Celebrating Easter

A few days worth of preparations all came together today as we celebrated Easter.

The miracle of Christ's resurrection and his victory over death was remembered in

our church service and in our prayers as a family.

 We started the day eating these giant cinnamon rolls with warm buttermilk glaze. 

I used a recipe of my crescent roll dough, rolled out and filled with butter, brown sugar and

lots of cinnamon.  Roll, slice into 12 huge rolls, rise and bake 25 min at 350.

 Easy to make and smelled so good while they were baking that we had to

sample them the day before, too!

 And I think the cross cut-out cookies ended up being my favorites! 

 I used edible ink markers for the detailing. It's always fun to make up the Easter baskets. 

 Taylor's little basket is a Longaberger one that I bought him for his very first Easter.

  It has a little chocolate stain on the outside from his little toddler finger that

 I smile at every year when I pull it out. :)

Fresh flowers, an old ceramic bunny and chocolate eggs make the foyer table cheerful!

Trader Joe's naturally flavored Citrus Gum Drops have become a tradition in recent years.

I went the natural route coloring eggs this time.  Check out the process HERE!

And I can't resist making some cookie eggs with fancy frosting.

British chocolates are so sweet with their nest and chick wrappers.

I love the way they look under this etched dome.

Nothing smells better than homemade rolls rising and then baking!

The traditional ham was dressed up in a pineapple-mustard-brown sugar  glaze and I tried a new recipe, Braised Ginger Carrots, from the book French Women Don't Get Fat.  The devilled eggs got dressed up with the first little snips of dill from my herb pots!

These crescents beat anything from a can.  If you'd like to try them, the recipe is HERE.

Dessert was layers of scratch yellow cake with raspberry preserves in the middle and a lemon drizzly glaze poured over the top.  Gloria's raspberry ice cream was the perfect accompaniment and the first ice cream I've made this year.  If was fun to pull the ice cream maker out, too!

I'm stuffed, sitting here with a cup of hazelnut coffee and feeling sleepy.

I hope you've had a wonderful day!

I'll be back in the morning with my "H" word for the

A to Z Challenge!

♥