The Traditions We Kept | Ep. 4

In this episode of Worth the Walk, we reflect on the Easter traditions we grew up with — the moments, the effort, and the love behind it all.

Because it was never just about the chocolate.

It was about what those traditions meant…
 and the ones we now carry forward.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to a space where we talk about the journey, every twist, every triumph, every moment that shaped who we are today. Here, we explore the paths that women walk on their journey to motherhood, identity, and everything in between. These are the stories that change us, the moments that ground us, the truths we don't talk out loud nearly enough. If you're searching for connection, comfort, conversation, a couple of good laughs, you're in the right place. This is worth the walk. Let's begin. And here we are, Cher, you and I again. Episode number four. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Worth the Walk. I'm so excited for today. So, number one, we are sitting back in my office. We have somewhat soundproof. I think you're gonna hear a difference today. I just really do. And um, the other part of this intro is Sherry has no idea what today is all about. No idea. I did not inform, I did not update, nothing. I just said, come on over. Let's go. I'm on the edge of my seat. You should be hold on tight. Holding on. Here it comes today's episode, all about traditions, all about what we did to celebrate occasions. I love that. The reason I picked that today is because Easter's only just a few days away. And I think about Easter and it gives me unbelievable joy from October.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

It feels like spring today. I know you think it's cold, but it is it's beautiful out today.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Sherry, the sun is shining and it's a blue sky. It is beautiful. The bird just looks like spring.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

It's very cold.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

It doesn't feel like spring. So put that in a box. When I look out my window, I think, oh my gracious, I should go out and just do something about some flowers or something. Until I open the door, step outside, and realize, well, I need a sweater and a hat and a pair of gloves.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

But on my way over. So on my drive over this morning, and the sun is shining, and I'm listening to music, and I'm listening to the Vince Garaldi trio.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I don't know that at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Um so like peanuts, Snoopy, Charlie Brown soundtrack. For Linus?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

So you were listening to Linus play the piano on the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

So the Vince Giraldi trio has does the Snoopy or the peanut soundtrack. Anyway, they have a Latin album.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Which really makes sense when I think of Linus and the piano and everything else.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

I don't know how I came across this. I I found the Latin album and there's a song called Treat Street, and I've got it in my brain, so it's a little earworm that I can't get rid of. But it just feels like spring. When I listen to it, it makes me really happy. Anyway, check it out. All right. Vince Geraldi Trio. You're on a mission. Get that. A fun fact the drummer for the Vince Giraldi Trio actually lived in Halifax. Just thought I'd bump the trivia. But just some trivia for the listeners.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Man, you just know your stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Back to that though, it just makes me feel like spring. So spring and it's a happy and Latin dancing.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Absolutely. That can ties right together. It's like it was meshed. It's the first thing that popped into my head, too. And then okay, carry on. Okay. So that's a surprise. That's our topic today. So I'll I'll jump in. How's that? So I'll I'll give you the why I get such warm, loving, beautiful feelings about Easter. So many years ago, in our first house we owned in Oshawa, and it was when the children were young. So Samantha would be, I'm going to say four and five, and Matthew would be like eight and nine type of thing. All right. And we would um start our Easter uh hunt on Sunday morning. So the first couple of years we lived there, we would just get a few eggs and we would uh hide them in our backyard. Now, but our backyard actually went in or meshed into the thing that we called the back 40. I don't know. I don't know why it was called the back 40. It was not 40 acres, but it was a you know a long strip of land. Like a big green space. It was a green space, but it wasn't ours, it belonged. Well, there's a person who owned it, don't know. Anyways, but we always used it. We used it for everything. We used it for Easter, we used it for soccer games, and we used it for football, walking the dogs, you name it. We used that back 40 all the time. So the first couple of years we lived there, we would buy those little bags and we put in our plastic uh egg things, put the little chocolate in it. Samantha and Matthew would go and look for eggs. But we also had a very close neighbor that shared our backyard. So it wasn't really shared our backyards. We just didn't have a fence separating. So um Darlene and her little boy would come over and we'd go and look. So years one and two, this is what we did. But then, you know, we started talking, thinking, well, wouldn't it be more fun if we had a couple of more of the friends come? So years three and four, we kind of invited Mal Matthews' friends that lived on the street, and then Samantha V invited her friends. Obviously, my best friend would always come. So Janet and I have been best friends for 30. Um how old is Samantha? Uh, 32 years. So we had been best friends that long. So her children would come over. So then we would um, you know, do that for a little bit. And then years four and five, those friends told two more friends. And by the years five, six, and seven, we had 40 and 50 people come like that. That's a lot of little plastic eggs to hide. That was a lot of bloody eggs. And it would take Darlene and I, and then of course Janet would be there, stuffing eggs for days, going to Walmart, smelling a small fortune. Oh, yeah. Come on, chocolate and eggs. And then we'd hand all the eggs to John and say, John, go hide these.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

So would you put just one of those Lilliput eggs per plastic?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

It all started out with one, okay? Until you're on egg 500. And it's just like, come on, man, just like that's three, five, don't care. Just till all the chocolate is gone. Because, you know, every parent wanted to contribute. So they would all come with their little hand, say, Here, I also bought you some chocolate and some eggs. You can fill those up. So by the end, I was sitting in the living room, John and I, or John and I and Janet, or John and I, Darlene, and do whatever, with bags of chocolate and eggs and just stuffing them to the nth degree. That sounds good. But then what a function. Oh, it was fabulous. And then the barbecues would get rolled out and we'd have the barbecues going. And there was one year that John's cousin brought his ATV over and it was blowing up one side right. No children are finding eggs. They're all well, they're all on the back of his ATV. He's taking it for rides up and down again. Uh, it was really, I mean, the memories are unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

So many great memories.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Outdoor Easter egg hunt beats the indoor Easter egg hunt. Every day. Every time.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Every single day. Every time.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Outdoor is way better. Or just can never be sure of what the weather is going to be like. So you can go out at night and hide those eggs, but they could be covered in snow in the next morning.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So I have to tell you that I don't know why or how it ever happened. But we rarely, if ever, have one cancel because of snow. It was quite miraculous how over all of those years we just didn't have one canceled.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Ontario typically runs after like spring seasons come out. Like their spring starts earlier anyway.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Well, yeah, and I'll digress for one second. So for the audience, I left Ontario and moved to Nova Scotia one year ago. Um so I've been one year, so a year and a half. And remember, we put the seeds down and potted those seeds in April, and in May it's popping up and everything. And you said you're too early, Claudette. You're too early. I said, Oh, I am not. We'll put them in in June. Well, end of May, beginning of June. Don't do that, Claudette. That's not what you do around here. You don't plant till the first full moon in June. And I said, Oh, what's that's what's a little wise tale somewhere? Like, what did Sherry do? She's only lived her whole life here. Anyway, John and I had all those seedlings ready to go, all up and up. I mean, just talk about impressed with the amount of work we did. They were. They lasted about three weeks when we put them in, went out to check them. Those suckers were burnt and dead and fried.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

We had two snows before. But look how seasoned you are now.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

You know all of them.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Haven't even opened my seed cases yet.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Not even yet. Exactly. We have such a long way to go before they can hit the ground. I'm just gonna say there. Let's go back to our Easter. Easter was probably the most common time and summertime that we would get together at Charles's mom and dad's house in River Bourgeois. And we would do Easter egg hunts. So those some of my best Easter memories are at Charles's mom and dad's house. And it was such a it was a small house, but boy, we fit. We all fit in there with our littles, and we would have Charles's mom would have two pullout sofas in their living area. And then of course the the spare bedrooms, and we would all just bunk up and have a great time. So yeah, Easter was fun. We do fill the eggs at night, and sometimes, like I said, we'd hide them at night, but most often we'd get up early in the morning and go and put them around the yard. Yeah. It was pretty, pretty great. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And I gotta tell you, it was this just happened a couple of weeks ago. I was cleaning out mom's old cookbooks and I found the template for rabbit. Bunny cake. Or bunny cake. Yes. It was like a cereal box that she cut the template out of. And so I have I'll take a picture and I'm gonna post it on our socials on Instagram and Facebook of the bunny template and then the bunny cake, which you used to make. Are you gonna make a bunny cake? I think I have to.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Oh my god, please do. I'll tell you, I've I've that bunny cake goes back years. No, I think I was gonna say 50, but I might I might be exaggerating. It could be 30 years that bunny cake goes back.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

It was definitely my birthday cake for many years when I was little. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

She has birthdays in March. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Sometimes Easter falls in March and sometimes it's April.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah. And um now has mom given all how you put that together?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

No. Oh, right. There's no instructions. I literally just have the template and then what it looks like on the finished product side. So I know it's two nine-inch rounds, and then you cut to make it into a bunny. I mean, yeah, I'm just gonna have to wing. Yeah, I don't I'm gonna have to call my friend, phone my Charles. Phone my friends. No more for how many phone friends have you had? I think I've he's got all the resources to help me, so I gonna have to bring him into the equation on that. But yeah, I'll I'll make it. I'll do like uh mom's template and the picture, and then I'll make it and I'll show what I I was able to come up with. Accomplished it? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Sounds good. Yeah, I love that. Bombie put coconut as his tail. Oh my gosh, yeah. And smarties. Smarties are gummies. I think it was gummies.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Gumdrops.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

It was gumdrops. I don't think it was smarties. Anyways, as I remember it, it was coconut and gummies. Um and I think she used red dye once for the eye. Don't do that. If I could throw out a key ingredient, pick pick like brown or something. Don't do red.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

But she'd be mixed up a little bit of pink icing to do the little whiskers. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

I know all of that. It was so good. Oh my gosh, what a great memory. Yeah. I'm gonna do try that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Is everybody home? I don't think Avery will be home. I think he's gonna be doing training in Toronto. Yeah, so I think I'm gonna have, I mean, university's wrapping up right now, so we've got some exams coming up. I think classes finish this week. So I'm definitely gonna have Oliver and Sophie home. And Ailen will be coming for dinner. I know. Yes, which would be great. So no, it's a big. Yeah, we're gonna cook a big dinner. I I always do a big Easter dinner, ham and scalloped potatoes.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Oh, ham and scallop, ham and scalloped potatoes. We should see if John would like to go.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

John doesn't like to eat at my house. No, he likes to eat. No, he does not. He's been very open and honest. He told me my potato salad that I made in the summer. He didn't even try it. He just said it's not as good as my mom, so I'm not even gonna eat it.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Boiled rotten.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

I was like, and here's the thing. I didn't even want to argue because Gloria makes a great potato salad.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So she's a very good cook. She's a very good cook. That'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

I wasn't even offended, but he was very honest.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Now I hope I get the story right. I actually have a phone, a friend out there. I could I could validate this. But there's a scarring memory in the Pacero family about scalloped potatoes. And his older brother was at the table eating, and he didn't want to eat the scalloped potatoes, except his father stated that you had to, and he wasn't going to leave the table until he ate all the scalloped potatoes. Now, I could be wrong because it could be peas that I'm referring to, or it could be scalloped potatoes. Either way, it's kind of a scarring memory for someone somewhere in the Pacero family. And they had to eat something they didn't want. And as as you can visualize, trying to swallow food you didn't want to eat didn't go well. Didn't go well at all.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Can you only imagine?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

So there is no scalloped potatoes that Claudette will ever cook in this particular lifetime. Now I love them. I'll eat them. But no. And John won't eat the ham either. So because he hasn't eaten the ham.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Okay, so I guess you're not coming to dinner. I'm not coming to dinner. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

But we're gonna have roast beef.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Oh good.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Ah, yes, the traditional Easter dinner. Absolutely. Barbecued, oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

The beef of roast.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

The beef of roast. That was good. Okay, the beef of roast. Ah, the cow.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

The cow for Easter.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And it'll be medium brear with horseradish and Yorkshire puddings and some whipped potatoes and all of that sort of stuff. I mean, I'd come. You're invited.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I'll be here with my cake.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yes, please. Just leave the scalloped potatoes at home.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

I won't bring a takeaway for my dinner. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

For John. All right. So again, we got distracted. How does that happen? It's so easy now. So traditions. So In all fairness, you didn't tell me what we were talking about. So I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Yes, you're you're doing good too, by the way. Just doing great. I'm I'm very proud of you, which I always am. Um yeah, so we this year, um oh, I sent them a parcel. I sent the kids the parcel. So I sent Cooper and Okay, by kids, you mean grandkids. Yes, and my kids. Okay. So but my kids didn't get a present. And and that's gonna cause some grief because I always buy everybody Easter presents and I hide everything. Whether you like it or not, and whether you're 30 or 13 or 3, I hide everything. You gotta work for it.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

You can't just Easter wake up and the bunny left you a basket just there in open. Right. Like coming. Thank you. That's the truth. And my kids would be so upset if I did not put together some kind of Easter something for them. I know. And look, full disclosure, if you're listening to this podcast with your littles, like we're just we're totally out in the Easter bunny here. Sorry. I mean, yeah, sorry. We're we're spoiling it all. Fast forward for a few minutes. Skip it. Skip it ahead. Anyway, my kids, my grown children, um, they're just get they still get excited about hunting for their Easter. As they should. Easter. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

No, we Easter you don't hand it over.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

And you should celebrate at all ages.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

I think so. I think we should always I love every holiday. I do. I and and I like I like the thing that goes with it. So the Christmas singing, because you know how good I am at singing, the Halloween scary, the Easter high.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

The singing. Yeah. Keep going.

unknown 18:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I am much better. Like someday I'm gonna sing on here, and you will see how much feedback I get that everybody loves what I do and how well I know.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

But yeah, for holidays, it's it's about here's what it comes down to is celebrating life and it's celebrating moments and celebrating each other, and it's just choosing to be happy and choosing um to find something to um to bring yourself together with people who um you love and people who have similar outlooks on life. So I'm I think it doesn't matter what the occasion or the holiday or the celebrations are. I think if you can take a minute to um express um the joy about uh being together with the people that you love and and identifying something you want to acknowledge and celebrate, I think that just is a part of life, a beautiful part of life. And and sometimes it's hard to do because you're you're in the moment of parenting when things are you know, it's it's difficult when the kids are are small or money is tight or uh life is difficult or you've lost a loved one, those things are hard. Um making yourself um find something to be grateful for and celebrate is part of all of this. So Easter is one occasion where I think it's like, you know what, it's spring, it's new, let's have a new outlook, a new, a new start on things and give a good, good positive way. Right?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

I love that. Yeah. So we just did that in the fire out in the back with the spin equinox of letting go, all of that dark winter and the heavy, heavy winter thought, and and now the thaws coming through, and how beautiful it is that we get to start all over and be fresh again for the spring. So I try every morning before I get out of bed to pick three things that I can show gratitude for. So you take a deep breath and try to start that day. So it's much easier us sitting here in this office, but it can be very difficult for someone who has a newborn and bills and perhaps not as much, you know, village support. Um, but someone could be in pain.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Someone could have physical pain, mental pain. There's all kinds of things that can be.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

So, one thing, if I could offer any advice to anybody in the world, is take a moment to find that you're grateful for, and then try to focus on what those things are and the joy they bring you. And hopefully at the end of the day, you can find that happiness before you close your eyes. But for Easter for me, is all about spring, bright colors, beautiful family gatherings, and I'm hoping that I may be very, very lucky this Easter. My fingers are crossed, my toes are crossed, and I may have a little one here with me for Easter, and then I could hide stuff all through my yard.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Oh, if you do an Easter egg hunt, let me know. Oh, yeah. I'll be here. And I'll have stuff. To knock all the kids down and take all the mom just joking. Just trip.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

So, anyways, that's why I've got some gratitude coming for me this this week. I've got my eyes closed, fingers closed.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I got my fingers crossed for you. I'm pretty excited. It would be great.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

I'm over the moon with excitement.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah, that would be lovely.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And it could be a story for our podcast next week. We'll have to see. Pretty excited. Grammy can spoil someone just to the ends of the earth and bat. Again. I know it's terrible. What you live for is I gotta stop. So I'll I'll pull it together and not spoil too bad. All right. Great. So with us, wow, that's another couple of minutes under our belt. Finished up and done with. Thank you for coming today. I love being here with you.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

It's my favorite part of my life.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

We love having you here. I love you. I know. Come on. All right. With that chair. Come on, rind us up here.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Thanks so much for tuning in again to Worth the Walk. Please follow, like, subscribe on anywhere you get your podcast. You can find us on Spotify, Buzz Sprout, Apple, anywhere you get your podcast, please like and follow us on our socials, Instagram and Facebook, Worth the Walk, and send us an email with any of your thoughts and ideas of things you'd like us to cover or even just your feedback.