This is just a small piece cut out of a paper tablecloth that I had set on our dining room table during our family's "week long Easter celebration."
It is a family tradition of ours to have a "Love One Another" tablecloth where we all write nice things to each other on the tablecloth all week long, and then when we sit down on Easter Sunday for our dinner together, we read out loud all of the kind things that everyone wrote to each other. When I read this note from my sweet husband, it really affirmed to me that all of the time and energy that I put into making this celebration spiritual, fun, and memorable is all worth it!!!!
This tradition of celebrating Easter all week long has really become one of our families favorite traditions...dare I say MORE than Christmas? ~It's pretty close! ;) Anyways, this year was such an exceptional experience for me, and I have had many people ask about the details of what all our family does, that I wanted to record it for 2 reasons...1) For me to always remember...and 2) For other families to share ideas and catch the spirit in their own unique way to celebrate one of the most special holidays that we have!
It all started about 6 years ago (I think..) with this book. I can't even remember how or where I found it, but from the day that I did, it has literally changed the way that our family celebrates Easter. It was the tool that I found that helped me to see what Easter really could be like for my family. Instead of just one day of eggs, and baskets, and "fluffy" barnyard animals, Easter has evolved into an entire week of Christ centered traditions and activities that really help us learn and focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and what He did for us. This book is absolutely wonderful and I would recommend that anyone who wants to do this to buy the book.
However, what I really love is that as years have passed and we have tried different things to make our celebration special, I have been able to use this book now more as a guide ~ and as I have added my own activities and ideas, now I simply follow the spirit in planning and preparing activities that I feel will be good for my family during that particular time, and according to what is going on in our lives each year.
Some things we have done since the first year we started this tradition, and other things have just been started this year. But it really doesn't matter WHAT you do, or how simple or complex you make the activities... What matters is that you are creating family memories and traditions that your children will remember for the rest of their lives. I even had my son Carew ask me this year if he could do this same kind of celebration with his own family one day. I smiled at him...and told him YES!!!
So, here we go! I am going to give a brief run down of what we did each day of the week...and I will also put a star by the things that we will do every year. I hope you enjoy!!! :)
Day 1 ~Palm Sunday~
This year Palm Sunday was also General Conference for us and so I planned and prepared a "Sunrise Devotional " to kick off the celebration of Easter and Conference together. The night before, I told all the kids to sleep in warm sweats because I had a special surprise for them in the morning! At 6 a.m. we woke everyone up, put their coats and shoes on them, and jumped in the car. I had a picnic breakfast packed for everyone and we drove to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake. I planned for all of the proceedings to happen as the sun was coming up so that it would be symbolic of the Savior being the "Light" that we let into our lives everyday, and of his Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
As we walked up the trail, there were 5 different check points that we stopped at where each of the kids took a turn pulling a "treasure" with a scripture attached to it out of my little treasure box. Each scripture talked about things that we considered to be things that the Savior would do if he were here with us today...
A watch represented "Time" ~ that Jesus would spend time with us, a piece of bread represented "Food" ~ that Jesus would feed us (physically and spiritually), a key represented "Priesthood blessings" ~ that Jesus would bless us all, a heart represented "Love" ~ that Jesus would encircle us in the arms of his love, and a picture of President Thomas S. Monson represented "Teaching" ~ that Jesus would teach us if he were here.
When we got to the top of Ensign Peak, the last treasure (which was the picture of President Monson) was the one that we talked about as we overlooked the Salt Lake valley where we could see both the temple and the Conference Center. Even though the Savior is not here with us today, he has sent us prophets and apostles to teach us and tell us the things that He wants us to know, and we would get to hear their very words on that conference day!
We sat down together in a little cove in the rock and had our breakfast and had fun talking about different things. I gave everyone in the family a small picture of Jesus with an index card taped to the back of it and had everyone write down what they were going to do all week long as a gift to the Savior to show their love for him. All of the kids enjoyed the special activity, and I felt that it was a great way to begin the week long celebration. We then went home, (we were back by 9 a.m.) taped up our pictures of Jesus by our beds so that we could remember what to work on that week, and got out our conference packets and treats and watched conference. When it was over, we *decorated the dining room table with our "Love One Another" tablecloth (complete with a bowl of candy and a jar of pens for writing. Then of course whenever you write something nice about someone you get to have a piece of candy),* set out a big bowl of plastic eggs filled with scriptures for everyone to look up during the week, and *a stack of Gospel Art Kit pictures.* Every morning when we would have family scriptures, we would hold up a picture that correlated with what had happened in Jesus' life that particular day of the last week of his life. Some mornings would have more than one picture that I wanted to show, but after we had talked about it, I would tape it up on a wall so that everyone could remember what we had talked about. (And of course I put it down low for everyone to be able to see:)
Day 2 ~Cleansing the Temple~
Today we talked about how Jesus cleansed the temple and how we want our home to be like the temple...Happy and peaceful and full of a spirit of peace and love. We played a fun game all day long where everyone had a safety pin with 10 other safety pins threaded onto it. We had to wear the safety pins all day long and we could only talk in a whisper! If anyone needed to talk out loud they had to go outside and if you caught anyone NOT talking in a whisper, you got to take one of their safety pins! At the end of the day we counted up who had the most safety pins and that person won a grand prize...It was a puzzle with a picture of the temple. We did the puzzle together that night as part of our Family Home Evening. Also, everyone else won their own bag of Pop "Secret" popcorn for being good sports and trying to whisper all day. We also *chose secret pals* that night in our Family Home Evening. Whoever you chose for your secret pal, you had to do extra kind things for them all week long. Then, on Easter at our dinner, we would try to guess who each person had.
Day 3 ~Parables and Teachings~
On this particular day, there is so much freedom to choose what you want to talk about because there are so many wonderful parables that Jesus taught. One of our favorites is the Parable of the 10 Virgins and so on this day we *read the story together and then made our very own oil lamps.* This was so much fun! I bought the Sculpy Clay and lamp oil at the Hobby Lobby and each one of us molded our own unique oil lamps. We baked them in the oven to make them hard and then saved them for later when we would actually get to use them.
Day 4 ~Parable of the 10 Virgins~
On this particular day I knew that our family would be gone in 100 different directions so I chose to do something meaningful, but that would still work with everyone being gone. I had found some little cork topped glass viles at the Hobby Lobby that I thought would work perfect for putting "oil" in, so I bought them and told everyone in the family to be sure to do all of the good things in the day that they knew they should. I only told them once and then let the rest be up to them. Then, once everyone was home and getting ready for bed that night, I told each of them that Clint and I would be coming around to talk to each of them individually. When we went into each of their rooms, we brought the little viles and let each of them choose the one that they wanted. They were each different shapes and sizes though they were all very small. I had the lamp oil in a little dropper and after they had chosen their vile, I began asking them about their day. I wanted them to think back throughout the day of all of the good that they had done...Service, prayer, reading scriptures, helping someone in need, being a good example, giving compliments, developing their talents, being courageous...anything good that they had done throughout the day would earn them actual drops of oil for their lamps. This turned out to be an amazing opportunity for each child to see the correlation and the need to actually fill our days with spiritual oil and it helped them to have something physical for them to really see and measure the amount of good that they put into their day. It was a great teaching opportunity.
Day 5 ~The Last Supper and Jesus' Prayer and Agony in Gethsemane~
This is always a fun night that everyone looks forward too. We have our *Jerusalem Dinner* which is basically a meal that we have to remember the Last Supper and also to think about what it might have been like to live when Jesus had been on the earth. We eat our dinner in a way that they may have, and we eat foods that they may have eaten. (But of course only to a certain extent because we do have some of the most pickiest eaters on the planet! ;) We move our kitchen table out of the way and lay out a large blanket or tablecloth and set our dishes on it - minus the silver ware! We turn down all the lights in the house and wait until it's dark and then burn our oil lamps that we made while we eat our Jerusalem dinner. Our menu is very simple - we just try to sample foods that Jesus may have eaten in his day...Fish (usually salmon or halibut) and fish sticks for the little ones...beans, carrots, cucumbers, olives, cheese, unleavened bread, and grape juice to drink. Mint was also used back then so I made sure to incorporate some "mint" chocolate chip ice-cream for dessert;)
The food is yummy and it's fun to eat with our fingers, but the atmosphere with no lights and only the oil lamps was very special. Everyone was able to take the oil that they had earned from their own vile, and dump it into their lamp. Everyone stayed long after the food was gone to see who's lamp would burn the longest. One by one, the lamps started going out until finally only one lamp remained ~ It was Kambriella's! All the time the kids were intent on watching the lamps, we were discussing different things relating to the Savior's life and before we knew it, we ended up having a very spiritual testimony meeting along with the singing of some of our favorite hymns. It was a wonderful night that I certainly did not plan to go that well...The spirit was there and I believe that each of my children felt it and was strengthened by it...it was amazing. Once again the Savior's life was reinforced along with the lesson of having "spiritual oil" in our lamps everyday.
Day 6 ~Jesus Trial and Crucifixion~
Today was the day that we were suppose to do our *3 Days of Darkness Easter Egg Hunt,* but, also knowing that I cannot predict everything that will happen in our week, I have to be flexible when things don't go exactly like I want them too! It ended up being a crazy busy day and so we actually didn't do this activity until Sunday night (which was OK too!) We ended up preparing for the weekend instead and making foods for going to Grandma's...But I will still tell you all about this 3 Days of Darkness Easter Egg Hunt! It was sooooo fun!!! Once it was dark, we had each of the kids put on a blind fold. Clint and I went down to the basement and over turned some of the bar stools, benches, couch cushions, and moved the couches around... We basically made a giant obstacle course down in the family room and then hid candy filled eggs all over the floor and amongst the "rubble." You see, this egg hunt is representative of the 3 days of darkness that followed the Savior's crucifixion...there were great storms, tempests, and earthquakes that caused the earth to "divide asunder" and that is why we "messed up" the room. Then, in all the darkness the kids had to move very slowly and "feel" their way through the darkness to try and find their eggs. We ended up laughing so hard at people bumping into each other, but also had yet another opportunity to help the kids to see just how dark it was and even though it was hard for them to find their way around just for 20 minutes, they were able to imagine a little more clearly just what it might have been like to be in complete and utter darkness for 3 straight days!
Day 7 ~The Jewish Sabbath~
Amongst all of the fun in our celebration, I have chosen to NOT get rid of the Easter baskets that suddenly appear full of gifts for the kids! Instead of the baskets showing up on Easter morning, they just appear in the kids rooms on Saturday morning when they wake up! That way, there are no distractions of that sort on Easter morning. So, Saturday morning the kids all found some special treats in their baskets and then quickly got ready to head to Grandma and Grandpa Trickett's house for our annual Easter Egg Hunt. We had a brunch and egg hunt with all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins that was a lot of fun for everyone! But, when we got in our car and were ready to head back home, I had a special gift for my family.
I wanted to make time on Saturday to *go to temple square in Salt Lake City and go and visit the large Christus statue that depicts the resurrected Lord*...so I went and bought a small version of the statue and wrapped it up and let the children unwrap it to see where we going to spend the rest of our day! They guessed immediately that we were going to temple square once they saw the statue! They very carefully passed the statue around in the car, one by one, holding it and inspecting it for the nail prints in Jesus' hands and feet and the wound in his side.
We went and had dinner at the Lion House Pantry right there by temple square which was also neat since that is where all of the kids have celebrated their 8th birthdays. We had fun talking about what they remembered about the week and about their birthdays...and enjoying all of the neat things to see there.
We also took some pictures to remember the day and the many blessings that we have been given~ all from a loving Savior and Heavenly Father. ~Especially the gift and blessing of eternal families all made possible through Jesus Christ.
We all had such a great time walking the temple grounds, looking at all of the beautiful ponds and trees, and just feeling the sweet spirit there...being grateful for everything that we have been given.
So here I sit with my little ones all around me, in this feeling of peace and joy that I know my Savior loves me. If only I can pass that knowledge on to my own family, then I will feel that I have done my part as a mother...but I know that it takes a lifetime to experience and learn these things, and so I will do my best to teach and give and do a little everyday.
Day 8 ~Easter Sunday~
This year on Easter morning I was able to complete another reading of the Book of Mormon. It was the first time I had ever completed the book on Easter morning, which in itself made the day extra special for me! It was also fast and testimony meeting at church and so I was able to share my testimony of the Savior and that I know that He lives! I was also able to teach the Primary children all about Easter which added to the spirit of the day...and when we got home, Clint and I worked in the kitchen together and made a yummy Easter dinner. We were able to sit down together and talk about the day and our week, read the comments on our Love One Another table, and share who was who in the "secret pals!" We spent time together playing games and doing our 3 Days of Darkness Easter Egg hunt...and just having a wonderful Easter celebration. I went to bed that night with so much gratitude in my heart...I feel so blessed to have the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I am so thankful that Jesus Christ cared for me enough to die for me. But, more importantly, I am so thankful to know that he has been resurrected and that He lives! I KNOW that my redeemer lives. May each of us find true joy and happiness as we celebrate the life of the Savior each year at Easter...and each and every day!
