Easter Sunday Dinner

Every year my family gathers at my grandmother's after church for Easter Sunday Lunch, and later dinner. The menu has been about the same for as long as I can remember.

Lunch is chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, veggie and cheese trays, my mom's deviled eggs, potato chips, with no peanut oil for my Uncle, and grandma's baked beans. My grandmother used to make each of the kids Easter baskets but that became a bit expensive as the family grew. So now grandma finds a small toy for each of the kids and sets a basket of chocolate on the table for the adults to choose from. The parents bring the brightly colored plastic eggs if they want their children to hunt eggs. Other wise its cards and TV until we are ready to eat again.

In between meals the potato chips stay out along with bowls of brightly colored M&M's in festive colors and of course the chocolate. The vegetable tray is reloaded and is continually consumed throughout the day. Drinks are grab what you want, it's in the fridge, pop, water and coffee to go with the cookies after dinner.

Dinner brings out the leftover chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes if there are any left and ham sandwiches if you don't want lunch again and the rest of the veggie and cheese tray. Along with this used to be my Great Grandmother's Jell-O ® mold, it consisted of orange or yellow Jell-O made like the package and allowed to almost set up and to this was added lettuce, radishes, and carrot slivers. I never actually seen her make it to know how it was done, but it was an Easter staple at our table for as long as she was alive. It is the one thing that will be missing from our Easter table this year.