Lithuania

Today the brackets were set for March Madness, and so we decided a fitting country would be one who LOVES their basketball. I present to you, Lithuania. Now, it's always hard for me to remember those tiny little Baltic countries, but they do go in alphabetical order top to bottom, so that certainly helps. 

Lithuania is the largest and most southerly of the Baltic States, and it is also the dead center of Europe. 

It is a quirky little country with cobblestone streets and a museum full of devils. 

They also are the only country in the world to have their own 'official scent'. It's sold in stores all over the country and is a combination of bergamot (kind of like a lemon), wildflowers, ginger, raspberry, and grapefruit. 

A country full of primarily Catholics (77%), our book told us about some of their celebrations. 

The Easter Bunny is replaced with the Easter Granny. Decorated eggs are for the good kids, and plain white eggs are for the naughty kids. 

The traditional Christmas Eve dinner doesn't have any meat or dairy, but something like 12 dishes, including some bread soaked in poppy seed milk. You can't eat it until the stars are in the sky, and whatever is left stays on the table for the spirits of family members to eat overnight. 

And our landmark is the Hill of Crosses. Back when Lithuania was under the control of the Soviet Union people put crosses on the hill as a sign of resistance. The Soviets would remove them, and three times they even leveled the whole hill. But each time the people of Lithuania, and pilgrims from all over replaced the crosses. In 1985 they finally left the hill alone, and today people come from all over to leave their crosses, as a result there are over 100,000 crosses on the hill.  

The boys made their postcards. 

Calib focused on the basketball, it wasn't his best work. But he did look up how to say 'fowl' in Lithuanian. 

Peyton made the hill of the crosses, had a guy picking berries, a guy fishing, and someone sailing on the Baltic Sea. But my favorite was his Easter Granny doing a 'Granny shot' with the basketball. 

Hayden also made the hill of the crosses, some basketball players, the Easter Granny and a devil. I liked that he made the statue that is at the Hill of the Crosses. He said it reminded him of the Christ the Redeemer statue, and I was excited he remembered that! 

We took some help from Publix's awesome international frozen section for some things commonly eaten in Lithuania: Potatoe Knushes and Apple Blintzes. Asa took on making the rest of it though. 

We had Oma's Goulash, the blintzes and knishes, apples, and cucumber with honey drizzled over top. 

This dinner earned an enthusiastic five spoons up. 

The goulash was like a stroganoff minus the sour cream, and the way it was cooked in the dutch oven just made it awesome. The knishes were good, but pretty basic, just mashed potatoes with a crispy outside breading. 

But you guys, has anyone else ever eaten cucumbers with honey drizzled over them. It is AH-MAZE-ING! I will never eat them without it again. 

And those blintzes. My gosh, the blintzes. It's like a little crepe egg roll. Six of them came in a box, and we fought over that last one. I will find every country that eats these and get them ever single time. 

We also printed out and filled out our brackets in honor of Lithuania's love for basketball. 

Every year we fill these out, and the winner gets to pick a place for all of us to go out to eat. But, often times people try and make deals with each other toward the end, so this year, we wrote our place of choice at the top. 

Asa picked Kansas to win it all (he does every year), and if they do, we'll go to Datz. 

I picked Gonzaga, they win and we'll be going to Goody Goody Burger. 

Peyton went with Maryland, and if they win we'll be hitting up the brand new BJ's Brewhouse. 

Hayden picked Villanova, and if they win, we'll all be suffering through a trip to Taco Bell. (For real, I told him he could pick anywhere, and that's what he picked!) 

Calib picked North Carolina, and if they win, we'll all be going to Moe's. 

We colored in Lithuania in a teal color, right there next to Belarus. 

39 down, 154 to go! 

Next Up: Bolivia