Peep Peep!

Welcome to the Queen's Tuesday Meme #32

Sometimes silly.
Sometimes serious.
Always fun!
Step out of the box.
Be creative.
Use your imagination.
No one's answers are quite like you

Easter has come and gone. But I'll bet you have stories to tell! We present: The Peep Peep Meme. I feel a sugar rush coming on....

1. What does Easter mean to you (if that is not too personal)?
I am Christian. Resurrection. Renewal. Hope. Spring.

2. When did you last go on an Easter egg hunt? Did you find anything?
We used real eggs back in the days of my childhood. The trick was to find one that hadn’t rotted in the yard first. You actually went hunting for the eggs....not goodies inside.
My mother dyed them with the famous PAAS Easter kits. I loved watching her scoop them out with the little egg dipper dripping with beautiful colors.

3. Your favorite celebrity is dressed up in a bunny outfit and about to jump out of a cake. Who is it?
Homer The Palace Dog.

4. What is the most unusual thing you've ever done with Easter eggs?

I think I've told this story before. A guy. An Easter basket. Specially prepared eggs by Mimi. A fireplace. Wine. Slowing opening eggs with....umm....instructions.....How could you forget such a thing?
I dare say he has not.

5. What's your favorite color of peeps?
I consider that to be a highly racially charged question. All peeps are created equal.

6. Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?
I believe in the one at the mall. All things at the mall are sacred if you ask me.

7. Imagine: You are invited to the White House for the annual Easter egg hunt. What surprise should President Obama put in each egg for the kids?
Free health care for every child in America.

8. What's your favorite kind of candy to eat at Easter?
Marshmallow chocolate eggs.
I could never eat the ears off the chocolate rabbit I got in my basket.
I would leave him intact for the longest time! Or if he melted - whichever came first.

9. Have you ever dyed eggs for Easter?
I’ve killed eggs in my time (long story) and dyed a few too…when my son was a little boy. Then everybody asked me to stop cooking. I gave them the Easter miracle they requested.






10. You have just found a genuine Faberge egg (like the one pictured here) worth millions of dollars. Would you keep it or sell it for cash at auction? What would you do with the money?

Buy health care for every American.

11. Do you have an Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it?
Show us a picture of your hat.
Half me. Half hat. Would you expect any less?
The rest of the story tomorrow.

12. Please share any special Easter memories
or traditions you have with us.

Easter at my great-grandparents house when I was a child was most special.
Almost everyone went to sunrise church service that morning and then came straight back there for dinner..........wearing yellow frocks and lace and bows and suits. Crinolines. Oh yes, crinolines and patent leather shoes for girls with little matching purses. I had a white silver-clasped purse one year. My aunt's wore big hats and frills or Jackie Kennedy A-line skirts and pillbox hats (my mother's style) The kids brought their Easter baskets from that morning’s Easter bunny visit to gather the eggs in the yard.
The food was incredible.
My great-grandmother always made a special coconut layered cake that was gorgeous and delicious. It’s funny now that I think about it.

They were cotton and tobacco farmers. They didn’t have much. But we always had wonderful dishes and delicious homemade things when the family descended upon them. So many of us!! The deviled eggs (I love those) were always peppered with red pepper on top (I still make them that way) and her potato salad was heavenly with green peppers and cheese and onions. Ham and scalding fried chicken with green beans, beets, turnip greens, salads, strawberries, whipped cream, au gratin potato casseroles, candied yams with marshmallows. The table was so jam packed full of food you would have to go back to the other side to taste the rest of it later. The women in my family could flat cook. You didn't want to miss a thing.
My aunts, grandmother, her sisters and sisters-in-laws would bring MORE food and cakes and pies to choose from. Oh! And the smell of the biscuits. Oh the homemade pecan pie.

My Papa always prayed over us and blessed the food at the head of the long table with the white linen tablecloth. A hush in the room. Silence from babies. Stillness from squealing kids. Even the dishes in the sink stopped clanging. Just thankfulness and honor to be together, alive, and enjoying the day. "..and bless the hands that prepared it...." he would say.

There was a table for the “big people” and a table for the “little people”.
Kids were not allowed in the kitchen with the grownups to eat at the table with them. We had our own party in the parlor. After lunch I would play board games and Twister with my cousins. We caught fireflies when it got dark and ran around playing hide ’n seek until we couldn’t see each other. We never got bored. There was a treehouse, an outhouse, a barn, a stable, fields, a pond, a tobacco barn, a porch swing, rose bushes and tire swings and...mischief too.

A simpler time. A wonderful time.

I wonder if great-grandmother would like my hat…..