Ethan's fourth Easter was filled to the top! I can't get over just how fun holidays are with him at this age.
We dyed Easter eggs, painted cardboard eggs, hunted for Easter eggs, ate a lot of chocolate, and talked about the Passion a lot.
The stories of Jesus dying at the cross, baby Jesus being born in a stable, and David and Goliath are told and retold in our house all year long. Ethan always comes back to them no matter how many other bible stories he learns.
So all week Jesus and Him dying on the cross were part of normal conversation. We talked about why He died and how He loved both of the men with Him up on that hill. And how one of them believed and one of them didn't. How He had love for those people that were calling Him names. We talked about how you get to go to Heaven to be with Jesus: Love Him, Believe in Him, and Say you are sorry.
The Sabbath before Easter we got to go to see the Passion play with our church family. Ethan was so excited to see the Roman soldiers. All week long he kept saying "Mama I'm so excited for sabbath". Him and I talked non-stop during the play about what was happening in each scene. Such meaningful conversations and what a blessing that I had that time. A few times I hoped that the people around weren't disturbed by all of the words. But then decided that it was my assignment that day to talk about God with my four year old and answer all of his questions and listen to him tell me all of the stories.
It's great fun to get to do more holiday crafts and activities with Ethan but my favorite part is getting to add more details to his favorite stories as he gets older.
As the week got started I had grand plans to do the crafts and all of the activities. But then life happened and there it was days away and the candy hadn't been bought. So Jen and I made time during a workday to do some shopping. Then I adjusted my expectations. Mason didn't need a bib or candy or a big basket. He would be happy with something to chew on. See picture above. And Ethan was so excited about the play and the story and the hunting for eggs that a piece of chocolate would be enough. I didn't buy the Easter plates or napkins. I didn't make the cute silverware carrot roll ups. I didn't plan a big get together with lots of food and snacks and desserts. We kept it simple. We kept it special. I didn't even take that many pictures. I tried to stay in the moments.
It's easy to get caught up in the Pinterest world and lose sight of the love. I've learned to be okay with dreaming of all of things but accepting the reality when the dreams stay on Pinterest. Celebrating Easter from a hospital bed last year with baby Mason in my tummy helped me keep a healthy perspective this time around.
A year ago ...
I got a few hours with Ethan and watched him look for eggs hidden around my hospital bed. I focused on seeing the blessings of health instead of the things we were all missing by me not being home.
This year ...
We were all together celebrating the price paid on our behalf.
We were all together thanking Him for being our Redeemer.
We were all together.
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