Easter means many things. Of course, there's the real reason for the season, which we can't be reminded of enough. To paraphrase Ron Burgundy from Anchorman--and I recognize this may be a bit sacrilegious-- the Savior was and is "kind of a big deal."
Then there's a bunny that hides plastic and/or real eggs all over the place, which I still don't and probably never will understand. I mean, at least Santa puts the presents under the tree so you can easily find them. I remember finding plastic eggs around the house in June or July as a kid and thinking, "I sure hope this is from the most recent Easter and not a couple years ago" (before popping the candy into my mouth, without further inquiry, of course).
And then there are the delicious chocolates and candies and such that come in Easter baskets. I myself am partial to Cadbury Caramel Eggs [hold on a second, I need to wipe the drool off my keyboard]. Jelly Bellys are popular, as are Reese's peanut butter cups and the standard chocolate bunny. But the rest of this post will focus on another famous Easter treat: Peeps.
Why do people love Peeps? I've wracked my brain for years trying to answer that question, and I still don't have a satisfactory explanation. Now, my mom loves Peeps. She buys them by the case during the Easter season. Ok, maybe not that many. But she really likes Peeps. And she likes them a particular way: hard. She prefers to open the package and leave it out for a couple weeks, so that the Peeps have some major crunch. One benefit of liking Peeps hard is that you can buy them in the Spring and they'll still be delicious to you in the Fall. My mom is a genius.
Then there's a bunny that hides plastic and/or real eggs all over the place, which I still don't and probably never will understand. I mean, at least Santa puts the presents under the tree so you can easily find them. I remember finding plastic eggs around the house in June or July as a kid and thinking, "I sure hope this is from the most recent Easter and not a couple years ago" (before popping the candy into my mouth, without further inquiry, of course).
And then there are the delicious chocolates and candies and such that come in Easter baskets. I myself am partial to Cadbury Caramel Eggs [hold on a second, I need to wipe the drool off my keyboard]. Jelly Bellys are popular, as are Reese's peanut butter cups and the standard chocolate bunny. But the rest of this post will focus on another famous Easter treat: Peeps.
Why do people love Peeps? I've wracked my brain for years trying to answer that question, and I still don't have a satisfactory explanation. Now, my mom loves Peeps. She buys them by the case during the Easter season. Ok, maybe not that many. But she really likes Peeps. And she likes them a particular way: hard. She prefers to open the package and leave it out for a couple weeks, so that the Peeps have some major crunch. One benefit of liking Peeps hard is that you can buy them in the Spring and they'll still be delicious to you in the Fall. My mom is a genius.Peep-o-Rama
Each year, the Washington Post holds a contest inviting the public to submit dioramas featuring Peeps. These are some of the best dioramas from the 2010 contest. My friend Emily is pretty crafty, and she decided it'd be a lot of fun to host a party for friends where we all made our own Peep-o-ramas. Here's our lovely host with a basket of Peeps.
We had a great time putting together our dioramas and eating various Easter sweets, while of course watching some of the NCAA March Madness basketball games. Speaking of which, here's a diorama inspired by the annual college hoops tourney:
Interesting fact: Peeps are insoluble in water (as well as acetone, diluted sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide). Which makes this underwater swimming pool scene that much more credible:
Emily encouraged us beforehand to think of ideas, and I think some really great ones were implemented. Here's a beauty peep-geant:
Ben and Charlee utilized a coarse blanket in the living room to put together their clever and deceptively-simple outdoorsy one, which I've entitled "Rafting the Peep Canyon":
Simone wasn't planning on making a Peep-o-rama, but I had a couple extra ideas. So she looked my ideas over and chose to build a model of a "Peeptide", which is of course a peptide made of Peeps:
For my first Peep-o-rama ever, I'm very happy with how mine turned out. I went with an homage to the stunning visual effects of the roof scene in the Matrix. At some point in the future, I may re-do my version of "The Peeptrix" to actually be on a raised rooftop instead of inside a box:
Sports were definitely a prominent theme, and sports movies are some of my favorites. That's why I was very happy to see that Tyler created his diorama "The Peepside" based on the recent movie Hollywood production about the story of Michael Oher and how he went from being a homeless boy to an NFL football player:
Our hostess created a piece based on the classic Americana scene of friends going down to the river or a lake and spending a lazy summer afternoon jumping into the water. This is "The Peep Hole":
The winning Peep-o-rama of the night, as judged by a panel of two non-participants, was this Olympic-themed celebration of American domination in the moguls, entitled "Peepuls Run":
We all had a great night of creativity and socialization. Feel free to hold your own evening of Peep-o-rama building. Trust me, you'll enjoy putting this Easter treat to good use. And should you get hungry, just nibble on one or two of your little building blocks. Any that get too hard can be sent to my mom by snail mail. She'll appreciate getting the tasty surprise a week or so later.
We had a great time putting together our dioramas and eating various Easter sweets, while of course watching some of the NCAA March Madness basketball games. Speaking of which, here's a diorama inspired by the annual college hoops tourney:
Interesting fact: Peeps are insoluble in water (as well as acetone, diluted sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide). Which makes this underwater swimming pool scene that much more credible:
Emily encouraged us beforehand to think of ideas, and I think some really great ones were implemented. Here's a beauty peep-geant:
Ben and Charlee utilized a coarse blanket in the living room to put together their clever and deceptively-simple outdoorsy one, which I've entitled "Rafting the Peep Canyon":
Simone wasn't planning on making a Peep-o-rama, but I had a couple extra ideas. So she looked my ideas over and chose to build a model of a "Peeptide", which is of course a peptide made of Peeps:
For my first Peep-o-rama ever, I'm very happy with how mine turned out. I went with an homage to the stunning visual effects of the roof scene in the Matrix. At some point in the future, I may re-do my version of "The Peeptrix" to actually be on a raised rooftop instead of inside a box:
Sports were definitely a prominent theme, and sports movies are some of my favorites. That's why I was very happy to see that Tyler created his diorama "The Peepside" based on the recent movie Hollywood production about the story of Michael Oher and how he went from being a homeless boy to an NFL football player:
Our hostess created a piece based on the classic Americana scene of friends going down to the river or a lake and spending a lazy summer afternoon jumping into the water. This is "The Peep Hole":
The winning Peep-o-rama of the night, as judged by a panel of two non-participants, was this Olympic-themed celebration of American domination in the moguls, entitled "Peepuls Run":
We all had a great night of creativity and socialization. Feel free to hold your own evening of Peep-o-rama building. Trust me, you'll enjoy putting this Easter treat to good use. And should you get hungry, just nibble on one or two of your little building blocks. Any that get too hard can be sent to my mom by snail mail. She'll appreciate getting the tasty surprise a week or so later.If you want a more-thorough background on Peeps, the Wikipedia entry can be found here.
