My grandmother saved a couple of elaborately decorated goose eggs from when she was a child and displayed them every year at Easter time for about 50 years. When not on display , they were wrapped in cotton batting and kept in an ordinary cardboard box. The box was stored in her attic -- which in Northern New York got _very_ cold in winter and quite hot in the summer. The eggs were on display from Ash Wednesday to at least Easter Sunday each year. A favorite pasttime for the grandchildren was waiting until no grown-ups were around and then shaking the eggs hard enough that the dried up contents of the egg could be heard rattling around. The eggs survived until after my grandmother's death when my grandfather - who didn't believe in keeping _anything- -- threw them out. The point is, eggs are really much stronger than we usually think of them as being. The church's eggs have already lasted 60 years. A little care and a little common sense and they should last far longer. Laura Lynne Scharer Jefferson County (NY) Historian [log in to unmask]