I love Easter! It may be because I dislike death and separation so much, but the gratitude I feel for the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ fills me with joy every day, and particularly at Easter time.
Our family doesn’t do the Easter Bunny. I feel like it cheapens such an amazing reason to celebrate. I know most of the Christian world disagrees with me (including most of my family), so maybe that puts Glenn and me in the “strange” category, but we broke the news years ago to our kids that the Easter Bunny is totally fake and we don’t do it. They have never complained or even hinted at feeling like they are missing out.
We do make a big deal out of Easter. Every evening during Holy Week we talk about what happened in Christ’s life on that day. We do dye Easter Eggs, and sometimes we send the boys on an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday with love notes and brilliant jokes written on slips of paper inside the eggs (and occasionally a dime or two if they are lucky).
One thing I love to do is make sure our family is looking our best for church on Easter Sunday. I love dressing up because I love the way I feel when I really take the time to look my best. I feel more reverent and respectful, which is how I want our kids to feel when they attend church (every Sunday) especially on Easter Sunday.
Last year I made Amelia a new Easter dress that turned out just the way I envisioned it, and I loved it! I swore I would never sew again because it was so difficult for me, but a couple of weeks ago I started to get the urge again. Once again, it was a huge pain. I made about 5 practice versions of the dress. None of them fit Amelia, and they didn’t turn out well. I was finally down to the wire and had to cut the actual fabric I had purchased for the occasion. I sewed, ripped seams out, sewed again, ripped again… it was a painful process. The little speech I gave Derek a few weeks ago about setting a goal and making it happen? I had to give myself the speech several times as I grumbled through yet another failed attempt. I finally finished the dress on Saturday night, complete with glass buttons from her great-great grandmother Amelia Ludwig. By that time, Amelia had tried the too-tight practice versions on so many times that she hated the word “dress.” I got her out of bed where she was refusing to go to sleep and said, “I finished your new dress! Do you want to see your dress?” She yelled, “Uh-Uh!!!!! No!!!!!” Not exactly oozing with excitement.
Derek had the best reaction by far. When I showed him the dress he exclaimed, “Wow- that is an amazing dress! I would be proud if my wife had a dress like that (in a bigger size)!”
I didn’t even have a chance to try it on her before getting her dressed for church on Sunday. It was a little too big, but it worked!! And Amelia would make any roughly-made dress look adorable! Here she is (I even painted her fingernails for the first time for the occasion):
This girl LOVES jewelry. She couldn’t believe her luck that I let her wear a necklace AND bracelets. She kept them on all day and kept switching the bracelets from one wrist to the other. She was thrilled!
She also loves her personal dress designer and seamstress (and we even had matching nail polish).
The boys didn’t look too shabby either. I love these guys!
And after my parents working very hard to get Amelia to smile for her pictures, they managed to get our whole family looking our best (or at least trying to look our best- I love how Evan’s suit is covered in dust from running around in the backyard while we were trying to get pictures).
On top of dressing up, every year we do a little family Easter program. This year Derek learned to play “He is Risen” out of the Hymnbook and accompanied us while we sang. Evan learned how to play “I Know That My Savior Loves Me” and played it while Derek and Evan sang. All three boys sang “I Stand All Amazed” which they learned in primary. We all shared a favorite story about Jesus and talked about our feelings for Him. We also talked about our ancestors and how much we love them and how grateful we are for the blessing of being able to be reunited with them someday because of Jesus Christ.
We also have a special meal of fish and honey (fresh from the comb) along with pickled eggs (a Grandma Brown specialty).
My favorite part of Easter this year was first thing in the morning. I had made a CD of songs about Christ sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to listen to on Easter morning. I joked with Glenn that I would love to wake up to “He is Risen” blasting through the speakers.
Well, Amelia apparently woke up really early and I didn’t hear her. Glenn got up with her and they hung out together quietly downstairs. They snuck around (how anyone can sneak with Amelia amazes me) and opened all our bedroom doors, then at 6:55 a.m. they turned this video on our TV with full volume coming through the speakers. (For some reason it won’t let me embed it, so you’ll have to click on the link.) It was loud and very exciting!
http://youtu.be/kCJtfBR7T9E
I immediately woke up and leaped out of bed as soon as the first notes of the trumpet fanfare sounded. It was so fun to see our bleary-eyed boys wander out of their rooms and down the stairs with little grins on their faces as the choir began to sing, “He is Risen, He is Risen! Tell it out with joyful voice!” They knew the song and the video well since we had learned all the words earlier in the week and sang along with the video quite a few times. Once we finished the first Easter viewing, we watched it a second time. We were all snuggled up on the couch together in the early morning stillness, and for some reason it just really felt like a perfect way to wake up on Easter morning.
I am grateful for Easter and all that it means for me- definitely the best holiday!
