Easter Traditions

I really love Easter. When I was a little girl, my grandma Joyce used to take my sisters and I shopping for new Easter shoes. One year she even bought us all matching hats and dresses and I totally wanted gloves too - I remember. I pined for beautiful white, lacy Easter gloves. Easter is such a girl holiday - all the pastels, baby animals, and flowers - Oh, I loved it.
Boys are seriously different. I'm sorry but they just don't get all that excited about a new shirt and tie. They just don't. Oh, well. I won't let their gagging-at-frilly-hats-and-lacy-gloves-and-making-fun-of-twirling-little-girls attitude dampen my Easter spirit. There's always the Easter Egg Hunt tradition, of which my boys are huge fans. My mom is like a professional Easter Egg Hider. Every year she filled hundreds (no lie) of plastic eggs and hid them in our huge yard - really, really well. She used the ladder and the shovel - if that gives you an idea of the caliber of her egg-hiding skills. (okay, maybe not a shovel.) I remember the Easter it snowed like four feet. My mom was giddy hiding eggs in the snow bank. Rain or shine, my mom's Saturday morning Easter Egg hunt was on! And cousins, neighbors, and friends from all over would come with their baskets for hunting - followed by gorging. . . and sorting and trading Easter candy.
The best part? Finding candy-filled eggs in the yard months (or years) later and having a second (secret) little feast. Yum.
Besides Easter Clothes and the Easter Egg Hunt, here are a few more Easter traditions I have invented or adopted from friends and family over the years. I LIVE for holidays. Really. I do. And no matter how busy or exhausted I feel, I am a slave to TRADITION!

1) Dying Easter Eggs
Delicate eggs + dye + my children = big disaster every year. But it's still worth it. Because look how pretty!
2) The Great Big Especially Beautiful Easter Egg
This just might one of the best books ever written. I remember my mom reading it when we were kids and it always filled the day with magic! (Thanks Mom!)
3) Personalized Chocolate Eggs
YUM. Need I say more? (Thanks - for indulging all those years - Mom!)
4) Resurrection Cookies
Here's the recipe and story directions. My kids don't like eating these actually. But they LOVE making them. And it's a clever way to remember Easter. Besides. I could eat a million of these cookies. They're like straight sugar. Mmmmmm. (Thanks Sheralie!)
5) The Special Tomb
How do you teach the meaning of Christ's resurrection to children who don't really even get death? This is something I invented a few years ago for a Family Night lesson and now my kids ask to do it every year (although the surprise effect is lost after the first time). I tell each child to pick a toy or something (Isaac always picks his blue blanket) that they love more than anything else and to place it inside "the tomb" (a decorative box). We talk about how the people who loved Jesus placed his body in a tomb to show respect. Then a heavy stone was rolled in front to lock the tomb. We close the lid of the box and latch it. At the end of FHE (or the next morning) the children open the box to get their special toy but it's empty! (Nate and I have to be pretty sneaky). We talk about how surprised and sad Mary and the disciples must have been to see the empty tomb. The kids are so happy when we finally give them their things. We talk about how happy Mary must have been when Jesus called her by name and she realizes that he lives!
6) Sunday Morning Easter Baskets
I really can't stand the Easter Bunny. I love the tradition and symbolism of Easter Eggs. But the Easter Bunny does nothing for me (except make me roll my eyes and gag). Because of that, I have never liked the idea of the Easter Bunny leaving (dumb) presents (more toys we don't need) in baskets. And on Sunday!?! Okay, so then I read this idea in the Ensign (p. 70). I'm sold. From now on, we're doing Sunday Morning Easter Baskets. Not from the Easter Bunny - but still a fun surprise! (Thanks Ensign!)
7) A Hallway of Pictures
My mom used to put posters in our hallway depicting the events leading up to Christ's death and resurrection. So of course, my hallway is decorated now too. My kids like putting them in order and telling the story. (Thanks Mom!)
8) Easter Story Eggs
Each egg is numbered and contains a clue and a scripture. The kids take turns opening the eggs in order and telling each part of the story. (Thanks Cheryl!)

We missed you, family! Happy Easter.

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