I love Easter and all that it holds and all that it means. I like the idea of new Life, a resurrected Life. The greatest Love that was demonstrated on Good Friday and the Life that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.
Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations.
This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.
First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.
The rest of the laborers arrived and were donned with their aprons and head scarves.
At one point in the process of mixing the dough I thought I made a big boo boo so we prayed over the dough and Lana and I laid hands on the KitchenAid. I didn’t want to start over again. All turned out well…
Lana showing how her slippers match her apron. I am behind in giving a shout out to My Mother’s Apron Strings after I won this Christmas apron giveaway without knowing I even entered the contest. My sister is wearing it on the reverse side since this is Easter and not Christmas. Thank you Susan for sending the apron to me.
The other photos in the collage are of kneading the dough and shrink wrapping the boiled eggs. While the dough was rising we enjoyed lunch together. Home made tamales and beans with guacamole, chips, and Dan and Jamie’s home made salsa.
After lunch it was time to prepare the cans and to punch down the dough after it’s first rise. The Peter Rabbit bunting was completed by Katie and hung by Laura and Katie. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit for my birthday last week.
After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.
The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.
The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.
When the baking was done and the cheese mold was in the refrigerator setting up for our Easter Sunday meal the kids went out to dinner with their aunt and uncle. Dear and I stayed at home and crashed…
All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!
We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation.
I’m linking up with Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveler and ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC team for L is for Labors of Love. I noticed several L’s in this post like Life, Love, Lana, Laura, Lunch, and Labor force.
Hope you all had a good Easter Weekend and some of you got the bonus of Easter Monday holiday which is brilliant!
I’m also linking up to Thoughts of Home #8 with Laura at Decor to Adore.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
Love shines through this whole post. And oh my goodness the food looks good. That sweet cheese spread intrigues me — I can’t quite even imagine the taste and I’m so curious — however, it is so pretty it would be hard to be the first one to be served.
So nice that so many of you are local enough to be together for Easter traditions.
Very nice
Wonderful traditions Ellen! I love the aprons and head scarves for the working crew. Your pictures tell a beautiful family story – a meaningful Easter indeed.
This post had me smiling from beginning to end. What lovely memories these traditions must bring to all of you. I can tell by the smiles on the young faces that these are traditions that will go on a long time from now.
Oh gosh! I wish your family was mine! What a fantastic labour of love that appears to be! And the results are absolutely too beautiful to even consider eating…too bad you didn’t put in a photo of the “afterwards.” lol Wonderful post, Ellen!
Leslie
abcw team
Such treasured family times at Easter. Thanks Ellen for sharing these special moments of your life. Please return with more.
Wow, your family is wonderful. Treasure that, Ellen. Some of us come from fractured families, and we are all in awe of those who can coexist without “snark”! I studied Russian for a semester in high school and, whenever I see the Cyrillic alphabet, I do my best to sound it out, so imagine my happiness at mouthing the word, “Christos.” A nice surprise this morning.
Thanks for sharing your heart on this page. Amy
Oh my but I am drooling over all those delectable looking cakes & breads! A lot of work & love went into them I can see!
I love how the labor force were all dressed & your pretty garland over the door was a sweet touch!
Blessings to you, Ellen!
I love the shrink wrapped eggs. Where did you find the wrappers? It looks like a joy filled occasion in spite of the hard work by the crew. The end result was beautiful. Blessings on you and your family
Angharad, I found the wrappers at a Ukrainian food store (European Delicatessen) in Lynnwood Washington.
Hi Angharad, I’m Ellen’s sister in law. I found the shrink wrapped egg wrappers online at Amazon this year, they had all sorts of designs.
Such a wonderful post Ellen, true labours of love. I’m drooling over the food.
Good job ‘the kids’ went out for dinner so you and Dear could crash.
All the ingredients for a loving Easter, whilst not forgetting the true meaning
of Easter.
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
I love that this year’s So. Calif labor force included forced labor of Dzeda. haha Great pictures and I love the bunting.
This is all very LOVELY.
Sometimes, I’m more a LENTEN person than an Easter person…
ROG, ABCW
Life, Love, Lana, Laura, Lunch, and Labor are all very great words for this week. Lovely!
Wil, ABCW Team
I am very sorry that you are still struggling with colds. Ugh. I see that the remedy for a Paska misadventure is prayer…should have done this because the Paska here did not turn out as well as years’ past. It’s rather bland. I’ll blame the fruit. =D
the most beautiful “labor” there is…. you raise my appetite Ellen, 😉
Have a nice ABC-Wednesday-day / – week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (ABC-W-team)
Oh so creative and beautiful and definitely a work of love and loving family ~
Wishing you peace in each day ~ ^_^
What a nice tradition.
My ABC WEDNESDAY
This looks like it was a fun time, and how appropriate that the men were solving world affairs, haha.
Diana
What a wonderful tradition you are carrying on. Loved the eggs.
Oh, wow, it looks like you guys had a wonderful time!
What a fabulous way to spend a day with your family, not only making the traditional Easter bread but making wonderful memories too. Your “kulich/devilled egg” plate worked out perfect..
The whole family Easter endeavor is truly a labor of love… and tradition. The sweets look delicious, and those Easter eggs are so pretty. Thanks for your visit and blessings to you and your family!
You have lovely traditions. Ellen! My Mother was Ukrainian but she did not enjoy cooking, so she never made kulich or paska–I made them a few times over the years but I’ve more adopted the Italian traditions of my husband. Whatever the tradition, it is good to keep it going, as it adds to the beauty and joy of Easter!
I love your photos and the decorated eggs. Very cool!
I love how you dressed for your baking party!! Looks like so much fun!
Wonderful traditions, really a treasure!
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Ellen,
What a wonderful Easter. I especially love all your traditions, they really bring your family together.
Thank you for stopping by my blog,
~Kiki~
SOOOOOOOOO fun!!!! I chuckled at how you prayed over your dough. :o)
This is a beautiful heartfelt project.
There is nothing better than a labor of love.
Thank you for linking to TOHOT. We are so glad you are here.