Easter

I was at the temple last week when I overheard a cute girl telling an elderly lady about all of her intricate Easter plans. The girl proceeded to say she has so many ideas and so much energy, it is too bad she doesn't have offspring. The older lady was gracious enough to hold her tongue but I desperately wanted to say, "You have so much energy BECAUSE you don't have any offspring."

This Easter week, I discovered that some people have week long celebrations with their families. I have done a Passover Seder in the past and this year as usual we had Mamie Ventche's delicious Bulgarian Easter dinner with three types of lamb. I don't really like lamb but her cooking is fantastic. I was so happy last night!

We also had boiled eggs that we smacked on each other. Andy almost won but Grandma Dorothy emerged as the true champion with not a blemish on her boiled egg.

Lucky for me, someone else had colored the eggs. I'm not sure what exactly I have against coloring Easter eggs, but I just never want to do it.

Easter baskets are always fun too. This year my sweet sister offered to put Easter baskets together for my kids which is good because I hadn't even thought of it yet. After she had offered to do the baskets for me, I found myself in a grocery store where people around me were frantically trying to put together their Easter baskets. I don't like shopping much. I am so thankful for my sister.

I do love egg hunts using plastic eggs. Our egg hunts usually last well into May when I finally can't stand the eggs laying around anymore. I also think the Easter Bunny is freaky.

This morning, because I felt like I hadn't done the Easter holiday justice, the kids and I read a book called My First Story of the First Easter then we watched The Lamb of God. The movie was pretty powerful. Joseph didn't want to watch anymore after the crown of thorns but Elsa wanted to see Jesus die. I stopped at that point and we talked about the fact that the whole point of this story is the resurrection. I can't remember if Easter Dream is a bit more positive in focus. I'll have to try harder to find it.

Elsa is very much into dead vs alive these days. Mamie Ventche talked to her last night about dying. Several weeks ago when we were at the Bean Science Museum, we had finally established the fact that all of the animals there are dead, they brought out a live turtle and Elsa was confused again.

I'm exploring my feelings about different Easter traditions because want to come up with my own family's Easter traditions.

Elsa's Evening Prayer

Heavenly Father, I love everybody and they love me. I have lots of toys at my house. My house is made of bricks. I don't like bad guys. I know that Jesus is alive.