Papa hid the eggs...

This was great. These videos are all toward the end where he knew he had to look in hiding places to find his eggs. When he puts his fists together, that is his sign language for "more" (meaning I'm having a blast, let's do it again, please). He also learned that surprises fall out of the plastic eggs, but not the heavy hard boiled ones.

Papa hid the eggs part 1...


Papa hid the eggs part 2...


Papa hid the eggs part 3...


Papa hid the eggs part 4...

Alithos Anesti...

The Lord is risen...He is risen, indeed! This is what we celebrate and say with joyful hearts in church on Easter Sunday. The mood is so festive, so upbeat...a stark contrast to the quiet, solemn season of Lent that proceeds it and the humbling, and unsettling services of Holy Week where you have Maundy Thursday (Washing of the feet, as Jesus washed everyone's feet at the last super and reminded us that he came to the world to serve and not to be served), that is followed by The Watch (when Jesus asked if no one would stay awake with him on the night he was betrayed, we take shifts to stay "awake with Him" all night in the chapel), and that ends with the Good Friday service where we observe the Stations of the Cross (pivotal moments and stages of his life). All of these help us to realize and appreciate the true magnitude of his suffering before his death...but his "glorious resurrection" is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

I LOVE the Easter service. The bells ringing, we get to shout Alleluia again, and there are some great songs! Best of all, this year we got to celebrate it again in the church where I was baptized as a baby, Drew and I were married, and Fender was the 6th generation of the family to be baptized there. Our cousins, including Fender's Godfather were acolyting Easter morning and we sat with other cousins, including my Godmother, in the same pew that our family has been in for nearly 100 years. After church we gathered with family and continued the celebration with the traditional breaking of the resurrection eggs. Prior to each break attempt, one will say "Christos Anesti" (Christ is risen) and the recipient of the bash responds "Alithos Anesti" (Truly, He is risen)...the Greek way of saying He is risen, indeed!

Here are the videos from the church egg hunt...The second is a short end to the first video that got cut off prematurely.

Easter sunday...

Easter baskets, church, two Easter egg hunts, family gatherings, red egg bashing, great tasting tsoureki, and tons more. The Easter egg hunt at church, had eggs laid out all over the ground in plain site, much like the daycare did. But when we got to PaPa and Grandma's house, PaPa had actually hidden the eggs properly. At 17 months, some may think it is a bit too young to figure out the eggs are hidden and you have to find them, but he caught on very quickly and by the end, he was having so much fun...making his sign for "more" after each one he found. He was a pro by the end...he would "look" for an egg, find one, and try to open them because he knew the plastic ones held more fun inside. The hardboiled eggs were thrown quickly into the basket. Wow...what a great day. Could have done with a bit less wind. I'll post a couple of videos from the Easter egg hunts as soon as I get a chance.
 
 
 
 

Tsoureki...

Wow. Baking a loaf of bread from scratch was never on my "things I wanted to accomplish before I die" list, but I realize now it should have been. Crazy as it may sound, I am really quite proud of what you see below. Throughout the process I felt a kindred connection to all my Greek ancestors that have baked this same bread at this special time of year for generations.

After a rough start with burned milk, inactive yeast, Greek conversions I've still yet to understand (1 kg of flour is 2.2 lbs, but how many cups is that you ask? TONS... parts of original recipes are included with what I actually used below), there was kneading, rising, punching, more kneading, twisting, another rising, basting, and 9 hours later...my first batch of Tsoureki was finished at midnight and set aside to cool. The house filled with the enticing aroma of fresh baked bread. You may notice I also actually managed to hard boil and dye a dozen eggs red as well. Only one needed per loaf, the others will be used in a traditional Greek egg cracking game.

Before second rising...
 

In the oven, nearly finished...
 

All done...looks right...small sample taste test was great!
 

Recipe: There are tons and all a little different so I took the general idea and kind of made my own because I wanted to include a little cinnamon I saw in one recipe but not in the others... this recipe makes two loaves.

Ingredients: (What I used) -
10-11 cups of flour (recipe called for 1kg????)
2 cups of milk (recipe called for 1 1/2 teacups...what the heck is a teacup???)
2 pkg of active dry yeast (this was actually universal)...dissolved in 1/2 cup luke warm water, which actually means watch closely and monitor with a thermometer because the water has to be 95-120 degrees F or all fails...and it turns out 110 is best.
1 3/4 cup sugar (recipe called for another teacup measurement)
1 stick of melted butter (= 1/4 cup)
1 tsp salt
5 eggs well beaten
2 tsp Cinnamon (optional)
1 zest of orange, grated (I put very little, but did include some)

You also need a final well beaten egg and 2-3 tbs milk for baste. Well, that's what I used anyway. You can use egg and water too. Again, you can actually change a lot with this recipe...but this is the one that seems to have worked for me.

Directions: Uh...I used about 10 resources just figuring out how to get started with yeast, and boiling milk, and what to add when so I didn't screw it all up to begin with...so here's what I ended up with...

1) In small sauce pan, bring milk to boil. Stirring fairly frequently helps keep it from burning. (While that is warming...slowly)
2) I started the yeast dissolving process... (1/2 cup warm water, I put over stove burner on low heat and monitored it ever so often to be sure it didn't get too hot...sprinkle the two packets of yeast on top and wait 3-5 minutes. It starts looking thicker and gross...then put clean fingers into water and move a little and you will see all the top stuff dissolve properly and the consistency was a dirty water.)
3) When milk is boiling, pour it into large mixing bowl and add the sugar, butter, salt. Let cool to luke warm.
4) Add yeast water to lukewarm milk mixture.
5) Beat 4 eggs and add to the milk mixture.
6) (Add cinnamon, spices or whatnot if you want them, to the flour here...I added later because none of the recipes told me when to add it.) Then Gradually stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until the batter becomes too thick to stir.
7) Coat hands with flour and work in rest of flour by hands until a soft, elastic dough forms. (Another helpful recipe noted the dough should be smooth and no longer sticking to your hands...about 12 minutes).
8) Place dough in oiled bowl, cover with (wax paper and) a cloth, and set aside in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk (2-3 hours).


If you are trying this and reading on...CONGRATULATIONS on the yeast being active adn your dough doubling...you've hit a big milestone and have a huge chance of this actually working out...grab some wine and carry on.

9) Punch down the dough. And knead again. (Stick fist in center and fold sides in over hole. Knead until all air is out and bread is somewhat flat again.
10) Divide the dough into six equal sized balls (about the size of oranges).
11) Roll each ball into strips 12-15 inches long, and about 2 inches in diameter.
12) Lay three strips side by side, pinching together at one end and then braid the strands. Pinch together at other end to hold the loaf intact.
13) At this point you can press the red-dyed egg between the strips of the braid or just leave the loaf plain.
14) Repeat procedure to make the second loaf.
15) Place breads on parchment-lined baking sheet, covered, and let rise for two hours, or until doubled in bulk again.
16) While rising, preheat oven (and this is where I improvised again because cooking times varied too much) to 375 degrees F.
17) Combine one egg (well-beaten) and 2-3 tbs milk and brush over the tsoureki loaves. It is also common to sprinkle slivered almonds on top, though I did not.
18) Bake 15 minutes...check to see if browning too quickly, if so, decrease heat to 275 and bake another 30 minutes, or until golden brown. (I baked at 350 for 30 minutes, then decreased to 275 for last 15 minutes because the loaves were fairly golden at that point).
19) Another helpful hint...the bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
20) remove and cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then finish cooling on racks.
21) Store in covered containers or wrap and keep in freezer.

The end.

Bah humbug...

Man, I just checked the site to make sure everything posted properly from yesterday and quite frankly it makes you feel for the poor, mopey, little boy. If I didn't live with him and know his personality and I was just passing by, after looking at the Easter post I'd have to say, "Someone give that poor boy a big hug and something sweet to eat!"

So today is Good Friday, the end of Lent. I hope all of you out there did better than I did. In fact, I'd have to say Satan really had a hold this year, but in the last couple of weeks I kicked him off and found my strength and dedication again and have been completely disciplined and going strong.

Fen is down for a nap now after a big morning visiting YiaYia and then running around with WaiWai and me. I'm about to go start trying to make the Tsouréki (Greek Sweet Bread for Easter) and see if I can't get the red resurrection eggs (another Greek tradition) finished while the bread is rising (yep it involves yeast and lots of time). I figure now that we have a kiddo, we need to step up some of the traditions. Fen is only 1/8 Greek now, but I grew up with those Greek family gatherings and I want him to have a feel for some of it. And after all, we still have full blood Greeks around with WaiWai and cousin Marie...and my mom (Fen's Granmama), while only half Greek, is very much as Greek as they come. This year, just bread and eggs, but maybe next year I'll plan early enough to have Easter at our house with ham, and lamb, cheeses, salads, and lots of olives, of course!!! Kalamata olives are THE BEST! So...Kaló Pás'ha everyone! (Happy Greek Easter).

Easter fun at daycare...

This morning, Fender's daycare had their Easter Egg hunt with the Easter Bunny. I have to say it was pretty funny (and yes, Fender had a good time, but you wouldn't know it from any of his pictures of course.) First of all, being Spring Break, two of the kids are out for the week and of the four who remain, Fender was the only one who brought any colored hard boiled eggs. I kid you not they were running around picking up plain white hard boiled eggs. It was sad and funny all at the same time. We were each to bring 3 plastic eggs and 3 hard boiled eggs, so thankfully the plastic ones added some color. :) You'll note his class is still ALL BOYS...and one of the boys cracked us up because he seemed to be scared of any eggs that were colored...he would run around looking for plain white hard boiled eggs on the ground. But the funniest part was near the end when Fender realized it was fun to throw the hardboiled eggs around...so one by one, he cracked all but one, which he gently rolled across the ground instead. Wish I had a video of that! Oh well...here are some pictures from this morning's festivities followed by a very short video near the beginning of the Easter Egg Hunt (before we found how fun it was to throw the heavy hard boiled eggs around).

 
 
 
 

Egg coloring...

The family colored Easter Eggs last night with Auntie L. I have been really looking forward to this Easter. At 17 months old, Fender can really interact and enjoy it all!

 
 

Video part 1: Daddy teaches Fender to use the egg holder so our hands stay clean. :)


Video part 2: Dad had to concede that sometimes fun has to be a little messy. :)


When we wrapped up the eggs for the night, Fender had a red right hand and a blue left hand. They may be stained that way through Easter. Oops. Live, laugh, and learn. :)

Crazy for Olives...

Normal? The boy LOVES olives!!!!!!!!!! First thing every morning he goes to the fridge and asks for olives (pimento and all) and again every night before dinner. He is usually more calm than he appears in the video...I guess waiting the extra second for me to get the camera was enough time to put him into olive withdrawal. Enjoy the laugh.

First Snow...

Woke up to a winter wonderland. Here are pictures from Fender's first snow play. The last picture is my attempt at getting Fender to make me a snow angel. Ha...as if.
 
 
 
 

Easter photo shoot...

Here are some pics from our first family photo shoot. Only one picture of the family survived the cut, but we thought nearly all the pictures of Fender turned out great, of course. He still barely ever smiles for the camera. I am definitely jealous of all our friends out there with super smile happy camera babies...you know who you are. But I guess it just makes it that much more special when you see Fender laugh and smile in person. :)

 
 
 
 



By the way...for those of you who were concerned about my being denied the right to vote yesterday... You might be interested to know that my voter registration was quickly reinstated this morning with a profuse appology from a woman at the county clerk's office who said my registration was revoked by the Secreatary of State because of a "strong possible match" of me with someone else in some other part of the country or state...they never said where.

It sure didn't take any effort to get it cleared up and she said they were supposed to have notified me to sort it out prior to the election, but it was never sent. All I know is, IF and I'm not saying there is any sort of political debauchery going on in attempts to sabatage an election...because that would be completely unheard of...but IF it were, then I would have to say mission accomplished, because it certainly kept my vote from counting when it mattered most.

VOTE...

Seriously fellow Texans...go Vote.

You have until 7:00PM tonight.

Hopefully you won't get to the polls and find you've erroneously been black-listed like me.

Am I alone here, or doesn't the constitution give all tax paying (non-felon) citizen's a right to vote? Ugh...feathers will be ruffled until we get this straightened out folks!!!!!!! The Secretary of State picked the wrong conscientious citizen to mess with.

Saturday play cont...

Fender's buddy needs a drink of some water after all those tasty milk bones earlier...
 

Okay, should I tell you that Fender learned this from watching Sebastain do it first? The boys were thirsty, what can I say?
 

Fender says...okay, all done now, momma. So I proceeded to get him out of the wet clothes as the sun moved behind a cloud and we headed inside...
 

But not before he had a chance to crawl under the deck to play while I was putting the other toys away. Boys...can't take your eyes off them.
 

A beautiful saturday in february...

Fender will be 17 months old tomorrow. Yikes. Sign language doesn't seem to be slowing down his attemps at speech, in fact, I think wanting to talk may be slowing down his attempts at signs. :) He does have a new sign for ball, though. I thought ball would be an easy word, but the L at the end of things is more difficult than it seems. Attempts at ball and bowl, for example, sound the exact same. Frustration with me not knowing exactly what he is "saying" is likely the reason he came up with a sign for ball at all. ;) In on-going speech development, it seems everyone has been trying to teach our little man about the G on the end of Dog. So much so, that dog is now a two syllable word (dah-guh) with emphasis on the guh.

That's all I'll go on about for now. Here are some pictures from our 80 degree (F) Saturday this weekend.
We start, with an "uh-oh" as Fender wanted to make sure Sebastian had access to ALL his milk bones at once. Notice the excellent milk bone toss as we (apparently throw) the biscuits back in the box. And have some fun doing so.
 
 

Too tired at nap time to lay down I guess...:)
 

Outside play: first we need a little water...