Easter Joy

Easter was always one of my favorite holidays as a kid and I hope we can make it something special for our boys. It's hard when they're this young because they don't understand the significance of this special time. But I hope as they grow, Jonathan and I can make it a meaningful time of reflection and joy!

Church has always been the focus of Easter growing up. We would wake up before the sun came up and put on our new Easter dresses. We went to the Easter Sunrise Service (a community service) at the Catholic church. It was always such a nice service with hymns, special music, and the pastors in the community reading from different passages of the Bible: the Easter story and the events that led up to the resurrection. Then we would have muffins in the church basement with family friends and head to our church for the Easter service. It was always such a special day for us. At my Grandma Bajema's we would hunt for eggs and at my Grandma Joyce we would get to eat special Easter treats.

On Easter Sunday, our boys woke for breakfast and I got them dressed in their Easter outfits (dress-shirt, tie, and sweater vest). They looked so cute. (We still have to get pictures of Phin in his outfit because he spit up all over his the last two Sundays.) Our Easter service included baptisms, which are my favorite thing to witness and what a wonderful symbol of what Christ has done for us. There were 10 middle school students that were baptized that morning and Jonathan had the honor to baptized 4 of them. There were also 3 adults that were baptized.

We were invited over for lunch by a young couple and enjoyed burgers and the fixin's (even though the wind-chill was 23 degrees). Nothing says "spring is finally here" like a burger cooked on the grill in sub-freezing temperatures.

When we got home, we had Asher "hunt" for eggs on our snowy lawn. It's hard when Easter comes so early. Little girls get cold in their new dresses and hunting for eggs in the snow requires a little more layering.

All in all it was a great day. I received an idea from a friend about making your own Resurrection Eggs. I think we'll try that next year, as Asher will be able to understand most of the items in the eggs. It will be nice to set our traditions early by making the day a celebration of what the Lord did for us.