I have sat here for an hour and a half (out of the two hours I have to blog during rest time) trying to put into words those in my heart left from Easter and yet they fumble and fuss and lack the profoundness that such an occasion merits.
He is Risen!
And out of the stench of death, despair and destruction is the pure sweetness of of all things made new.
My words desert my lips and instead want to lie upon my heart and continue to ponder the goodness of the Truth so instead I offer simple glimpses into our Easter festivities.....
The only thing I bought in the way of decorations was the bunch of hydrangea blooms. Everything else I scoured the house for-including the lilies and pussy willows that are now on week FIVE of looking nice!
I cut a bunch of vintage-looking hankies in half and made a bunting out of them. I love it so much I might keep it up until after my birthday. Would that be weird? hmmmm.
About a week before Easter I blew out a bunch of eggs and let them dry. I wrote 10 scripture verses, one for each person in attendance, rolled it up tightly and shoved it in the blowhole. Then I hotglued ribbon to the egg and a bit of glitter decoration and then hung it from the ceiling to be popped after dinner.
I don't have any fine china but I do have some monogrammed "N" glasses that always make an appearance on holiday/holy days. The children always feel very grown up to use them and none have broken...yet. I of course, love to fold cloth napkins too.
and I have found placecards not only add to the elegance and the beauty of the decor but are also QUITE helpful. When guests arrive I am busy enough getting the food to the table let alone directing people where to sit. I just glued glitter to some butterfly cutouts and glued them on to scrap paper.
The Easter apparel was not at all made by me this year, but very special to me nonetheless.
I got Corynn's dress and coat at an antique store. The dress was $8.00 and the (real wool) coat was $12.00. It was a splurge that could not be helped.
Said anitque store also provided me with an Easter bonnet to the tune of $3.00...
I got Andrews outfit at a yard sale for $1.00 and well, he has been wearing it all winter for church. So his outfit isn't special to me, but he is...plus, with his cowboy boots to go along with it he looks like quite the dapper southern oil tycoon which just makes me smile every.single.time.
(He picked all the daffodils for me at Eastertime to pretty up the kitchen. I love this boy.)
Recognize this, Nanci? Adele's dress was handmade with love last year when she was sadly too scrawny for it. But how THANKFUL I was for it two days before Easter when I didn't have anything "Easter special" for her. It was WAY more special than anything else I might have come up with.
And speaking of handmade with love....I just recently got the most amazing package for my Judahbear in the mail and I about died I loved it so much. THANK YOU Leah!
And now for the food:
I like to tier the buffet table by adding baskets or books under the tablecloth. It adds such elegance and makes the food more visible and accessible. (And yes, I need to add a picture to that frame. My brother-in-law made it for me, isn't he talented?!)
Here is some of the food we had:
Pictured below:
Challah (egg bread)
Gouda bites
Butterfly cupcakes
Devilled eggs
I made the butterflies for the cupcakes by melting white chocolate chips and adding a few drops of blue food coloring. I then put the warm chocolate into a ziploc bag, cut a small tip out of one corner and drew two unattached wings for each butterfly onto plastic wrap or wax paper. You can put a butterfly drawing under the plastic wrap to guide your drawing. Once firm, stick each wing into the frosting, standing up slightly so as to appear that the butterfly is about to take off.
We also had mashed potatoes and fruit salad but I guess they were camera shy.
I kept track of how many eggs I used this Easter since a goal was to get rid of a fair amount. Any guesses how many I used?
That was our glorious, wonderful, Easter. The one big disappointment was that our dear Gram couldn't come to share it with us as she had to be hospitalized that day.
I hope yours was a happy day too.
Might Easter be remembered
and lived every day this year.