Sunday, March 31, 2013

Not-My-Easter Sunday


Yes, my family is Christian Orthodox and our Easter is
in fact on May 5th this year.  (Ooo!  Cinco de Mayo themed drinks anyone??)
However, we still get together on every "not-our-Easter" to drink, yell and eat!

This Sunday gathering started out very much on point.
My cousin's wife Tara takes a sip of soda and starts shaking her head saying,
"Nope... Nope!! Guysss.. no." We are all half listening until she yells,
"JUNE 2012!" at us.  Then we realize that what she is trying to do is warn us that 
the soda has gone bad and is almost a year expired.  Her husband Brian replies with
"Well I just drank an entire glass and I didn't notice a thing" which is when I 
added "Tara..... this is an every holiday occurrence.  We grew up on stale soda."
Tara's face was horrified until we explained that every year someone would ask
where the soda was and my grandmother would yell sharply "in Nene's room!!!" 
My mother would go grab the soda, pour it and theeeen the outbursts would 
happen.  Everyone yelling about expired soda... mostly the women yelling 
"IT'S FINE! IT'S FINE!" my grandmother yelling "OH STOP IT!  JUST DRINK
IT, IT'S FINE! KIDS IN ALBANIA DON'T EVEN HAVE STALE SODA!!" 
and the kids yelling "Oh my God that's disgusting!!! How old is thaaaat!?"
{total chaos}
I think the oldest soda we were forced to drink was just shy of 3 years expired. 

I'm not joking.

Needless to say we pretty much grew up on stale soda and it was 
extremely fitting that our first real holiday without my grandmother, there was
 soda that magically appeared on the table and it was about 10 months expired.
Her way of saying Happy Easter!  

I am so glad I came home for not-my-Easter.  As I get older I just can't 
get enough of my bat-shit-crazy family.  They're just so spicy!

The food was great, per usual!  I made my brussel sprouts with turkey bacon,
shrimp salad with pesto sauce and Lemon Rosé Bellinis.  All well received! 
{I will leave the recipes for the food in a separate post!}

Now the old ladies didn't care for the drinks too much but the kids loved them!
By old ladies I mean my mom and aunt and by kids I mean my cousins, brother, 
brother's girl friend and myself.  So I mean... take what you will from that.  

My Aunt Gia made her famous Swedish Meatballs, my uncle cooked the 
rest of the meal ie ham, cheesy potatoes, corn, etc., my cousin made
Cadbury Egg brownies (sooo good!!!), my aunt made ricotta cookies,
my mom made the ice cream cake and those cute as a button
Peep cupcakes were made by Tara and Brian's neighbor Kathy!
(Had to give you a shout out Kathy... such a great Easter treat)

And here are the photos.....




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