Mantelletta Monday

mantelletta ~ knee-length sleeveless garment worn by Catholic cardinals and bishops

Yeah, I know it’s pretty much over now, but Happy Easter, for those of you who observe these things.

I have a question. When did Easter become Christmas light? The stores were crazy enough on Thursday, but only a fool would take the chance of shopping on Saturday (Friday being a stores closed holiday) – and I should know being one of those fools.

The amount of merchandise going through those checkouts was kind of appalling. And I’m not just talking chocolate and candy, I’m talking clothes and books and toys and bicycles and other assorted sports equipment. It was a gluttonous feast of excess.

When I was a kid we used to make a pilgrimage to my aunt and uncle’s house for the Easter weekend. There would be a big, hollow chocolate bunny or rooster sitting in our Easter baskets on the dining room table, and chocolate eggs (sometimes jelly beans) to find. My aunt, who at one time worked as a milliner, would have made us hats to wear to church.

When my daughter was little, we still went up to Owen Sound (my aunt had the best house for Easter egg hunts!) We hid jelly beans in plastic eggs because she didn’t like chocolate. I’d get a white rabbit for her Easter basket and I made her a fancy dress for church. Many years later I still bought chocolate for Easter, and we’d get a movie instead of an outfit.

This year I figured the grandbaby would get enough chocolate at her house, but I still couldn’t resist getting her four Disney princess kinder eggs, and one giant one. I nestled them in a basket with a new outfit she can wear to school. The rest of us got a small chocolate bunny and a regular kinder egg.

And you know what? She was quite happy with what she got. There was a little more chocolate than was strictly necessary, and yes, like many other kids she got a bike, but the bike she got wasn’t an Easter present so much as a springtime present that was bought on Easter weekend (when the bikes were on sale).

But seriously, when did Easter become such an occasion for excess? Jesus died on the cross for our sins, let’s celebrate by drowning ourselves in chocolate and a bunch of other crap we don’t need. I’m not a religious person, but I kind of miss dressing up and going to church on Easter.

Maybe I’ll go next year. Wanna come?

Micrander Monday

micrander ~ dwarf male plant

Did everyone have a good Easter?

Weather wise, we couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Friday was bright and sunny, Saturday was supposed to be raining all day but we only got a fraction of it, and Sunday the temperature rose all the way to 21C (70F). I guess spring is here after all. Awesome sauce!

The grandbaby kept us entertained on Sunday with her Easter egg hunt. They had one at the play group we go to and they were allowed to keep the (plastic) eggs they found, she came home with quite a haul. But yesterday was even more fun because there was “stuff” in the eggs - a couple of tee shirts, some wind-up chickens and bunnies, and a zoo full of plastic animals.

The eggs from the day care kept her amused for days, but the eggs I hid for her here were abandoned when we gave her the play set we’d got her:

We also gave her the dress she’s wearing and when I added up the cost of everything, I was a little surprised. When did Easter become so commercial?

When I was a kid, we always got a new outfit to wear to church, complete with hat. I’m not sure whether we hunted for eggs or not, but we usually got one of those hollow chocolate chickens as well.

When my daughter was little, I used Easter as an excuse to make her a new dress and we’d hide plastic eggs (so the dog wouldn’t get them) filled with jelly beans. We’d each get a solid chocolate bunny as well - hers would be a white one, which isn’t really chocolate because believe it or not, she didn’t like chocolate.

A lot of kids got bikes and toys and you’d almost think it was Christmas. I filled the grandbaby’s eggs with toys to cut back on her chocolate consumption, and gave her the traditional new dress, so was the play set really necessary? Probably not. But I knew how much she’d love it and Easter was the perfect excuse.

And in keeping with the season of rebirth (or in this case birth), April the giraffe had her calf! It was a bouncing baby boy measuring 5’9” (several inches taller than me!) and weighing 129 pounds.

Almost looks like a stuffed toy, doesn't he? 1.2 million people watched the birth via the web cam, me included although I didn’t set out to do so. I just happened to check on April at the right time. Toys R Us sponsored the web cam and had their logo on the bottom left of the screen. After the birth the logo changed from Toys R Us to Babies Are Us.

I’m not sure how long the web cam is going to stay going, but I have to wonder, what are all those people going to watch when it’s done?

Messianism Monday

messianism ~ belief in a single messiah or saviour

Happy Easter Monday!

Everyone have a good weekend?

Somewhere I heard that Easter weekend has a higher sales volume than Christmas. I had my doubts about it until the hubby and I stopped into Walmart on Saturday. I could not believe the crowds, and the line-ups! After a quick walk-thru of the store we decided whatever it was we went in there for we didn't need it that badly, and we left.

I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with the religious aspect of Easter, the crucifixion of Christ and his rising from the grave, but where does the bunny with his basket of eggs come from? Neither rabbits nor hares are known for laying eggs, nor are eggs mentioned in the biblical story of Easter. So how did the two become connected?

From what I can gather, like the tradition of groundhog day, we have the Germans to thank for the Easter egg hunts. There is a 16th century story about the Oschter Haws, or Easter Hare, that visits children while they sleep and rewards them if they've been good (sort of like Santa Claus). Before going to bed, the children made nests for the hare who would lay coloured eggs in them. When German settlers came to America, the hare became a rabbit.

As for the eggs themselves ... one theory is that the eggs are symbolic - the hard shell represents the tomb of Christ and the new life inside the egg represents His rising back to life. Less believable is the theory of an egg merchant who set down his basket of eggs in order to help Christ carry his cross and when he returned the eggs had been mysteriously decorated.

Now, early Orthodox churches typically abstained from eating eggs during Lent. There being no way to keep chickens from laying eggs during Lent, people would typically boil the eggs to preserve them and later use them to break their fast.

It has been suggested the dyeing of eggs dates back to ancient Christians who colored chicken eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ. They've also been known to dye them green to represent spring.

I wonder if the ancient Christians ever dreamed that their tradition would one day become a multi-million dollar industry?

Myropologist Monday

myropologist ~ one who sells perfume

Did everyone have a Happy Easter? Or at the very least enjoy their three-day weekend?

The temperature has been rising, but the weather man has been calling for snow the last few days. So far we've managed to avoid it, but I'm crossing my fingers anyway. There's still a layer of ice on the pool, although by noon it usually melts around the edges at least.

I had a romantic notion of how my weekend would go: I'd get the outfit I promised to make my granddaughter done on Friday, Saturday I'd make the deserts and carrots I was going to take to the family dinner, and Sunday we'd go to my in-laws for a nice family dinner. I also planned on getting our taxes done and some writing done, in between sewing and baking.

Needless to say, that's not how it happened.

First of all, I hadn't counted on the "help" I got when it came to cutting out the baby's dress.

I actually cut out two different dresses. The material in the picture, while pretty, was a pain in the butt to cut out. It kept shifting. Plus I had to dig through my stash to find some lining for it. The other material was a purple satin to go with the pinafore I crocheted. To make a long story short, I messed up the purple one big time, so I went to start the flowered one, only as soon as I unpinned the first pattern piece of the bodice I knew it was going to be way too big. So I used the leftover purple material to start over.

Saturday went better, as far as the sewing went, but it was still later than I'd hoped when I was able to deliver the finished dress:

So Sunday I was under the wire when it came to the deserts. Originally I'd planned on a couple of pies and a cake. Only then I was asked for cupcakes for the kids to decorate, so I switched the cake to cupcakes. And not just any cupcakes, I made them rainbow by using five different colours of cake batter in each cup - regular sized ones for the grownups, mini ones for the kids. And then I set up a tray with icing, various sprinkles, and jelly beans for the kids to use to decorate them with.

At the back of the picture is the lemon meringue pie I made as well. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? I was a little leery of making it 'cause I've had some bad experiences with meringues before. :-)

And here's a picture of my little Ellie-beans modeling her Easter outfit. Note the flush to her cheeks - it was pretty warm with all those people around and she ended up in her Batman onesie to cool off about halfway through the evening.

Needless to say, I got neither taxes nor writing done over the three-day weekend. I finished the first round of edits on Lucky Dog early in the week and I've started something new, so it was a little frustrating I couldn't get back to it.

And I hardly noticed when April started, which means I didn't sign up for the A to Z challenge, as I'd intended, and I didn't plan anything poetry related, this being National Poetry Month and all.

So . . . since I posted the final chapter of Earth last week and I haven't quite made up my mind what I'm going to do with my Thursday space, I guess I'll be posting something poetry related on Thursdays for the rest of the month.

But for today I'm going to take it easy and count my lucky stars the next big family get together won't be until Thanksgiving. And that, my friends, is truly something to be thankful for. :-D