Rain won?t stop these Easter traditions

We?ll have to wait another week for May flowers. In the meantime, we?re stuck with April showers. Rain continued to soak the area Friday morning. Local residents hope it lets up by this weekend in time for their family Easter egg hunts.

Jenisa Hanson said her family will have an Easter egg hunt rain or shine. Hanson?s family gathers at her grandmother Pat Bruegge?s home every Easter. The egg hunt is the highlight of the day. The family breaks up into two teams ? kids and adults. Each team has a set of eggs they hide outside in Bruegge?s expansive lot. The kids hide the adults? eggs, and then the adults hide the kids? eggs.

?It?s all-out war,? said Hanson. ?We want to hide them as hard as we can and see how creative we can be. We like to hide my uncle?s egg extra hard. One of my brothers patted him on the back and slipped the egg in his hood. My uncle was walking around carrying his own egg the whole time. It took him forever to figure it out.?

Hanson said her grandmother?s yard has plenty of trees, bushes and sheds that provide cover for the eggs.

?The eggs are plastic with candy inside, and then there is a ?golden egg? with a dollar or two in it,? said Hanson.

When the Hanson family is not searching for eggs, its inside playing games.

?We like card games such as Phase 10 and King?s Corner,? said Hanson. ?The boys like to play tag outside. I used to play with them, but they played ?ultimate tag? where they throw stuff at each other. There were a lot of cuts and bruises. It was too rough for me.?

Hanson said her family is also into music.

?We like bluegrass and we like to have jam sessions when we get together,? she said.

Grandma Pat is in charge of cooking the Easter meal. Hanson said it?s something her grandmother looks forward to.

?She?s an excellent cook. She pulls out all the stops for Easter,? said Hanson. ?She cooks ham or turkey, and then grandpa grills, too. I?ve never had a bad meal at grandma?s. Sometimes other people bring deserts but grandma does most of the cooking. I help her in the kitchen. I go there early and mash the potatoes for her.?

Rosemary Pacha of Brighton had an Easter egg hunt at her mother?s house ? Katie Mineart ? for many years and then later hosted the event herself. One of Pacha?s frequent guests for Easter was her friend Katie Allison.

Allison?s parents ran a restaurant in Brighton called Roy and Alice?s Café. Pacha and her siblings worked at that café when they were young.

?We always said that ?Roy and Alice?s? put us through college,? said Pacha.

The Mineart family developed a close friendship with Allison and the rest of her family. Allison, her husband and her mother went to the Mineart?s home for Easter for years, and Allison continued to go after her husband passed away in the early 1980s.

?We always included her in family gatherings,? said Pacha about her friend Allison. ?She is a member of our family.?

Allison said that ?young and old alike? hunted Easter eggs at the Minearts?. Pacha said the family put candy in plastic eggs and then scattered them throughout the house.

Pacha said the tradition in her family is to eat lunch at noon on Easter. The family eats ham and salads, and feasts on Pacha?s deserts. She makes Rice Krispie bars in the shape of an egg.

Joy and Ralph Greenlee will celebrate Easter at their home in Washington. Their kids and grandkids will celebrate the day with them. Joy said the family will eat ham, baked noodles and fried cake, among many other things.

?Our daughter-in-law likes to bring cupcakes,? said Joy. ?We?ll have that and some pies.?

After the meal, Joy said, ?The guys go into the family room to watch TV and the women visit.?

Ralph said that many years ago, he would take the kids to a building that was full of rabbits. The kids were convinced that the Easter bunny lived there. Joy said she used to hide eggs for the kids, but that responsibility has passed onto her children, who have children of their own. Now Joy puts the Easter eggs together in a basket and hands it to her grandchildren.

?I don?t make them hunt for them like I used to,? said Joy.

Easter is not a day of celebration for everyone. For years and years, Washington resident Larry Barnes had to work Easter Sunday.

?This will be the first year in a long time I haven?t worked on Easter,? said Barnes. ?When you work, it feels like any other day.?

Barnes works as a security officer. He said working on holidays is all part of his job.

?Someone has to do it,? he said.

Typical Easter cuisine at the Barnes? household is baked ham. He said his wife Mercedita does most of the cooking. Mercedita is from the Philippines, and she incorporates Filipino food into the Easter meal. Barnes said she likes to cook rice noodles because they go well with anything.