Easter at the Freiberg Plantation

With only a few days to prep for our 2nd annual Easter gathering, I did my best to kick my preparations into high gear. With my grandpa still in a nursing home during his recovery, we thought it might be easier to gather there or at their home. A few days before Sunday, I got the go ahead to host. Time to break out the spring décor! I kept meaning to do it, but just didn't have the energy if the only people to see it were going to be the Hubs, me and Pig.

Down to the basement I went to dig out my chicks and bunnies, and off to Pinterest I went to find some new menu ideas (including a vegan dish for the two restricted eaters in our clan). Let me tell you, I used to say that "I can't party like I used to", I can now tell you with utter confidence that I cannot clean like I used to either. Man, cleaning darn near killed me. I could hardly walk by Sunday night after a good, spring cleaning on Saturday and then cooking all morning on Sunday. I'm sure I missed some spots, but from cleaning floors to scrubbing the front of every cabinet in our kitchen, I was beat down. I'm thinking more and more that a cleaning lady, at least once a month, would be worth every dag gum cent, especially with a belly that hinders me from reaching low laying areas and feet that are starting to ache and swell into Flintstone feel if I stand more than an hour at a time. The house looks darn good though. I keep thinking we need to have an open house, like tomorrow, if we're really going to sell this puppy. It rarely looks this spiffy. Just being honest.

And for a little photo show and tell, here a few snapshots of my quick decorating attempt. And for a slightly hilarious and slightly questionable story involving our Peep place cards, keep on scrolling down, friends.

 

 

I had a few bowls and a basket of Easter candy and no one was eating any of it. I do NOT need bowls full of candy in my home right now so I kept following the crowd with the candy all day long. I was sort of a candy stalker/peer pressure pusher if you will.

Needless to say, Tim and I have been eating jelly beans for 3 days now:(

 

 

I love having a mantle to decorate for each season! If you've never been to our home, the random wheel on the wall may appear odd to you. It ties in somehow, I promise;)

 

 

I found this antique bunny tricycle at an estate sale and loved him from the start. His tail was broken off so I rescued him (because let's be honest who else is going to pay for a broken rabbit?) and this burlap lovin' girl made him a new one.

 

Some of our appetizers. Fresh popcorn from the Popcorn Parlor (always a solid party staple while supporting a local shop) and a new recipe for pimento cheese tarts with hot mango chutney on top. Delish. I had to have some southern flare in there, ya know. Half of them vanished within minutes.

 

 

 

We're quickly outgrowing our table, which is always a fun problem to have.

It was a cozy, close quarters kind of meal, to say the least.

 

My sweet grass basket also made a southern cameo. We received it as an unexpected gift from my former office manager and I LOVE it.

It's such a neat reminder of my second home and I use it at every gathering.

 

And who doesn't want a place card that you can eat the head off of?

 I needed something easy and these served a dual, tasty purpose.

Peeps for the win!

 

And for the above mentioned Peep story, let me preface this story with this minor detail. The Hubs and I call Piggy's male part his "Peep". I'm not sure why, it just happened one day and it stuck.

 

While the Hubs and I were grocery shopping for our Easter meal essentials, I had a moment of contemplation on whether or not I needed 1 or 2 boxes of Peeps. The box contained 10 Peeps and we had 10 people coming. The wild card would be if my uncle showed up, although none of us had received a reply from our invitation. The tough decision I was faced with was do I buy just 10 and end up short one Peep or do I buy 20 for the 1 extra I'd need and have 9-10 extra? Ahhh, the deliberation that was taking place in my head. Again, I do not need extra candy laying around my home right now so 10 extra Peeps would not be good for me nor Ziggy.

 

The Hubs, in an effort to solve the problem, said "If Dean shows, I'll just put my Peep on his plate." In that moment, all I heard was "my Peep on his plate" and I looked at him in horror! Was he serious??? Was he trying to be funny? Or gross? Or both? Pretty quickly he realized, based on the horrified look on my face, that I was not connecting the dots on "peep" versus the actual Peeps in my hands. He quickly blurted out "the candies, GEEZZZZZ!" We both had a good laugh in the grocery store aisle over that one. How I didn't connect the dots on what Peep he was referring to, I have no clue. I guess I was too far into my own head on such a crucial decision such a Peeps, but it was awesome.

 

In the end, my uncle was a no show so the Hubs got to keep his Peep right where it belonged. On his plate, of course. Thankfully for him because it would've hurt like the dickens when I stuck that toothpick place card in it.