Preparing for Easter

This year, Easter dinner will be held at my brother and sister-in-law's home.. which was my Grandmother's house. It will be nice to be there again for a major holiday.

My contribution to Easter is chocolate cream candy. My brother asked for these specifically, and I was happy to oblige.... ok, maybe I did grumble a little. The cream filling is very similar to Cadbury Creme eggs... not exactly Weight Watchers friendly, but delicious none the less.

When I was growing up, my maternal Grandmother made the majority of our Easter candy. She had made her own chocolate solids and filled chocolates for years, and had a plethora of candy molds and forms. Once I reached a certain age.. I started to help her make the chocolate, though not with the enjoyment she had. Grams found candy making to be very relaxing and could do it for hours straight. I find it to be tedious and the smell of the melted chocolate makes me sick after a while.. haha.

Grams, like me, was a very stubborn person when it came to how things were to be done. That meant arguments would arise as to how to make the chocolate and fillings. Gramps used to like to sit in the other room and just watch us bicker... both wearing our aprons and dripping chocolate all over the table. Despite our arguments, we made a good team.

I told Grams that the candy making was going to be a tradition that died with her.. as I had no desire to do the work on my own. Since her death in 2005 though, not an Easter goes by that I don't find myself making SOME sort of chocolate concoction. Never to the extent that she did... but I get out the old heating tray and end up with bowls of melted chocolate none the less. I can still hear her telling me to do things her way.. and I still ignore her advice. haha!

This year... as I searched in my baking cupboard for some chocolate chips to melt, I came across one of Grandma's old plastic candy molds.. this one of the character Woodstock from the Peanuts cartoon. I LOVE all things Snoopy and Woodstock, and used to get one of these in my basket for years. I thought I had thrown all of the molds out since they were much too old for further use. I have no idea where Woodstock came from... as I had not use for it, or come across it since Grams died in '05. I felt all warm and fuzzie inside.. like Grams was reminding me of our times together back in the good old days... in her kitchen... making a chocolate mess!

Included here is one of my favorite pics of my Grams and I. It was taken one year at Walmart when I had to be the Easter bunny for free photo shoots with the customers. I always hated that job... it was the hottest outfit imaginable, and never enough oxygen to breathe!

I was so surprise when my family showed up with Grams to see me. By this time, her balance was rather poor due to a previous stroke.. but she still insisted on trying to sit on my lap for a picture. This is my favorite picture of the two of us... even though I don't look quite like myself.

I miss my Grandparents during holidays such as Easter.. all of them.. and carry them with me in my heart, and remember them all in a special way at Easter Mass.

So as you prepare for Easter.. take note of some traditions you may have... and remember the people who started them, or passed them on to you.