The "Wishing you a happy spring" sign is seen lit at night on Parkersburg High School. (Photo provided)

This week is a special week for all of us. Easter is a very significant – in other words, a very important to be worthy of attention – holiday, and it has a true meaning: We celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

I love Easter and all the traditions that come with it. First, I love to go to church, which gives me extra satisfaction inside and peace of mind. I love the preparation of the special holiday, and I’m sure all of us and all of you by now have decided what to prepare tomorrow for your Easter dinner. Some people color eggs, families get together for dinner, and children love and look forward to the egg hunt. I love to see the expression on their faces when they find the golden egg; you’d think you gave them a million dollars!

Remember those days how important it was to get the golden egg? I don’t, because in Greece we don’t have that custom. But I remember with my children and my grandchildren how fast they were running to get as many eggs as possible in their basket and how happy they were if they got a couple extra eggs from the other children. Those are great memories, and as parents and grandparents, we’d give anything to have those days back.

By the way, last Tuesday we had two spring-Easter celebrations the same day. That was the first time it happened in all the years since I started those celebrations at Parkersburg and Parkersburg South high schools. But regardless, they were both very successful, very well organized.

At PHS, I had invited our president of PHS Foundation, Mr. Fred Earley, and he talked to us about the foundation and our new project, the renovation of the planetarium! When it’s done, we would like to invite everybody to come and see it. You will be so impressed that we have something like that in Parkersburg.

Wednesday was April Fools’ Day, and the month of April can’t make up his mind if he wants to have beautiful hot days or to have thunderstorms and lightning, and even fear of tornadoes – very scary. As you know, so far, we have had all of the above.

I hope for our Easter holiday we have a beautiful day so the children can have egg hunts, and everyone can wear their Easter outfits .

Some Easter traditions include sunrise services; many churches have services every night , flowering the cross, gift baskets, flowers, chocolate bunnies, new outfits and breaking Easter eggs as a symbol of the empty tomb.

One of my favorite things to do is to go to St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church on Good Friday to carry the cross and be part of the Stations of the Cross. What a great tradition of all the downtown churches. If you haven’t experienced that tradition, make sure to mark your calendar for next year so you don’t miss it. Trust me, you will love it!

Next week is the Orthodox Easter, and I will write about our customs and traditions!

I would like to add those names to the thank-you list I shared last week for helping with the Easter parade:

* Parkersburg News and Sentinel

* City of Parkersburg

* City of Vienna

* WTAP-TV

* Girl Scouts

* Brian Flanagan

So that is all for now, and I would like to wish from the bottom of my heart to all of you readers and all your families a “HAPPY EASTER” and many blessings to all!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Till next week

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Layered lemon pie

25 Oreo cookies

1/2 cup pecans

1/4 cup butter melted

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

1 (21-ounce) can lemon pie filling

Frozen whipped topping

Crumble cookies and pecans. Mix with butter, and pat into a pie pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Chill for 1 1/2 hours. Place half of the vanilla ice cream in pie shell. Freeze until set. Layer half of lemon filling over ice cream. Freeze until set. Layer remaining ice cream and freeze until set . Layer remaining pie filling. Freeze. Top with whipped topping and decorate with cookie crumbs, shaved chocolate or candied lemon wedges. Serves 8 to 10. Very refreshing for your Easter dessert.

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Brandy Alexander pie

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

2/3 cup sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, separated

1/4 cup cognac

1/2 cup cream de cacao

2 cups heavy cream, divided

9-inch graham cracker pie shell

2 to 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Grated chocolate for garnish

Sprinkle gelatin on cold water in saucepan. Add half the sugar, salt and egg yolks. Blend. Cook over low heat until just thickened. Do not boil. Remove from heat. Add cognac and cream de cacao. Chill until the mixture starts to mound slightly. Beat egg whites until stiff, add remaining sugar and fold into thickened mixture. Whip 1 cup cream and fold in above. Pour into pie shell. Chill several hours or overnight.

Whip, remaining cream with powdered sugar, use as garnish with grated chocolate.

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One-dish lamb loaf dinner

4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced

6 carrots, sliced

3 onions, sliced

1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of celery soup

2 pounds ground lamb

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup, finely chopped onion

1/4 cup, finely chopped parsley

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3 strips bacon

Place potatoes, carrots and onions on bottom of large casserole. Cover with soup. Mix to coat. Combine all other ingredients except bacon to make a loaf. Place on top of vegetables. Top loaf with bacon strips. Can be refrigerated until ready to bake. Bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.

P.S. – Perfect casserole for lamb lovers, like I am!

Yummy!