Easter Fun and Traditions

To keep the focus on the real meaning of the holiday, we try to keep our Easter activities and traditions Christ-centered. We usually kick off our week of Easter celebration with the annual Blitz our church holds. This involves going door-to-door and inviting the community to attend our Easter services. We dye eggs and do a religious craft. For the past few years, we have enjoyed picking at least one friend to "Egg," which is a surprise egg hunt with a simple message proclaiming "He is Risen."


Thanks to generous relatives, I rarely have to buy Belle pretty dresses, but I make a point to splurge on an Easter dress. For one, I have childhood memories of shopping for an Easter Sunday dress, and I want to keep the tradition. For the past few years, we have made our dress hunt a special outing and discuss getting a new dress to represent "new life" in Christ. It is one of our few shopping trips, and Belle likes the privilege of picking out her own dress. While out this year, we also took the opportunity to get Belle's ears pierced. She insisted on cross earrings, which also led to a great seasonal conversation about Christ being pierced for our transgressions. A couple days later, I attempted to capture a sibling picture in their new outfits. This time, I promised the kids a small holiday treat for photograph cooperation. When we arrived at the infamous Chocolate Tree, we were pleasantly surprised to see the Easter Bunny.



Since we were out of town most of the week preceding Easter, we scaled back our annual Good Friday Resurrection Easter Egg Hunt to include just a couple of sweet friends. The older girls were tasked to teach the meaning of each egg to the younger ones, which turned out great. Later, we attended our church's Good Friday service, where Belle got to take her First Communion. The next morning, Belle and John were excited to bring their neighbor friend to our church Eggstravaganza. In addition to a lot of hands-on fun, the event presents a phenomenal puppet show along with a clear presentation of the gospel. The kids watched it twice!





Although we didn't have a great view of the actual sunrise, we purposefully bundled up and went outside to watch daybreak on Easter this year. Even though I am not a morning person, the serenity and beauty of the experience was wonderful, and I think worth repeating. Afterwards, we went inside for baskets and breakfast. If Belle had not reminded me the night before, I might have forgotten the Resurrection Rolls we always enjoy on Easter morning. I loved the Resurrection conversation we shared while making and eating this fun and tasty treat! Post church services, we spent a nice dinner at the Grandparents' house with several family friends.