Semana Santa began this week in Costa Rica. That’s Easter Week to us Gringos. What does it mean? School’s out; people flock to the beach; government offices shut down: and it’s quiet in the city. Thursday and Friday are - to borrow another religion’s terminology - kind of like the Catholic version of a high holiday. Friday is more revered than even Easter Sunday. When I first moved here, rumor had it if you even drove your car on Friday or Saturday, you’d get a stone thrown at your car. It’s become a little more commercial here and a few grocery stores are even open on Thursday and Friday. The Passion of Christ is recreated in a march in almost every town in the country. Complete with Roman soldiers, cross, and angles.

Since holidays mean I’ve got kids at home - all day long! - I get-a-crackin’ at unfinished projects piling up in my house. I’ll be unpacking that drill to realign the laundry room shelves and hang the artwork that’s sitting in my garage on my very bare living room wall.

But hanging that painting on the wall alone would look like a letter all alone on a piece of paper: it needed a few more to complete the sentence. So, I found a little end table to go under the painting; I traded a chair in my daughter’s office and bought her a new purple one. I bought a pillow to hide the fact that the chair was a $16 knock off of a "Stark-like" modern look. A vase here; baskets to hide Addison’s toys there; and then there was the light.

I’d seen this light when I picked up the small end table. A knew it was meant to be in my home. And when I find something reasonably priced - which usually means under $20 - I grab it. Costa Rica is overrun with cheap stuff from China. It then leaps to mid-ranged stuff you’d find in Target, but for an overpriced and less-than-desirable selection. One stop shopping is not the norm. Running from store to store to find things is the way it works here, at least if you’re a bargain hunter.

We put up the light. Heck, it all looked so good, I tacked another piece of art I had I in the closet. The kids and I ran back to cheap-barn-like store just before it closed last night to grab that perfect other perfect vase for the corner ($6.00!!) and another box-like end table to hide Addison’s balls (he’s got a lot of them). We struck out on the rug at the Mall. So, I’ll have to run to yet another store.

But that light. Oh my gosh do I Iove this light. It looks like Mother Earth has recreated herself in my living room. The kids and I sat in the living room after our hunting and gathering. Coco danced to Rachel Z; Addison put little cards into all the empty boxes; and I watched all this beauty unfold in the night.