Easter Festivities

Doing a little Palm Sunday reenactment.

We ended up spending so much time away from home last week. I'm really happy for the things we still had time to prepare and do. On Palm Sunday we talked about the things that happened in the Savior's life on that day. With very few props, we acted it out. We spent a little time every night afterwords talking about Easter events - not always on their specific days.

The Seder plate (minus a roasted shank bone) and Matzot.

Once my parents were with us, we had our second annual Jerusalem Dinner. This year, we made herbed fish, lentil soup, flat bread, and cucumber salad. We also got a Seder plate put together. Charoset at last! My friend, Audrey, gave me some matza meal and I was able to make the three Matzot to go along with. We didn't do a haggadah reading or anything (not this year, but next year...) but we sampled and talked about the symbols of all the ritual foods. I think these foods are important to understand because at the Savior's last supper, he replaced them with the sacrament.

Who knew brown eggs would dye so well? The three along the top of the carton are white eggs Gracie dyed at school.

In between General Conference sessions on Saturday, we dyed eggs. We spent last week taking care of a flock of chickens for some friends from church. We consequently had a few dozen free range, organic brown eggs in the fridge. We didn't know what to expect, but they took the dye really well. The colors were surprisingly rich. The white crayon trick didn't work out quite as well as it does on white eggs. (Oh, you like that bruise on Grant's cheek? He was minding his own business at the park when a little kid walked up to him, grabbed him by the face and bit him. More to come on that. )

Easter morn we held our version of an Easter egg hunt in our pajamas. A lot of the clues were the same as last year's. We'll get to be more clever as the kids get older. Gracie was hard to slow down and Grant definitely understood better what was going on this year.

The new tradition we started this year was making Easter story cookies. They are a divinity type cookie with crushed pecans. As each ingredient is added there is a scripture and a piece of the crucifixion/resurrection part of the story to tell and discuss. (For example, the kids get to smell and taste vinegar just like the Savior did on the cross.) The little meringue cookies look like rocky tombs and are hollow inside once cooked. My favorite part of this activity is that you seal the cookies in the oven the night before Easter Day. Gracie did a real bang up job with the masking tape. Then on Easter morn, we took the tape off and hid the cookies before the kids came down stairs. Their reaction to the empty oven was perfect. Gracie was surprised to see the tape removed, and then when the cookies weren't inside she was confused and a little upset. It was a great teaching moment to remind her about what happened at the Savior's tomb on Easter morning.

I tucked my notes and new recipes into our Easter book and returned it to its place on the shelf. But my hope is that our family will be even better at remembering the lessons of the Easter season through out the year until next April.