Preparing for Easter Week

~busy times ahead this week!! Where to begin?? Well let's see, there is cleaning to be done, shopping, baking and cooking. Phew, exhausted just thinking of it, but it will be worth it all!! To begin I think I will make a list, I always work well with a list because I can empty my busy little mind of all of the jumbling list of ingredients it takes to pull together family holidays. We have several traditions that we try to keep, and they are different for each holiday. For Easter, of course we have an Easter egg hunt. We have always done this as long as I can remember. I have older simplings with children, and so as I was growing up there were gatherings and Easter Egg hunts with nieces and nephews. When my children were younger we started some of our own traditions and the children "included" some of there own as well.

One of the traditions is to bring out our resurection eggs! These are regular plastic eggs in a carton, but inside each egg is a surprise. The eggs are numbered one to twelve, and inside each are llittle tokens that tell the Easter story for children. Begining with number one- a little replica of a donkey representing Jesus' entry into Jerusalem(Matthew 21:1-9), number five is a cross representing the cross for which He died to take away the sin of the world(John 3:16), number nine is an empty egg which reminds us of the empty tomb(Matthew 28:5-8) and number twelve is a cotton ball representing His ascension through the clouds(Luke 24:51-53). We have tried to do this each year and as the children grew, we would gather with some of their cousins and "play" together and each child would take and egg and tell the story to us in their own words. This was always a fun time as you can find out what the children really feel and think about the meaning of Easter. I am truly bless now to have grandchildren to share these with. Our oldest grandchild is only three and a half this year, but we still have gone through them with her in the past letting her explore each egg and telling the story. My son asked me last year "don't you think she is a little young to understand it?" my relpy was that this is how we started with you when you were young. We don't wait until children are in their teens and then expect them to know and understand everything. We start young and each year add a little more "understanding" to the world.

Well I think I got a little carried away with all of that info, but I know it is of use to someone. Thank you for taking the time to explore my blog and I will be sharing more traditions and pictue in the next few days.