Celebrating Easter

Easter celebrations in our home are always a mixture of traditions and new ideas.

This year was no different.

Passion week was spent reading through the final chapters of Luke.

With thoughtful discussions and explanations after dinner each day,

together, we grew in our understanding and love for Jesus.

Though we do an Easter tree every year, it looked a whole lot different this year.

Last year, I had seen this Easter tree, and liked the idea of adding splashes of color and life to a bare branch.  We adopted this bare branch idea by pushing one into a floor vase. 

Next year, I am considering cutting a live branch and allowing it to blossom by putting it in water.

We have done this in the past for a science observation, and it worked well.

A bare branch bursting forth with buds and blooms, would be ever so representative of Easter. 

Friday evening, as in years past, we attended a Good Friday service.

Always, beautifully poignant.

Saturday, we tried something new. 

Typically, we give our children chocolate crosses for Easter.

We do not do baskets, and never have, but still like to give our children a chocolate treat!

This year, we gave them the crosses at lunch.

They munched on them all afternoon, before they went fishing, and after.

For Saturday dinner, we made these rolls.  The children helped make them, but we skipped the analogy portion.  Instead, we simply told them it was a dessert.

We wanted to surprise them with the empty tomb appearance of the rolls while we read Luke 24.

{Since we had shaped the rolls to look like the tomb,

we had a part that could easily be ripped off for a stone.} 

On Easter morning, we celebrated His Resurrection with our church family.

My Drummer husband played with the worship team.

Once he returned from second service, we packed up the children and drove out to my parents home to celebrate with extended family and friends.

A few pictures to share of Easter with our extended family...

{Flowers we gave to all the ladies at Easter dinner.  Oh, how they smelled divine, especially in our home the day before and in the car during the trip.}

{The dinner rolls I made for dinner following my grandmother's recipe!  After being assigned fruit for Christmas and now, rolls for Easter, I was really starting to wonder if my mom wasn't impressed with my cooking...so, I decided to make dinner rolls instead of purchasing.  Using her mom's recipe, I spent Saturday afternoon baking rolls for Sunday's dinner.}

{We decided last minute to give our nephew and nieces a little something sweet for Easter.  With the supplies we had on hand, I fashioned these little treats.  Yes, seriously, I had the supplies on hand, most were left overs from other projects.  Lollipop bags were left over from a fall candy making project; post cards turned into gift tags and sticker pages were left over from Sunday school supplies we had personally purchased; ribbons were left over from the Rainbow party; and jelly beans, well, we shared our candy stash.}

{The annual Easter egg hunt is always fun for the children, and for us adults, too, as we try to find harder places to hide the eggs each year.  Of course, if you think this is cruel, then please don't look at the picture below.} 

{Yes, it is a camo egg!  These have been used for the past several years of Easter egg hunts.  We still place colorful eggs in more obvious places for the younger children, but the older children like a bit more of a challenge.  Next year, or maybe even for a fun summer evening, we might try the glow in the dark egg hunt idea my sister read about online.}

I hope you and your family had a lovely Easter weekend commemorating His sacrifice and celebrating His resurrection.  May the hope of that first Easter morning carry you through your days with a joy and love for our Lord!
~ Dorie

This day, the day after Easter, I am reminded of these words my youngest spoke last year, when I tried to tell him Easter was over.  He told me "No, it's not.  It's just the beginning, because Jesus is alive.  Easter is forever!"