Easter Traditions

     Last year I had the great opportunity of teaching the Sunday Easter lesson in Young Women's.  I spent a lot of preparation on that learning about the last week of Christ's life and what in particular happened on each day.  It was such a blessing to me as I enjoyed that Easter probably more than any others.  I learned a lot about Christ and my focus was on him and not the Easter Bunny.
      I want to maintain the same feelings this Easter season so I have been implementing a few new traditions.  I made each of the kids an Easter book where I cut and pasted images from the Internet that depicted the Savior's last week.  Specifically I found pictures that corresponded with each of the days.  Since my kids can't read yet I chose to do it with just pictures.  For example, for Palm Sunday I found this picture of Christ riding into Jerusalem and the people laying the palm branches at his feet.

     For the 2nd day I found a picture of Christ chasing the money changers out of the temple, for the 3rd day is a picture of the Sermon on the Mount and pictures of the parables Christ taught that day like the Widow's Mite and the 10 Virgins, and so on for each day.  The LDS church has a gospel art kit where most of these incidents are depicted in pictures, so I mostly just used those. If there wasn't a picture I wanted in the GAK, I was able to find something in Google Images. I copied, pasted, printed, laminated, hole punched and put a little binder ring in them to hold them together. They are about 4X6 inches in size.
     Each day we have been "reading" these little books alongside the calendar and talking about what specific events happened on each day.  The kids have really enjoyed it and it has helped me to remember as well.  The books will also very handily go into the church bag to keep them occupied during Sacrament meeting.
      Also this week, a coworker of Aaron's gave me a cool little gift.  It's a bracelet that tells a story and looks like this:
 














     I love it!  Each little bead and charm signifies something in Christ's life and it tells His story from birth to resurrection.  Here is a link to the cool story: http://www.jesusbracelet.org/Get-Bracelet.html. The best part is when the kids are trying to look at it and play with it like all kids do with their  mother's jewelry I have been able to pull them on my lap and hold each bead out tell them about Jesus.  It's such a great little teaching opportunity, and it helps me remember as well.
     Then I found this cool idea on Pinterest, which I haven't done yet, but plan to.
 
     It's called a Resurrection garden and the kids help to build it and plant it.  Another great way to keep the focus on Christ at Easter.  I found a few links to similar ideas, but this one in particular is found here.
     When I taught my lesson last year I brought food in that was served at the Last Supper, particularly unleavened bread, grape juice (for wine), dates, and nuts.  My mom just told me of a neighbor of hers that has  "Last Supper" food with his family each year.  Of course they do not do the Sacrament, but they have all of the food there to eat.  I don't know why I didn't think of doing this for my family before.  It's funny how I thought of it for my lesson but not for my kids.  So I think I will do that this year as well.
     In England Hot Cross Buns are traditional on Good Friday.  I finally found some at my local grocery store. Yay!
 
     I was sharing all of this with Aaron last night and he told me that I have gotten pretty "churchy" lately.  I guess, so be it!  I remember as a missionary we had someone we had been teaching attend church with us one week.  At the end of the three hours she turned to us and asked if we were Christian.  My companion were a little taken back and stated that of course we are.  She said that for three hours she had not heard Christ mentioned once.  She learned about food storage, Family Home Evening, modesty, Joseph Smith and the Temple, but Christ had never been mentioned.
     I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  She was right.  While we do all of those things because we believe in Christ and He is the underlying reason behind all those things, having Him as a focal point doesn't always occur.  I vowed then and there to always have Christ be at the center of my heart and an outward and obvious expression of my beliefs.  So I really love when holidays like Easter roll around where I can lower the importance of the mythical creatures and outwardly express my devotion to Christ.
     That's not to say that I am all "churchy."  I love Easter candy as much as anyone else and the Easter Bunny will certainly visit our house and bring lots of joy.  But it won't be everything that day is about.  I love celebrating the entire week of Easter because there are 8 days focused on Christ's life and only one for the Easter Bunny.
     I would love to hear what anyone else does to keep the true meaning of Easter alive in your homes and hearts.  Feel free to use any of my traditions and I reserve the right to copy yours. :)