50 Days of Easter

                                              

Fifty Days of Easter celebration between Easter Sunday and Pentecost!  At our house we like to celebrate around the table, so we enjoy making different settings.

 Below is my Easter Sunday breakfast table.  

Actually, I ended up using different napkins - the ones  included in my 'rimshot'.  

Let's see......placemats and ramekins are from TJ Maxx;  blue glasses, small blue plates and napkins - Old Time Pottery; beige plate and silver napkin rings - Walmart; vase - Dollar Tree.  

Soon after Easter, I decided to use some new pink napkins I found at the Harvest Thrift Store.  The plan was to use some pretty fresh pink flowers to go with the damask tablecloth and silver, but I couldn't find any in town.  So I resorted to my burgundy and dusty rose candle ring.

Next I wanted to use an heirloom banded tablecloth that I found at Savers.  I don't know if you can tell that besides the bands it has hemstitching!  Since it is a 60 inch square, I layered it over a green tablecloth.  The green napkin rings are from Savers, too.  Actually, so are the Homer Laughlin ivory plates.

The tablecloth has a kitchen feel to it, so I decided to keep it simple with plain glassware and a pitcher of greens and salmon colored carnations.

There are many more days of Easter celebration yet to come.  My Grandma Schuster always ended her letters to me with the phrase "Take time to smell the flowers!"  Well, I am taking her advice by setting a pretty table with glassware and china and sometimes even with fresh flowers and by taking time to enjoy a meal with my husband, friends and family.

A Poem for Holy Saturday

The ancient grayness shifted

Suddenly and thinned

Like mist upon the moors

Before a wind.

An old, old prophet lifted

A shining face and said:

“He will be coming soon.

The Son of God is dead;

He died this afternoon.”

A murmurous excitement stirred

All souls.

They wondered if they dreamed –

Save one old man who seemed

Not even to have heard.

And Moses, standing,

Hushed them all to ask

If any had a welcome song prepared.

If not, would David take the task?

And if they cared

Could not the three young children sing

The Benedicite, the canticle of praise

They made when God kept them from perishing

In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,

Stilling Moses’ words.

No one could speak, remembering

The first fresh flowers,

The little singing birds.

Still others thought of fields new ploughed

Or apple trees

All blossom-boughed.

Or some, the way a dried bed fills

With water

Laughing down green hills.

The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam

On bright blue seas.

The one old man who had not stirred

Remembered home.

And there He was

Splendid as the morning sun and fair

As only God is fair.

And they, confused with joy,

Knelt to adore

Seeing that He wore

Five crimson stars*

He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung

None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song,

A silent man alone

Of all that throng

Found tongue –

Not any other.

Close to His heart

When the embrace was done,

Old Joseph said,

“How is Your Mother,

How is Your Mother, Son?”

Limbo by Sister Mary Ada, OSJ

* In case you haven't figured it out,  the five red stars are the five wounds Jesus received on the cross