Easter 2011 Recap

In addition to the warm weather on Sunday, there were a lot of things that made my Easter weekend special.

A beautifully decorated table with tons of chocolate treats waiting for us:

Did I mention the chocolate? Traditional bunnies as well as special edition Lindt chocolates, Ferrero Rocher chocolates (including my absolute favorite the coconut version) and Ghiradelli chocolates:

A sneak peek in the kitchen revealed the source of the good smells wafting through Andrew's parents' house - Charlotte's world famous egg casserole (which usually only makes an appearance on Christmas morning) and french toast casserole to provide the "br" in our Easter brunch:

And nothing beats traditional ham to round out the dishes - yum!

Here's a look at the full brunch spread - we enjoyed biscuits, fruit salad, roasted potatoes, sugar snap peas and hot cross buns as well:

As you can see, I didn't skimp on my portion sizes - after all, Easter only comes once a year!

The nice thing about brunch was the blended group of family and friends - Amanda was home for the weekend (before jetting off on a whirlwind trip of Asia), and Amy, her roommate Merissa and my uncle Rich:

The rest of the family was filling their plates - Andrew and his parents:

Then, there were the desserts. Full confession, while I was originally planning on baking something for Easter, we ended up going out to watch the Bruins playoff game on Saturday night.  So what did we end up bringing?

An ice cream cake from Peaceful Meadows, an ice cream shop in Plymouth (fun fact: Amanda used to work at Peaceful Meadows in high school):

Rich brought a beautifully decorated chocolate cake from his favorite bakery in Taunton:

And my favorite dessert, Charlotte's homemade spice cake with Frangelico-infused frosting:

Poor A.J. was relegated to the downstairs family room for most of the meal but was allowed upstairs once we cleared the remnants of our feast away.

I know it's the wrong holiday but this weekend left me feeling thankful once again that Andrew's parents are so generous in opening their hearts and home to a motley crew of family and friends.