Tailgates and Tanlines: Easter 2013

Wow, we are already 4 months into the new year!! I can't believe time has gone so fast. Maybe it seems later in the year than it is because Easter was so early this year, on the last day of March instead of sometime during April. It came so early this year that I didn't even decorate; I normally have Easter decorations all over the house but with only two weeks after St. Patrick's Day, I just didn't want to put everything out for only 2 weeks. Josh and I spent the holiday down in Beaverdam, celebrating with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. Josh is planning to convert to Catholicism, which is my religion, so we have been working on getting into the habit of going to church every Sunday. There is a new church in Leesburg that we have started attending, but for Easter we planned to go down to St. Ann's in Ashland, which is the church where we were married. Unfortunately, we hit traffic on the way and we weren't able to attend Easter Mass, but we will definitely be at Mass next year. Easter is when Josh will officially become Catholic, so that is something we are really looking forward to!

My parents made a delicious meal for Easter.....we had turkey, ham (none for me because pigs are my favorite animal!), wild rice, garlic mashed potatoes with cheese (compliments of my sister-in-law!), green beans with almonds, corn souffle, fruit salad, and rolls. For dessert, my mom made a Hummingbird Cake, which is 4 layers and is made up of pineapple, bananas, pecans, vanilla, cinnamon, etc, and has a cream cheese frosting, along with frosting between each layer. I helped with the frosting and I can't lie, I snuck a few tastes in there as well! It is a recipe from 1978, and was featured in Southern Living magazine...to this day it is still the most requested dessert in the magazine!

The actual holiday itself was pretty gray and rainy and gloomy, unfortunately. The weather has been so back and forth lately, so I'm just looking forward to finally having some nice days soon, even though it would've been nice for everyone out there to have decent weather for hunting eggs! But it was a nice day nonetheless; we were with family and that's all that matters. We wanted to spend some time that day with our friends James and Traci and their kids Kala (16), Austin (10) and Hailey (10 months), but of course we hit traffic on the way back and got home too late (not a huge fan of holidays on Sundays when we have to work the next day!!), so instead we went by their house on Monday evening, so the kids could open their Easter baskets. And of course I couldn't resist making up a basket for my husband as well! You're never too old for a chocolate bunny every now and then!

Josh's Easter basket: