Easter 2008

Call us crazy - and that may very well be accurate - but after spending the quietest Easter in the history of our lives last year, we wanted to be surrounded by people this year. So, without giving anyone too much notice, we decided to invite a few people over for Easter Sunday Dinner.
Of course, as always happens with Ben and I, we start out with a certain number in mind and then it gets exponentially larger until it is out of control. Our initial figure for this started with a comment made 3 weeks prior when I asked one of our friends if thy had any plans for Easter. They did not and I said I would send them out an official invite once the day got closer. This initial addition was 4 people. When all was said and done, we had invited 23 people to our flat! Unfortunately, not everyone could make it so the final tally - including ourselves - was 19 and let me tell you, it was a blast!
Since we are not going to flat out decide what 23 (possible) people will be eating - it's just not our style and I mean really, from the smallest office party to the largest weddings you are at least granted two options! - we decided to send it to a vote...where majority would rule.
Everyone who knows me, knows that I do not step in a kitchen except to pass through, so Ben came up with three possibilities...that he would be willing to make: A Traditional American Easter Meal of a Roast Beef or Ham, an Italian Feast, or a totally nontradtional Chinese Meal. Hands down, the Roast Beef won. Terrific since we love a good roast...now the only problem was where to find one :)
We found a great site for a shop that actually supplies the Argentinean Beef to the local Argentinean Steakhouses, but alas it takes an entire week to get your shipment...from the hillside farms of Argentina. So Ben decided to try the butcher shop closest to the office. Needing help with what he was actually looking for, he asked one of his coworkers who immediately contacted her Czech mother-in-law
to find out what he would ask the butcher for. Armed with the proper Czech phrasing, he left the shop with 5+ kg of roast.
That night we heading to the IKEA out in Zlicin to find the necessary tools to host this many people...plates, utensils, wine glasses, chairs, and folding tables. We have all this and more - back in storage in the States. Who would have thought it would be needed here? More importantly, given the size of the average flat, where would it have gone? Oh well, the fact of the matter was we needed it now and we were on a mission to find it. Thankfully, IKEA is the place of dreams and we were able to find everything we needed...and set up delivery for Saturday morning!
After everything was delivered, it was time to clean, get everything unpacked and set up, run everything new through the dishwasher, and figure out a set up that worked. When that was accomplished, it was time to go shopping for the rest of the items that we would be taking care of. Thankfully, everyone coming took on a specific task from Beverage Patrol (Kelly & Alain), to appetizers (Gita & Colin), to salads (Hannah & her Mum), and dessert &plus some fabulous cornbread (Marie & Kevin).
Sunday morning was spent watching our children try to find the chocolate easter eggs that Ben had hidden the night before. They did very well finding all 12 of them, with Alex being able to declare herself the winner with 2 eggs more than Logan :) When that was over, we moved on to the final set up and a once over cleaning. Ben got the roast in around noon and we got both Logan and Alex to take a nap! It was truly a great thing that they did because they were both up until 10pm and 11pm respectively.
It was fantastic having this many people to share our day...and our traditions with. Yes, we initiated everyone into the Greene Family Easter Egg Smash and I think it was enjoyed by all. We did learn that when you have that large a group, you either need to be near the median age (so that your egg does not see that much action) or that we will have to split it up into smaller groups if we are lucky enough to have that many here again.
Monday was a Holiday here as well and we devoted the morning to returning the flat to normal. We found places to store the two tables and the eight new folding chairs, and the service settings found a new home in our old bar buffet. By Tuesday night the last load had been washed and put away and there were no signs that anything had happened here except for the occasional trip into the fridge for leftovers.
We can honestly say that this was a terrific Holiday and we wish to thank everyone who helped make our day that much more enjoyable. Hope everyone else had a terrific day as well!