Easter Dinner: Hosted by The Perfect Housewife

hostess with the mostess

   It's no secret to my family and friends, that I love holidays! What's there not to love about holidays? Cooking, baking, eating, entertaining, decorating.... I could go on, and on. I'm actually slightly obsessed with holidays, I even start thinking about them and planning for them weeks and weeks before they actually take place. And although Easter is not considered by some to be as major of a holiday as say Christmas or Thanksgiving, to me it's equally as important and exciting.
  Growing up, my parents always made a big deal out of Easter. Maybe that's where I get it from? So this Easter I decided well in advance, that I wanted to host my first big family dinner. And when I say big, I am talking about inviting 20+ people for a formal sit down dinner in my tiny little house. My husband (Jake) gets anxiety when I talk about having only 10 people over, so I decided to start planning things early and let Jake in on my plans a bit closer to the day of the dinner.
  There is a lot to consider when you are hosting a formal dinner party. First off, where will everyone sit? Most people (myself included) can not fit 20 people into their dining room. This is when it comes in handy to have an open concept space in your home, where you can set up a few long folding tables. I am lucky enough to have an open concept kitchen/living room, but an open concept kitchen/living room/dining room would be even better if you have it! Maybe one day... I hope. Next up, you need to plan what you are going to serve for dinner. I decided on turkey, and not so much because I like turkey (because really it's not my all time fave), but because Jake got one for free from his employer at Christmas time (and I needed to use it up). My Oma offered to make a ham, and I took her up on it. Oma makes the best ham. Actually, Oma makes the best everything! I also decided to take my guests up on their offers to bring something. Cooking for 20 people is a lot of work, not to mention can get quite costly. So I say if people want to help make your life easier and contribute to the meal, then let them. I decided to make one veggie dish, the stuffing, and a salad myself. The rest of the sides I delegated for my guests to bring. As for dessert, I planned on making some Easter themed sugar cookies and a new creation of my own, lemon merainge pie cupcakes. Jake's Nana makes the best cream pies, so I asked her to bring a couple of them as well. Things were starting to shape up nicely. I had a menu set, a seating plan in motion, and guests invited. There was still lots to do though...

my spring/Easter themed planter
in front of my house

  I began envisioning how I wanted the dinner table to look. I fancied the idea of a green, yellow and pink colour scheme (very Easterish). So when I saw a beautiful green linen table cloth embroidered with white tulips, I knew I had to buy it for Easter dinner. In fact I had to buy two, because one wouldn't be long enough for a table set for 20! Once I found my table cloth, I began keeping my eye out for matching paper napkins. Normally I prefer cloth napkins, but after already purchasing the table cloth I decided paper napkins would be a bit more cost effective. I was able to find some beautiful pink, yellow and green plaid paper napkins along with some very cute lily shaped tea light candles in the same colours. Now I had a start on my centre pieces as well. I bought three of the same small glass vases for flowers, to use as part of my centre pieces. Now for dishes and cutlery. Luckily between my good cutlery and my everyday cutlery, I determined that I had enough for 20 people. But I did not have 20 dishes all in the same colour. I have two sets of dishes, a white set and a red set. Since red is more of a fall/winter colour, white was clearly the best option. So I had to buy more white dishes. Buying more dishes is yet another thing I decided to not let my husband in on. Since he thinks we have too many dishes already as it is. Men... they just don't have an appreciation for a beautifully set colour coordinated table! If it was up to him, we would serve our guests Easter dinner on paper plates. And probably mismatched ugly ones at that!
  Once my guests began to RSVP, I discovered that there would only be 15 people actually attending. That seemed much more reasonable. Although my husband still had his doubts that we could comfortably fit everyone in our small open concept kitchen/living room. I was confident that it would all work out just fine. The week prior to Easter, I added a few Easter decorations to the front of my house. I hate it when people over decorate for any holiday. All you need is a few tasteful and festive pieces to really brighten up your house and make it look appropriate for the approaching holiday.

sugar cookies all decorated

rolling out the sugar cookie dough

  On Good Friday I planned to make my sugar cookies. I'll let you in on a little secret. Pillsbury makes awesome sugar cookie dough! But they only sell it in the stores at Christmas time, So every December I stock up, and freeze the dough. Then I have enough to last me through out the entire year. Sugar cookies are such a colourful and delicious way to jazz up any holiday dessert table. Not to mention, they're super fun to make and decorate. I was about halfway finished making my cookies, when the phone rang. We were told some devastating news. Jake's cousin had been killed in a motorcycle accident. After the news sunk in (it took a minute or so), I questioned whether or not to cancel Easter dinner. After Jake and I talked it over, we decided that as long as the funeral was not on that day (which it wasn't) we would move forward with it. The turkey had already been taken out of the freezer, and we figured that being around the Schmidt side of the family (who would be in positive and upbeat moods) would be a ray of sunshine for us and my in law's during what would be a very sad and devastating few days ahead. Of course Jake's grandparents would not be attending (understandably so). Which brought our dinner table down to "dinner for 13".

cupcakes ready to be frosted

lemon merainge pie cupcakes
(with peeps on top, for an Easter feel)

    On Saturday, I also came to the realisation that I would now have to not only make cupcakes, but I also had to now come up with 2 pies (since Jake's Nana wasn't coming). Most people would have just bought the pies. I off course chose to be difficult and add making two pies to my already jam packed to do list. Luckily for me, Dr. Oetker makes delicious coconut and banana cream pie filling mix. Sometimes even the perfect housewife has to cheat a little. So not only did I have to do all of my running around for dinner on Saturday, but I also had to work on Saturday night. When I returned home from work at 2am, I immediately started baking cupcakes and making the pies. My stepson (Owen) couldn't help but comment, as I pulled out my stand mixer and began cracking eggs "I love how you just come home from work at 2am and just start baking! That's awesome." It's true, I just may be the only crazy person I know who would do such a thing. What can I say? I was born to bake!

the spread

my colour coordinated table

   On Sunday morning I got up early (after only 4 hrs of sleep), to put the turkey in the oven. Then I  began frosting cupcakes, setting up tables, ironing table cloths etc. I sent Jake down the street (where there was a guy selling Easter flowers on the corner) to buy some pink and yellow tulips. He came home with yellow daises and purple hydrangeas. He said that was all that was left. I worked my magic, and the flowers looked great on the dinner table. By this time it was 5 minutes before people were set to arrive, and I was still in my pyjamas, rocking last night's make up and major bed head. Sweet, no time for a shower or to wash my hair. Somehow I managed to pull myself together before my guests arrived, and I think I looked half decent at least.

the perfect housewife
and her husband

Easter themed dessert

    The family arrived and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon, full of food, drinks, and lots of love and laughter. I think I did a pretty good job for my first big family dinner. If there is one thing that I learnt from that weekend, it is that life is beyond precious. We all take everything and everyone for granted much too often. The truth is, that anyone you love can be here one day and gone the next. It's really that simple. So things like family dinners over holidays might seem like too much work for some people, so much so that people just decide to not have a family dinner at all. Because it's "too much work", or "I just don't have the time". Hey, if I can come home from work at 2am and bake desserts, run on 4hrs of sleep and still make a dinner special... then so can anyone else.