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| Easter Brunch Table Setting at Chez Laurice |
Easter egg coloring is a seasonal craft that I have come to honor and respect like few others. My mother was a very crafty woman . . . in many, many ways. But, for now, I will keep my thoughts specifically to her expert, or shall I say 'eggspert' egg coloring talents. Actually, in all fairness it was her lack of talent, sad to say.
Pige (as we called her) could tackle any do-it-herself home or garden project, whip up and serve a party for many with all the goodies imaginable, and sew a full set of upholstered covers for the living room furniture with formal drapes to match. She could also needle her way through any crewelwork and embroidery project set before her. She had an innate ability to set trends, both in her home and with her wardrobe. Yes, indeedy, she could do it all. . . except color those annual "pain-in the-neck" (her words, not mine) holiday Easter eggs.
My Aunt Helen, Pige's sister, was also a gifted crafter. She, too, had many talents and was most proficient in the coloring and designing of her yearly dozen or two splendid orbs. Each Easter her eggs were a bedazzling offering of spectacular colors and sparkle. They were always the brightest hues and she beautifully scripted each of our names onto our own special egg. What a delight for any child. Especially one who had spent Easter Eve with her mother laboring intensively over the color mixtures, inhaling the vinegar and spooning the invariably cracked eggs into the rainbow of stained cups of hot, hot, hot colored water. It didn't matter how hard my mother 'tried something new' each and every year. The results were always the same. Ugly eggs. Very ugly eggs. Embarrassingly ugly eggs. And I had the stained fingers each Easter Sunday to match them. Thank goodness for white cotton gloves. They got me through Easter mass for many years.
So now the years have passed and Pige and Helen's holiday Easter eggs are but memories. Aunt Helen's will always win the awards for Best-in-Show. But as we know that with age comes wisdom, it is my mother's ugly duckling eggs that hold the dearest memories of Easters past for me.
Happy Easter to all and may all you eggs be memorable.
