Buona Pasqua

I was really excited to be able to experience Easter in the heart of Catholicism.  One thing we found (or didn't find) were that plastic eggs don't exist here.  They do not celebrate with Easter baskets here at all.  So it took a little creativity to put together the boy's baskets.  One thing they do have is chocolate, lots of chocolate.   Including these HUGE chocolate eggs.  They were so big, and usually filled with some sort of small toy.  To say the boys loved them is an understatement.  They also don't color eggs here.  So we did our

best to color our brown eggs with food coloring.  I had both gel dye and regular dye and I found that the gel dye worked the best.  The eggs were very natural looking and I actually prefer them to the neon colors.  Friday evening the Relief Society had an activity making traditional Easter Cookies.  So the boys dropped me off for the activity and we met up again afterward.  The cookie itself reminded me of a really thick sugar cookie.  I forgot to take a picture but I included one I found online. They use the shape of a dove and add an egg in the middle that represents life.  It turned out really good.  After the activity we decided to head to downtown Taranto.  There was a procession march that evening for Holy Week.  It was quite

interesting.  There were men that carried figures such as the crucified Christ and the Virgin Mary.  They were barefoot and it was quite a reverent occasion.  There were also penitent masked men that walked among the figures.  They honestly reminded me of the KKK, with their white hoods and robes.  It sort of freaked me out a bit, but luckily the boys didn't really notice them.  There were so many people out and about it was fun to be there.  We ate street food and of course ended the night with gelato. We hadn't done much in the downtown part of Taranto before this march, and it really is quite a nice city.  We have been there a few times since.  On Easter we had both sets of missionaries over for dinner.  I cooked both a beef and pork roast.  It is times like these that I miss my slow cooker.  With it being a holiday the missionaries didn't have appointments that night, and so we were able to enjoy the whole evening with them.  David especially loves it when they come over.  He has already requested that they come for his birthday dinner as well.  The Monday after Easter is a national holiday here.  With everyone having the day off, the ward had planned a BBQ for the day.  There were lots of games and the boys really enjoyed themselves.  It was really just a laid back kind of day, which are the ones I love the most.