- Dyed eggs, of course. With the standard Paas kits like good Americans do. It was happily uneventful, but we preemptively had the boys take off their clothes first just in case.
The happy egg dyers:
- Attempted to go to an Easter egg hunt. Sure it was 35 degrees with a cold pelting rain just beginning to fall as we got in the car Saturday morning, but we're no Southern California wimps who hunker down at the merest hint of undesirable weather! And we clearly were not alone in our stoic determination to hunt for eggs! As we drove to the park we came upon a long, long line of cars mysteriously jammed on the way to the park. As it turns out, the organizers were put off by the weather forecast and a little thing called "mud" that resulted from the epic rains of earlier in the week, so they turned it into an "Easter Egg Drive-through." You drove along and waved to random characters (Sponge Bob, Diego, the Easter Bunny), then a happy volunteer gave you a bag with a fair number of plastic eggs and some candy. It sounded pretty lame at first, but the whole way was lined with the most positively cheerful, kind, brightly smiling and waving volunteers from the local church that sponsored the event that by the end I just felt bright and cheery too. The boys were happy with their haul, and immediately examined and sorted it when we got home.
- Lots of mini Egg hunts in our living room. We hide eggs for the boys, they find them. They hide them for us, we find them, et cetera, with all sorts of combinations of hiders and seekers. Very easy, quick, and good for keeping everyone occupied for awhile.
- Plastic egg fights! Mom wasn't so crazy about this one, but Dad and the boys couldn't get enough of pelting eggs at each other.
- I watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ on Friday night. My full reaction could be another post. I'll say that I'm glad I watched it, although it wasn't as spiritual for me as I had expected. It is brutal to watch; the violence and suffering is breathtaking. I don't think anyone could really keep their eyes open the entire time. For how completely in love with it Evangelicals were a few years ago, I was surprised by how Catholic it was (neither here nor there; I was just surprised). I don't think it was remotely anti-Semitic for all the controversy. You couldn't watch it and not be moved. It made Good Friday more real.
- I read the events of the last week in Jesus's life in the scriptures each day.
- As a family each night of the week we reviewed the things that happened the last week in Jesus's life, looked at some pictures, maybe read a quick scripture, and hung the relevant pictures on a wall as we went. This was the best thing we did. Having the pictures there reminded us all that this was a special week. It took almost no extra effort, but made a big impact. This is the kind of tradition I can get behind! Here's what we talked about each day: Monday - triumphant entry into Jerusalem; Tuesday - cleansing the Temple; Wednesday - Last Supper and washing feet; Thursday - Gethsemane; Friday - betrayal, trial, and crucifixion; Saturday - burial; Sunday - resurrection; Monday (tomorrow) - appearances to disciples.
- We ate fish and bread with honey for our Easter dinner. The boys immediately got the reference to Jesus eating fish and honeycomb. It was easy! No pressure to put on a feast! I got this idea from the Ensign last month. It was sort of a desperation move today since the chicken hadn't thawed out to put in the crockpot this morning, but it might be a keeper.
- Cracked up (silently, of course) in Sunday School today. The teacher was trying to tie the lesson into Easter. The lesson talked about "feasting on the scriptures," so she asked us about what we eat for our Easter feast. People mentioned ham, et cetera. Then a very nice man, whose comments I almost always love, said without a hint of irony that Jews eat a kosher meal for Easter. (!?) I kept laughing every time I thought about it. Also, I laughed at the story I heard of one ward's Easter egg hunt for very young kids in which the eggs had atomic fireball gobstoppers in them, and all the kids started crying when they tried to eat them.
I hope you had a great Easter too!
4 comments:
I love the idea of talking about each day of the week--I'll try and remember that for next year. Such a good idea!
I'm still undecided on whether I want to watch that movie or not. I was actually a bit surprised that the primary showed the kids the end of The Lamb of God today in junior primary. I hope none of the sunbeams were too traumatized. My daughter is four and kept talking about the "big, big nails" they put in Jesus.
Every year at the end of Easter I have this sadness that we somehow missed the holiday. I always vow that next year I will do better. It seems like all I do is cut out the fun things--no more Easter baskets--without bothering to replace them with meaningful ones. I love the idea of eating fish and honey for Easter dinner. We had the traditional ham and scalloped potatoes which was yummy but I've always felt a bit bad about having ham on Easter--like the only message we got out of the new testament is: "Oh boy now we can eat pork and shellfish." Ruth
I love the idea about the pictures and discussion of the last week also! We decided that we are going to keep this holiday a little more spiritual, although we're making slow progress. Lots of mentions of this being about Jesus and the resurrection, no easter bunny, but we did still do the egg hunt and baskets (just from us, not the bunny).
I also like the idea of fish and honey--we already do ham at Christmas, and honestly, one ham a year is enough for me (and we even did the easy way yesterday and just got a ham steak since there were only 2 of us who would eat any of it).
Well, he's probably right... they probably do eat a kosher meal on Easter. ha ha Someone should write a book of all the interesting comments made in Sunday school classes around the world. Our ward would definitely have some contributions.
I'm also going to try to remember that daily Easter discussion. I like it.
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