskets. It took us about 20 minutes to hide everything. Our yard isn't as great as Grammie and Grandpa's yard. They have more hiding spots than we did. Ben thought it was funny to hang my basket off the side of the roof where the gutter was. I am short so it was going to be hard to retrieve it.
We hid 11 baskets, 21 eggs with candy and 66 money eggs. We went inside the house and told everyone to come out to hear the ground rules. We told them the boundaries and that no baskets or eggs were inside of cars. Everyone had fun looking for their stuff. We struggled to find the rest of the eggs but we eventually did with a couple hints.
We took a group photo, unloaded all of our plastic eggs and baskets, divvied out food and everyone went home.
Dad took a basket and some candy over to Grandpa since he couldn't make it over to the house this afternoon. Dad said it made him pretty happy.
I cleaned up the house, put tables and chairs away, did dishes and went and took care of Alicia's dogs. I tried finding a cache but couldn't find it and then went home. Meanwhile, Brandon texted me to help him plan for a 20 year high school reunion so I worked on that when I got home, and tried finishing the cleaning before heading to bed.
Next Adventure: Geocaching Community Geocaching Event in Wonderwood Park
No comments:
Post a Comment