Egg Elegance: The Gordon Family Easter Egg

               Plastic eggs constitute a plebian way to provide color and capsuled confection to the celebration of Easter.  Easter Bunnies do not lay plastic eggs.

               Easter Bunnies do lay eggs, though.  Not regular eggs, but colorful and fragile Easter eggs: varied in color, filled with candy, and topped with a special “fluffy, bunny tail.” I never questioned this quirk of nature.
               Saving the shells for months prior to the dying ritual was a task, but one that perpetuated the tradition of our Easter Bunny. Pink, yellow, green, purple, blue – all colors of spring provided the spectrum for the weekly color fest, which must be performed in secret, as when children are at school or asleep.  That egg shell-dying egg-stravaganza, however, was only the beginning of the adventure for creating the one and only Gordon Family Easter Egg.
                   Family members began by buying or saving tissue paper or finding crepe paper such as the paper which creates the frills on a piñata….colorful, festive, and fragile, the kind that if wet or handled too much stains fingertips.
                Various hues of crepe paper (tissue paper) are cut into 4”x4” squares (could be a tad larger).  Don’t be stingy with the paper. It is folded, accordion style. You’ll have a “fan” about 4” tall. Cut ribbons down into the crepe paper, down to about ¾ -1”, leaving enough folded paper to fit snugly into the small open top of the empty egg shell. Scissors are used to curl the ends of each sheet of the crepe paper ribbon, like you would curl a ribbon for a package. Be careful not to rip the paper when curling it. The result should appear as a fluffy, puffy, curly “Bunny Tail” fashioned in a multitude of spring colors.  Match or Mix the toppers to the dyed egg shells.

                Fill the colored egg shells with candy corn, lemon drops, Hershey’s Kisses, jelly beans, M&M’s, and add a colorful topper.  With some degree of loving effort, you have created a masterpiece: a really awesome, authentic, and fragile, Gordon Family Easter egg.          (Photos are of my baby brother, Thomas Gordon Dansby, Easter, 1954.)

Barbie and Ken on the Cutting Edge of Excitement

           It’s not common knowledge, but Barbie and Ken have been married for 7 whole years today, March 9!  What a lot of living for them. Today's celebration includes a night on the town. The Dream Couple plans to scoot along in the Barbie-car to the Art's Council event: Clay County’s Got Talent Review.  Barbie will wear one of her couture outfits, minus the hat and gloves.  Ken might shrug the tux, but a sport coat is a must.  He’s just not dressed without one.
           This morning’s coffee and muffins were shared in the den of the Barbie Dream House, with Ken in his recliner and Barbie in her’s. Barbie checked her messages on her pink Barbie Smart Phone and her emails on the Barbie lap-top.   Fluff the Barbie-cat (who is “rare”) has not been seen for a very long time, rumored to be in a plastic bin in the Barbie-basement. Real-life Hershey prefers to sit at Barbie’s side every minute of every day and is much cuter.
           Later this morning, Barbie and Ken will work together on their various projects:  Ken will be tiling the enlarged dream-shower in the Master Bath and Barbie will be using the Barbie-sewing machine, making polka-dot and print fashion aprons for the Spring Crafts Fair.  Barbie and Ken live on the cutting edge of excitement!
           The Seven-Year-Itch has not been the subject of any conversations regarding Barbie and Ken.  No Monroe-Moment for this couple.  Should anything like that arise, Barbie would be shopping for a Ken-Kasket.