Easter eggs

It's Good Friday!

And a different Good Friday this year.

We've not been to church last night, nor will we go tonight or tomorrow

or Sunday morning.

We're in "semi-exile"

However, we still keep our traditions

Eggs are a big part of Good Friday!

I can remember only one Good Friday when I did not color eggs

(and that was when we went to England to live for a Spring -- we were on a ship taking us there)

Whether a child, a teen, single and living alone, with Daughter Sarah,

or as an empty nester, Good Friday was Easter egg coloring day!

And eggs play a big part in our Easter decorations.

And not just chocolate ones either!

These are my great great Grandmother Elvesa's eggs

Not Easter decorations but rather glass eggs to fool hens into laying.

I didn't know my great grand grandmother, but my mother did

And when she passed somehow she got these eggs.

She just kept them out year round.

I have them in a cabinet and display them at Easter

I feel really connected to Elvesa who was an amazing and strong woman.

In my mother's compote on the sideboard with some German egg candy containers that I just bought

because they were colorful and German!

Our centerpiece of Easter decorations is always the Easter egg tree

One year we were in Germany during Lent

and every bed breakfast we stayed at had a bunch of branches with eggs hanging from them

An Easter egg tree they said when we asked

And when asked where they had gotten their egg treasure to hang on the tree,

they replied

"Woolworths"

So off to Woolworth's we went, found the eggs and for about 75 cents each,

we bought a dozen to bring home so that we, too, could have one of these wonderful trees

(This was before places like Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's had Easter egg tree decorations -- they were a novelty)

They are handprinted and are real hens eggs.    Blown out and a string or ribbon attached to hang from a branch.

That was 28 years ago and we still have the whole dozen

although one does have a bit of a hole in the end -- it got dropped

They are a sweet reminder of a wonderful trip and I enjoy them in the Spring as much as I enjoy the Christmas tree in December

Each one is different.

And as tempted as I sometimes am, I've never added to that original dozen.

It is the Easter egg tree -- a souvenir of a Lenten trip to Germany

And so it shall remain!

This year, I've gotten some new eggs

Glass eggs like Elvesa's

But these are hand painted (like the ones on the tree)

A gift from friend Sally

who's moving

They shall be one of the many reminders of a dear friend

And they, like the ones on the tree, shall come out each and every Easter

(and only on Easter)

Today, being Good Friday will find me in the kitchen

dying the dozen and a half hard boiled eggs

No fancy equipment or dye for me --

coffee cups are great for egg dying

And food color and vinegar makes a great dye!

Nothing fancy either -- just vibrant colored eggs

And what do we do with a dozen and a half hard boiled eggs --

just the two of us?

A plateful gets made into deviled eggs for Easter dinner

served on my Grandmother's egg plate

It's tradition -- Easter dinner without deviled eggs would be like Thanksgiving without turkey!

And the week following Easter,

we'll alternately lunch on

egg salad sandwiches (on toast)

or ham sandwiches

That's tradition as well!

This Good Friday morning the Easter egg tree and Elvesa's eggs were bathed in sunlight.