Chocolate Covered Memories
March 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. The good Christian should say it is because it is such an important religious holiday. And as an adult the holiday has definitely taken on richer and deeper meaning. But as a child? As a child, it was all about the candy.
I probably also should not admit that my brother and I asked my mom to still hide candy well into our college years. We didn’t get Easter baskets pre-filled. We got a room full of “hidden” jelly beans and chocolates that we rushed to pick up before the dog found them.
We didn’t even have baskets. We would just grab random bowls from the kitchen cabinets and fill them to the top. We might nibble a few pieces while we searched but oddly enough the most important part of the Easter candy search was the diplomatic sharing process when all was said and done.
Adam, my brother, and I would dump all the candy on the floor and divide it up evenly. Crazy evenly. Like down to the color of the jelly bean or chocolate wrapper even. Any leftovers went to our parents. And occasionally we threw them a few others before we realized they were probably helping themselves as they hid the candy.
Some people think you can’t celebrate both the secular and the religious aspects of a holiday. And to be honest at Christmas time we don’t really do a whole lot with the big guy in red. But I have the best memories of those times with my brother. Then again when chocolate is involved can there be bad memories?
So the Easter bunny still hops over to our house every year. And now I get to be the one sneaking the candy as I hide it. Lily is onto the whole Easter bunny thing (in fact this weekend when we saw an Easter bunny at the mall posing for pictures she said to me, “isn’t that a little over the top- he isn’t even REAL!!”), but the other two are excited to get a little candy. And I am excited to break my “no sugar” rule in a MAJOR way.
For obvious reasons one of my favorite sponsors at Blissdom was Hershey’s for obvious reasons. Mostly because every time I went over there they had free chocolate. But also because they let us pick out our favorites and they are sending us a custom Easter basket.
Truly if I could design one it would just be all Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs. but I decided to fill it with a little bit of something for everyone in the family.
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg
- Cadbury Mini Eggs Candy
- Twizzlers Strawberry Twists Candy
- Jolly Rancher Sours Bunny Gummies
- Mini Cadbury Crème Eggs
- Don’t tell but Cadbury Eggs creep me out. Creep. me. out. The only thing that should be allowed inside a chocolate egg is more chocolate. Or of course creamy peanut butter. But my hubby loves them so I sacrificed a spot in the basket for him. That is true love my friends. But if he touches my peanut butter eggs, I will cut him. Just saying.
Hershey’s has lots of great Easter ideas on their website. And they were a sponsor at Blissdom. And they make chocolate peanut butter eggs. So I love them.
Happy 2012!!!
January 1, 2012 By 2 Comments
Well that little bloggy break ended up way longer than I ended it. Sorry I went MIA without explanation, but it was kind of nice to turn off my bloggy brain and enjoy some down time with the family. We actually had an eventful little break and I will have lots of blog fodder for a few posts at least.
Jo Lynne over at Musings of a Housewife has hosted a great blog recap carnival for the past few years. I have done it for the past few years and loved looking back over my posts for the year. I present you with the first line of the first post of each month of the year.
JANUARY
For a while I have had some ideas rattling around in my brain.
We kicked off the Marriage, Unwrapped series and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would keep it up for a whole year. Even wilder dreams, it lead to a whole new blog dedicated to growing marriages!! (ps. that blog launches on Mon and we had so much fun filming an intro video this weekend. Make sure you are subscribed!)
FEBRUARY
I am hunkering down for #snowpacolypse11 and it is thundersnowing.
Well this post really isn’t about the weather, but is a recap of Blissdom!! And oh how I loved looking at those pictures again. This year, I am thrilled to announce, I have been chosen as a community leader. I am already counting down the days until I can head back to Nashville. Will I be seeing you there?
MARCH
Oddly enough, my baby fever has switched to puppy fever. Which I think might be worse. Somebody stop me from spending hours on Petfinder. Anyway, this is a great list of tips from a chat I participated in with the famous Heloise. And as I reread them I remembered I really need to implement #1. Especially with a two year old boy.
APRIL
This is one of my favorite posts from the marriage series and one that got a lot comments. I also had some strong disagreements with our stance that you shouldn’t have close friends of the opposite sex. I still strongly believe in guarding your marriage. Feel free to chime in if you didn’t the first time. (and since we brought up Facebook, you really should be a fan of The Diaper Diaries and For Better and Worse)
MAY
You might recall back in January that I went to a little conference called Blissdom (it is da bomb)
Last year my trip to Blissdom was sponsored by Bounce and this is another post about the Bounce bar. I am still loyally using that thing, so they really got their monies worth. This year I don’t have a sponsor so if you are interested……
JUNE
It is sad that for most of my life I fully believed that Cool Whip was whipped cream
Ah, my ode to homemade whipped cream. Seriously, if you are still eating Cool Whip, stop. This stuff is crazy easy to make and is a little spoonful of heaven.
JULY
Did you all take our advice over the holidays? Ours were blissfully stress free (local peeps, we will be back on Fox News on Monday to talk about the new blog. Did I mention we have a new blog?)
AUGUST
A list of some financial tips. And while we are talking finances, for the last two years we have had the goal of paying off my student loans. These things refuse to die. 2011 saw the end to one. Feb. will see the end of #2. Only one will remain and I REFUSE to go into 2013 with debt. Fingers crossed.
SEPTEMBER
I love this post. And I am still loving exploring what being a mom of a boy means. Apparently it means cars, trucks, fire engines and planes. Christmas was a celebration of all things that move. I love how his face lights up with a simple car in his hand.
OCTOBER
September has been a brutal month in our house.
I STILL remember how busy that time was. This post is a much needed reminder to put your marriage first and not let business start to chip away at the foundation.
NOVEMBER
Let’s be clear. I have a little bit of a Pinterest addiction.
Addiction still VERY much intact. This is the BEST thing I have ever followed through on that I pinned. I still look at our art wall daily and it makes me all kinds of happy.
DECEMBER
So I know I typically do a round up of great stuff I find throughout the week on my weekend post.
I am so happy to end the post with this video. If you didn’t click over and watch it the first time, do it now. It is so funny, I am laughing hysterically all over again!!
Fun huh? Well fun for me. Head over to Musings of a Housewife to link up your 2011 recaps. And if you did do a fun recap post let me know in the comments so I can come check it out. Happy 2012 everyone!! May it be your best year yet!!!
