Saturday, March 30, 2013

Easter brings many different feelings and memories.  Our celebration has a theme similar to Christmas; the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Of course Christmas is namely about His birth and Easter is about His mortal death and resurrection, but in the main, the important thing they both teach us is how we are to live (putting God and others before ourselves) and how the sacrifice of the Son of God makes it possible for each of us to return to our Heavenly Father.  That said and understood, the societal and family traditions that grow up around the holidays make them both special and memorable for most of us.  As children, the Easter tradition was for us to find, in the morning, an Easter basket with candy and a hunt for the eggs we had decorated the day before.  I don’t really think we kids ever bought into the idea of a rabbit hiding the eggs, but the family fun of finding them was a highlight of growing up.  As our children came along, we largely perpetuated the same tradition. Our kids searched for eggs all over our homes, and there was a lot of variety because we lived in 14 different homes as our children were raised.  Now we watch to see what part of the tradition our children carry on with their children.  Tomorrow Easter dinner for the families of two of our kids will be in our home and we plan to hold our own egg hunt indoors and out (even though it is snowing this afternoon), and if that warps their family tradition or creates a new one, we will have to wait and see.  Either way, making happy family memories is our goal and they are really the only worthwhile things they will have to take with them from childhood.   Happy Easter!