Holidays have taken on a whole new level having kids in the mix. I love seeing how the kids (okay well Luke so far, ha) interpret special occasions and it’s made us think a whole lot more about how we celebrate. Actually, it was still totally special before kids too, I probably was much more rested and possibly (certainly..) better dressed 😉 But as a child rearing, less rested and less well dressed person, this is our new world to explore.
I grew up with the solid set of Easter traditions.. beautiful baskets, egg hunts, poofy dresses with chocolate smudges and a robin’s egg blue wide brimmed hats with ribbons. I have not risen to the level of Bette (my mom) in these practices yet, so I am looking for things that are more on my level this year 🙂
- Egg dyeing: I was thinking naturally dyed eggs would be super exciting to talk about but instead I scoured the depths of our garage earlier today and found a few old sets so here we are. Luke had a blast, we made a huge mess (thankfully it was beautiful outside), I hate the smell of vinegar, most of them were taken out prematurely and had weird stripes. But it was a fun reason to sit down and do something together! And Luke is so proud of his creations!
- Making rice crispie treats for the family: ironically, I found out that most of my family are not fans (whoops!), but it seemed easy and fun and I knew Luke would enjoy it. A little messy again (that cereal has a knack for flying all over!) but deliciously sticky and fun for little hands. And it feels fun for him to have something to hand out to family when he sees them.
- Easter baskets: My mom used to whip out the most amazing Easter baskets. I think there were personalized chocolate eggs from a chocolatier in town (I know..), tons of candies, plastic grass filler, toys, gadgets and I feel like sometimes clothes!? Dang. Pretty awesome. She also scrapbooked it all after. While working full time. While running a household. By herself. Welp! Anyhow! We’re looking at a smaller, sweet little gift basket. I’ve got a few Target dollar section items (coloring books and little toys), some gummies and I grabbed a extra more chocolates when I was out for the kids, some are in their baskets and some have been lost unexpectedly.
- Thank you notes: This one isn’t necessarily super Easter-centric, rather, more relevant to this year and time of life. Either way, we’re working (all of us are..) on being thankful and trying not to take for granted the simple things we’ve been provided (safety, family, meals, toys, friends, transportation, etc). So we wrote thank you slash Happy Easter cards to people who have helped all of us learn about God 🙂 Luke wrote to his teachers in his class, and his adopted uncle and aunt, James and I to some people in our lives who have walked with us in the best times and worst. It was such a good exercise (maybe mostly for me?!). And then, a bonus .. Luke’s birthday is celebrated by the family on Easter Sunday and they rock his socks off with the best gifts, so this was even more so an extreeeemely timely moment to practice thankfulness 🙂
- The Easter story: The Easter story sounds obvious enough, but for a long time, I’ve loved the idea of reading my kids the Easter story in a memorable way. To meet Luke on his three year old level, I thought we could grab ham and cheese croissants and find a fun place to read it together. Maybe the park for a breakfast picnic. And then life got busy and it didn’t all look like I thought (ha!–sounds about normal..). So a few nights this week, Luke and I cracked open my old toddler Bible and went for it. Might get more creative in the future but hey, it fit the bill this year 🙂
To those who celebrate it, happy Easter friends!
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