Easter with an empty basket

I love holidays.  Holidays are my thing; I love having the family together so I can made a huge meal and we can all sit around the table and eat until we are stuffed on all the special dishes I only prepare for holiday meals.

Ham dripping with a honey and hot mustard glaze, mashed potatoes with real butter and cream, homemade rolls, yams with brown sugar, and fruit salad with colored marshmallows . . . then there is desert.  Oh yeah, desert, let's see we have pie, and . . . . 

WAIT A MINUTE!!!  HOLD THE PHONE!!  I can't eat that!  What am I thinking?  That stuff is no where in the Dtour book.  Trust me, I checked, twice!

Deep breath, new plan.  What can I make?  Artichokes!  I can make Artichokes - I love Artichokes!  What are the chances of getting my 5 nieces and nephews to eat and artichoke?  Check - take camera to dinner table.

Maybe I could pass mashed cauliflower off as mashed potatoes.  Do you think they will  notice?  Okay, I can deal with having mashed potatoes on the table and not eat them, I'll just keep and artichoke close by and I'll be okay.

Suddenly our fat-laden, carbo-loaded, sugar and sodium packed holiday dinner has turned into a vegetable garden and a little ham.  I'm excited about it.  Not to sure how my nieces and nephews will feel about it; but we are all on a new path with new adventures ahead of us.

Now for the Easter Baskets:  Let me see I need jelly beans, Cadbury cream eggs . . . 

Oh Man!!  Will someone tell Peter Cottontail to pass us by this year?  Thanks!