2009 Easter Sunday family dinner and get together at the Rench residence...

Sunday, April 12, 2009 happened to be Easter Sunday, and it's the tradiiton in our family to have a family get-together and dinner on Sunday afternoon. We have now acquired quite an extended family in the greater Sacramento area, and when it comes to free food, its always easy to draw a crowd, even if some of the guests have prior commitments. I was in luck this Easter Sunday, as I didn't have to work, nor did I have to go to work at midnight, so I was able to actually enjoy a family event, which can be a rare thing to do in my life.

Photo: Casey, LauriLynn and Nate enjoy appetizers at the kitchen table. Nate seems to be more interested in surfing the Internet on his cell phone than joining in the conversation. Call it a "guy thing..."

Photo: Sharlene bastes the ham with a sauce made from brown sugar, and other delicious ingredients.

Several days before Easter, Sharlene did the meal planning, and made a trip to the grocery store. She asked me what I wanted for the main course, and I requested a ham, as I couldn't remember the last time that we enjoyed a dinner of roast ham. As strange as it may seem, some of our guests don't care for ham, so to satisfy every taste, we purchased a tri-tip roast as well. To top things off, we purchased one of those pre-packaged tri-top roasts where all you have to do is to pop it into the microwave oven and nuke it for a few minutes, and its ready to eat. It's easy, and everybody goes crazy over it.

Photo: Reilynne and Tristen really know how to re-arrange our living room, as Sharlene looks on.

Photo: Nate sits on the stairs on contemplates how his daughter and her cousin have temporarily redecorated the living room. The toy box is to the right of the photo,, where most of the "stuff" is concentrated.

Photo: Casey, Nate and LauriLynn relax on our patio. The post near the left center of the photo houses the sensor suite for my computerized weather station. The pots contain vegetables, which is this year's garden.

Sunday morning Sharlene got the whole thing started by making the scalloped potatoes, and deviled eggs, while I tidied up the patio and set up the extra table and chairs in the kitchen. By mid-afternoon, when our guests began to arrive, the drinks were on ice, the house was ready, and the hors d’oeuvres (bet you didn't think I could spell that!) were on the table. We have to make a few adjustments in our house to accommodate the needs of a couple of two small girls, but that's not a hard thing to do, as we keep a container of toys in the living room, and the girls know exactly where we keep the toys. Not to mention we offer ample use of DVD players, and even a computer on occasion. During warmer weather, we encourage the girls to play outside and enjoy the use of our hot tub and our spacious back yard. Although the weather was quite pleasant, it wasn't mild enough to enjoy the hot tub and it was still a bit damp in the back yard, from the recent rains.

Photo: Sharlene's glazed, spiral cut ham. She has removed the pineapple slices from the ham, and they're soaking up the yummy juice from the ham.

Photo: Casey places the ham on the kitchen table, as it's almost time for dinner to be served.

Photo: The tri-tip roast turned out to be a huge hit. It looks like tri-tip will always be on our menu.

We started out the occasion by offering appetisers and drinks for our guests. Appetisers consisted of a veggie plate, with baby carrots, bell pepper and celery strips, diced cauliflower and broccoli, with dip and grape tomatoes on the side, tortillas chips, deviled eggs, and guacamole, salsa and cheese dip. Drinks consisted of beer, coffee, various soft drinks and juice. We rarely serve hard liquor or wine, as it can be quite expensive and potentially can cause problems that nobody needs.

Photo: Tristen gives me a pensive look, as she begins to enjoy her dinner. Note that she likes the mixed vegetables, which is a refreshing change for a five year old girl.

Photo: Left to right... Reilynne, LauriLynn, Nate, Sharlene, Tim, Casey, Robert, Larissa, and Tristen. I'm behind the camera,, so I'm not in the photo. Note the huge amount of food; we were enjoying leftovers for many days after Easter.

Photo: Tristen demonstrates how to use a notebook computer, as her dad Robert relaxes in the background, with Tim's kitty Sassy on his lap.

Sharlene is an outstanding cook, and she showcased her talents with this meal. The main dish was spiral-cut, baked ham, but she added a bit extra to it by coating it with pineapple slices, and adding a brown sugar glaze during the last few minutes of cooking. The tri-tip roast was a huge hit, and it was soooo easy; just throw it in the microwave oven, set the timer, and forget about it until its finished. In addition the main courses, she made two scalloped potato casseroles, mixed vegetables and dinner rolls. We didn't have an official desert, as who had room? ... but fresh pineapple slices rounded out the fine meal.

Photo: I love this photo, as Reilynne seems quite amused by whatever Tristen has on the screen, but Tristen seems to be taking it quite seriously.

Photo: Grandpa Eric acts as "tech support" to Reilynne and Tristen, as they play a kid's game on Sharlene's notebook computer. They peppered me with questions about the game they were playing, but they knew more about it than I did.

We enjoy the company of our extended family, and Easter, 2009 was no exception, as we had an outstanding time, and everybody went home well-fed.

Update: April 18, 2009... I'm still enjoying leftovers for my dinner each evening at work. We have so much leftover ham that we'll probably have to freeze it, to use for another day.

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