Easter Weekend

We had a great time this weekend! I had to work early on Saturday, so we kept Friday night low key. The first disc of season 4 of  Big Love finally arrived from Netflix, so I convinced Joe we needed to watch all three episodes within a single evening. It's such a great show! Now I'm checking the mail everyday to see if the next disc has arrived yet.

Saturday night we went over to Julie and Jay's condo, to eat tasty Mexican food and help them brew their first batch of beer. Really, mostly Julie and I sat with our beverages and talked nonstop, while the guys did most of the brewing. Their equipment and supplies were a little different than what we're used to, but I think the batch should still be a great success! It was fun chatting with them as we did the brewing, and I can't wait to try the final product. Also, I'm constantly amazed at how well Joe understands the brewing process. He is able to answer so many advanced questions in a really in depth way. Maybe after he makes his millions in finance (a girl can wish, right?), then he can open a brewery of his own!

I was lucky to get Easter off from work, so we planned to spend the day with our good friends Jess and Henry. We've done multiple holiday celebrations with them before, and now that they are talking about moving, I wanted to make sure we spent Easter together.

We decided sleeping in was important, so we didn't meet up until the 11:30 mass. It was a lovely service, with a full choir and not too many loud adorable children. I love how joyful Easter is, after the somber time during Lent.

After church we went home and made a huge brunch, with amazing coffee cake, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, and an asparagus and red pepper strata. It was a feast! At this point we added some mimosas into the celebration, too :)

Joe and I had planned on brewing on Sunday afternoon, since it was a rare weekend day that we were both home all day. Jess and Henry couldn't resist the fun, so they stuck around and helped with the Belgian Tripel that we brewed. Besides the wort chiller shooting out boiling water as it was sanitized, the batch seemed successful, and I'm pleased to report it was fermenting away by the next day.

It was a pretty beer centric last couple of days!  I can't wait to taste the batches that were started this weekend, and I'm glad we're reinvigorated after a couple slightly frustrating batches of beer. We have to brew a lot in the next couple months, because by later summer it gets too warm in our condo. Hopefully we can stock up by that time!