Easter Luncheon 2019

 I was so excited to decorate and cook for Easter. It took me all day on Saturday to cook and prepare, but when I finally stood back and looked at every thing I was very happy. I get so excited thinking about people coming in and being delighted by the tablesetting as a prelude for the meal. All the ladies got a tiny egg cup with one of my blue eggshells as a vase filled with tiny flowers. These doubled as their name holders.

 I set the table with a full-sized blue cloth and layered over an antique lace one. Then I used three different patterns of plates in pinks and blues. The white with pink roses were my Grandma Tommy's wedding china. The blue rimmed Homer Laughlin plates and the blue milk glass ones were Goodwill finds.

 The guys didn't have vases, they got name cards that I watercolored with bunnies and eggs.

 I worked so hard cooking for fourteen, cleaning up after each new mess (I am a very enthusiastic and very messy cook!), then setting and decorating the table, that I was starting to get very cranky indeed. I had to take several breaks to go outside and just feel the sun so I didn't hurt people. I didn't have everything marked off my to-do list until 8:30 Saturday night. But here's the thing, Dear Reader, then I got to wake up on Easter morning, feeling unhurried and joyous. I had my shower and put on the ham, covered the rolls to rise, and hid Easter eggs, enjoying every moment. It is SO worth it to do every little thing that you can the day before, even if you are sick of it by then. Because on the day of, you can enjoy yourself and your guests without hurry and flurry. I was just getting dressed for church when my Hubby asked if we could leave a little early. Turns out he had washed off my car and pulled it down, so that we could take it to church for the first time!

 At church I was blessed to have my dear daddy in the pew with me. He is not a church-goer, and so it made the whole service even more poignant for me.

 Remember this picture? It was April 1993 and Duane and I had just begun dating. This picture is Easter morning before we went to his church for the service. We were sitting there before it began and a couple sat in a pew in front of us. The lady was short and stout and the man was tall and thin- they made me think of Jack Sprat and his wife in the nursery rhyme books. He had his arm around her and her head was on his shoulder. I was thinking how very sweet it was, when, suddenly, three little boys came flying out of the hall from wee worship. The couple scooted apart and those little boys climbed up between them. I decided that was the most beautiful thing ever. And all the sudden my eyes welled up, because I thought, "That could be Duane and I someday." And so my first boyfriend became my husband.

 And here we are on Easter, 26 years later, blessed with those three boys I dreamt of, and soon to be three daughters-in-law. Isn't God amazing?

 And my other big blessing was having my Grandma and Grandpa Beeman at the dinner table with me. They are 88 and 93 and they rarely feel like getting out now. I miss having them to our parties something terrible. When moma told me they had decided to come I was overjoyed! Look at my eyes and smile and tell me I don't look like my Grandma Betty Jean :). Grandpa RV has the greatest smile, but he doesn't look at the camera. He has macular degeneration and is nearly blind. When he does try to see you, he looks beside you so he can see your shape from the side of his eye. But even nearly blind he takes great care of grandma. Duane's mother Mary and his stepdad are seated next to them. They became friends with grandma and grandpa at church, isn't that neat?

 No, of course there are no pictures of the real food! But here's the run-down: smoked ham, deviled eggs and tater salad were made by moma, apple cranberry slaw (this is so stinkin' good I need to give you the recipe), bunny butt rolls, green bean casserole, and cheese rolls. The desserts were the above blueberry cheesecake trifle...

Raspberry-rosewater blancmange...

 And the traditional lemon egg cakes ( made from the luscious French Lemon Cake recipe Here) filled with homemade lime curd as the "yolks".

 After we ate, Emiley and Seth passed out goody bags with that person's favorite candy, plus a Kinder Egg. This picture shows us trying to put together the toys that came inside them. They were hard! My oldest, Devin, is going about giving technical support for the building of tiny toys ;)

 Then it was time for the egg hunt! I hid 34 eggs filled with candy, plus one giant gold egg. The person who found it won the Ferrero Rocher egg filled with truffles.

 There was a lot of ground to cover and I am obviously a very good egg hider. There are four eggs still MIA that it will probably take blood hounds to discover. But Emiley found the golden egg and was the Easter Queen!

It was a beautiful day (84 degrees!!), filled with the people that I love most in the world. Afterward there are a lot of dishes to wash and things to put away. But that can wait. I want to savor my Easter thankfulness just a little while longer...