Easter Dinner 2018

What an amazing Easter we had.  We had our normal morning with the kids.  We did the egg hunt and looked at all the stuff the Easter Bunny left us.  Then it was time to get busy working on dinner only to have it end with a fun family gathering. I truly hope all of you were just as blessed this Easter as we were.
If you followed my blog posts regularly you will see that my last 2 weeks of March were pretty much consumed with Easter Dinner Prep and I know most of you think I'm probably crazy and are wondering why I would put so much effort into a dinner.  Well, simple I love nothing more then spending time with family on holidays or actually any day for that fact.  I also love to decorate and create.  So the need to make it as nice as possible was actually a lot fun for me.
That is one of the reason why when my mom offered up the opportunity for us all to host a holiday at our houses now that are all grown with families I jumped at the opportunity to host a dinner.  Honestly, maybe I was even a bit bossy and told each of us which holiday we were getting but really it was just because I wanted a holiday at my home the worst way.  I chose Easter Dinner for myself, my brother and his wife got Thanksgiving, my Sister already has a huge 4th of July celebration so no point making her do extra with another holiday and my Mom still does Christmas for tradition.  I'm sure someday with my Sister being the Oldest  of us she will inherit Christmas if she wants.  Her family will most likely be the first to have the families great grandchildren anyway.

Our kids coloring this years Easter Eggs are the "Youngest" of the grandchildren even though they are not as young as they were 6yrs ago when we started hosting Easter Dinner at our house.

Wondering why I chose to do Easter?  It just made sense for us to do at our house.  We have the youngest of the grandchildren and lots of space for the kids to go egg hunting, they could be home to play with their toys and just enjoy themselves while us "older folks" enjoy uninterrupted conversation.  The kids are older now but has been a blessing for them to enjoy Easter home all these years so it was well thought out and has worked well for us. 
Also we raise our own pigs, since I was a kid we have always had a ham for Easter Dinner.  With that and the canned goods from the garden the food part is covered for a yummy spring feast here.  Plus having it all homegrown is just the best taste and feeling one can have at a nice family dinner.
We are also lucky enough to have a huge house to fit everyone in comfortably.  This is including the Hubby's family too as Easter is the one holiday that some of the his side of the family can make it to this is the holiday we wanted most.
Obviously, I tend to overdecorate or overdo everything depending on how you look at it in the decorating department.  Honestly, look at the table displays below even the kids table is fancied up.  I made almost all of it from the Bunny Napkins the new Place Mats just for dinner so you can imagine how the rest of the Easter Decorations must look around here.  With us living tucked back in the woods and rarely visitors this is one way I can show it off to everyone. 
Really, Easter dinner was the perfect fit for us and it has worked out great every year since.

      

This year we had 20 guests make it to dinner and 8 more that were invited who were unable to attend due to other obligations and living farther away.  It was just the best feeling having everyone here enjoying themselves for dinner.  Unfortunately my oldest Niece and Nephews were unable to make it for dinner.  While it is sad it is to be expected, they are no longer children and some day they too will be deciding who is hosting which holidays I'm sure.  But as sad is was to not have them join us it was just a extra blessing to have the Hubby's 80+yr old Uncle and his Aunt here for dinner this year.

Almost all 20 of our guest made this photo, guess next year we make a mandatory group photo.

And while everything looked nice, the guests were all having a great time and it was turning out to be the "perfect" as possible Easter Dinner we still had an "oops" in the food department.  No it was not the ham as that turned out great, it looked great and tasted even better and it made the prefect tasting best gravy I have made yet (so wish I had snapped a picture of it) the oops came in the from of the turkey.  Why a turkey too? The Oldest Daughter who helped so much with the Easter Prep does not eat ham so we decided to make her a small turkey to enjoy something other then potatoes for dinner as a thank you....

......OOPS.  Do you notice something strange with this turkey?  While I was busy setting up the ham in one roaster the Hubby was helping get the turkey in the electric roaster.  Yes, I did instruct and watch him as he removed the bag from the turkey and the neck prior to rinsing it out and cooking it so I was a bit dumbfounded when I saw this when we went to carve it.  Neither of us looked inside the bird as I was not intending to stuff it.  It was just supposed to be extra and a treat for the Oldest Daughter who helped so much.  Knowing I had witnessed the removal of what I though as the giblets only left me left me wondering where did this come from?  Well after much debate and then searching for the previously removed bag (yes in the trash) we found out that the bag was not the giblets but rather a gravy for the bird.
OOPS!  We all got a good laugh out of it and the turkey was delicious just the same.  With only a few scraps of dark meat and one wing left of what was intended as an extra meat at dinner I'm going to assume no one was bothered by our "oops" at all.
So yes we had an oops but despite that I still have to say this has been one of the best Easter Dinners we have hosted yet.  Having both families here for dinner is just the best feeling one can ask for.  I have to admit I did miss all the little kids that used to be here running around just a few short years ago but everyone is growing up so it is to be expected.  I can only hope that Easter Dinner will be just as special when the next generation of little kids are running around collecting eggs hearing the story of how we cooked the turkey with the giblets still inside.