Easter

Another candy holiday is upon us, Easter.  Easter and Valentine's Day seem to be "sugar holidays" in my mind.  Mixed chocolates, jelly beans and (in England) HUGE CHOCOLATE EGGS.

In England, it is customary to give everyone a huge hollow chocolate egg that is filled with one kind of candy or another, like a huge chocolate egg filled with M&M's or a huge chocolate egg filled with smaller Cadbury eggs with the goo in the middle).  This is a far removed tradition for me, as because I am American, any hollow chocolate item means really bad tasting, cheap chocolate.  In England this is not the case, they take their chocolate seriously and therefore all these chocolate eggs are worth eating.

The thing is, when you are a little kid, you may end up with 3-4 eggs (or more!), because EVERYONE gives you one.  When I was little, my Easter Bunny gave me a basket full of plastic eggs filled with jelly beans and M&M's, some of the little solid chocolate eggs (yummy chocolate), and maybe a Cadbury Egg.  There was also a soft toy, a little bit of cash (the GREEN egg) and the hard boiled eggs we decorated.

This is the first year we have taken the Easter Bunny on board.  Knowing that the Sprout would get at least one chocolate egg, I had to steer away from the chocolate.  I went with some jelly beans and gummy candy in plastic eggs (it is hard to find plastic eggs here).  We also got a stuffed toy and a spade for the garden (the Easter Bunny wants the Sprout to plant him some lettuce).  Of course, within an hour all of the jelly beans and gummy candy was gone, and the chocolate hollow bunny his great nan gave him (Smatries) had been gutted.  Needless to say I have a pixi on crack running around the house.

What I would really love to do, is make my own hollow chocolate Easter Egg as our holiday tradition.  it would be a fun thing for all of us to do and to give them to each other.