So how many of you ladies are doing egg hunts and having a big dinner? And how many of you are the ones hosting?

Since our grandma has gotten older and is having health issues, my DH and I seem to be taking over cooking and hosting family get-togethers. Which I love, mind you, but I really would like to just go to a party and not have to do any work (even for b-days I cook the cake). My family doesn't help prepare, cook, or set up for a get-together (sometimes I get help doing dishes). Grandma has helped out a little with money for the food, but it is expensive to feed 10-15 people and put on a egg hunt all by yourself. Candy and eggs and a prize for the winner set me back 75 bucks. Yikes! It is for 6 kids at least. It seems to be a love/hate relationship for me. Love doing it, hate preparing and cleaning up. Anyone have any tips on how to make it easier?

My poor sister's the one hosting ours. She usually hosts most of our family gatherings these days, and she's the youngest!
She gets stuck with the work because she lives in North Carolina, which seems to be the midpoint for everyone (my parents & I live here & my bro. just moved to Hawaii, but I've got some very close cousins who often come down from NY ...).

Anyway, we're headed up there Friday for the whole big Easter thing. It will be fun. Mostly .

I'm hosting Easter this year. My MIL and FIL are flying in Friday. And we're having some friends over with their kids. They are also transplants from the north without family around. There will be 7 adults and 3 kids.

I am making it as easy as I can by cooking a ham. Those things cook themselves. Sides will also be easy. Veggies. Rolls. Mashed. Done.

Yes, we're doing an Easter egg hunt. The kids are 3, 15 months and 10 months. So it won't be anything elaborate. But it will be cute.

Right now I'm more worried about cleaning my house and preparing our spare room for my in-laws (it's still full of boxes with an unmade bed).

But, generally, I love hosting holidays. That's why our new house had to have a dining room. Yeah, it's crazy and exhausting. But so much fun and having family here is a treat since we don't get to see them often.

I will pray for you night & day, Kristi

By the way, we don't host big get-togethers, but my parents stay with us AT LEAST once a month - for three days at a time!
Love the family, love the excitement. But, well, You know how things are with family ...

The part I don't like is having to clean the house really well before I host. I try to keep it clean always, but you still have to do a good clean for guests. My party will be 12 adults and 5 children ages 8, 6, 4, 3, and 14 months, so our hunt should be alot of fun. My neice who was coming, can't make it. What makes it worse is we are going to church with my DH grandma Sunday morning, so we are going to have to cook the ham and mac-n-cheese, and whatever else we can on Saturday. We always have a huge spread. I am making a cake for desert. We will have ham, dressing, mac-n-cheese, rolls, potato salad, peas, corn, butter beans, green beans, deviled eggs, and lots of tea, not to mention dying eggs. Whew, I get tired even thinking about it. But happy all at the same time to have all the family together.

I don't know about you kristi, but I am so looking forward to Ronald being old enough to help dye eggs, and hunt them on Easter. Some of my favorite memories are of hunting eggs on Easter.

Watching my tot dye & hunt Easter eggs is the greatest thing ever! Y'all have a lot to look forward to, I can promise you that. And I'll be posting pix of all that stuff in about a week or so!

Thanks Distractedmom!
Yes, I do look forward to when Jack can really participate in egg coloring and hunting. So much fun! I think this year he'll go and get the eggs but then he'll probably just chuck them! LOL

And I hear ya on the cleaning. Ugh. I was looking at my floors this morning and I have a lot of scrubbing and cleaning to do in preparation for this weekend. Ugh. Now that we have a 4 bedroom house I'm in a bit of shell-shock. We've been living in a small apartment for 8 months and that was MUCH easier to clean! LOL

So, Kristi, have you found the time to clean yet? I haven't done anything but put candy in the plastic eggs. I have had a bunch of family drama. Why can families be so much drama sometime? Well, anyway, back to the subject. I have alot to look forward to tonight and tomorrow!

Um....no. LOL.
Jack is finally down and I'm sitting here working. I'm trying to get my column done since it's going to be such a busy weekend. Of course, my in-laws are flying in tonight. And is their bed made? No. Is their bathroom clean? No. Are my floors clean? Nope. UGH.
I'm trying to jump up and clean sections of the house in between interviews. I have laundry going. So that's a plus! Ah well...

Fortunately, a friend is coming up today with her kids and will watch Jack while I get stuff done. She's the best!

Yes, I'm looking forward to the weekend too. It'll be hectic but fun!

I always feel bad for my boys (husband and sons) when we have company coming, because I'm so stressed out & cleaning like crazy for two days beforehand.
And my poor hubby - he gets home from work after midnight & I usually try to let him sleep until AT LEAST 10 am, but not when company's coming.
Poor guy's been getting up at the crack of dawn (well, the crack of 8!) to mow the lawn, clean out trash cans, clean the kitty litter (it's his cat, and I refuse!!) and all that other gross stuff. And I'm a complete terror when I'm in cleaning mode, I know.
He puts up with so much!

I agree with you DistractedMom, my DH has to put up with my cleaning mode when we are hosting a party. I am pretty nice about it though, but I just ask him to watch LO while I clean. My DH and I work the same amount of hours, so asking him to do something b/c I don't have time to get to it I don't think is mean, just getting accomplished what needs to happen . He is accustomed to having the house really clean after several years of being together, and I must admit, he is a wonderful help, and rarely complains. We each have tasks we do, I clean bathrooms and kitchen mostly, and he does all the trash (including the diaper pail peewhew!) and vacuums most of the time. He also does a good portion of the yard work. So we try to split it up evenly, even when there is company on the way.

So get this.
My poor MIL is trying to get here from Wisconsin and they are in the middle of a blizzard out there.
So her flight last night was canceled. Her flight this morning was canceled. They told her they couldn't get her out until Tuesday.
Finally, she managed to get a flight out of Chicago today so she drove the 90 miles to Chicago this morning and right now she's sitting on the runway in Chicago and they are delayed delayed delayed.
The poor woman just wants to get to Alabama to see her family. Isn't it supposed to be spring? Geez.
At least my FIL made it here last night.
For those of you wondering why they didn't fly in together, my MIL took a temporary job in her company in Wisconsin and my FIL is holding down the fort in Boston while she completes the job (18 month gig). Kinda hard to be apart a lot, but the company flies her out to see her family, kids, grandkids on weekends. So she is liking that (her kids and grandkids are in AL and NC).
I hope she actually makes it here today!!
I do not miss snow.

That's awful! Poor woman!

Holy smoley! What an awful traveling story! I hope she was able to arrive and spend a few hours with her family. Ya know - sometimes flying takes more time than driving places! Happy Easter all! Ours went very well! Sugar overload for my girls. Now bring on the 70+ degree days permanently!