Easter At Our House: He Is Risen!

He Is Risen!

This morning started off with Easter Sunrise Service at Inspiration Point in Idyllwild, California. As we worshipped in community we overlooked the clouds - a truly inspiring way to start the day!

After Easter Sunrise Service we rushed back to the house to put on new Easter outfits and head to church for an egg breakfast and worship. On the way to church we coached our children that when someone says "He is Risen!" we say back "He is Risen, Indeed!" After church it was back to Nonni and Gramp's house to hunt eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden.

For our ham lunch my niece shared Resurrection Rolls with us. You take a large marshmallow (which stands for Jesus) and roll it in cinnamon (representative of the spices Jesus body was rubbed with to prepare it for burial) than you wrap it in a crescent roll (the kind that comes in the tubes in the refrigerator section at the grocery store) representing the grave clothes that Jesus' body was wrapped tightly with. Remember to tightly seal the edges. Then you put it in the oven reminding us that Jesus body was put in a tomb. When they are cooked and cooled you bite into them -- to find the marshmallow gone and a hollow roll -- symbolic of Jesus tomb the first Easter morning.

Easter At Our House: Egg Hunts

Egg Hunts

Today we had a lazy morning -- wandering over at 10AM for the community egg hunt (more like a race). We enjoyed hunting eggs and then coming home and making egg salad sandwiches.

The kids enjoyed hiding the plastic eggs out in the yard with their cousins and finding them.

Today we made sure our Easter clothes are ready and made final preparations to celebrate Easter tomorrow.

Easter At Our House: Good Friday!

Good Friday!

Today we spent the morning packing and preparing to go to Nonni and Gramps for Easter. We attended the noon worship service for Good Friday at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church(www.solanapres.org) during which the kids made cross necklaces and talked about how Jesus died because he loves us and I reflected on how things aren't always what they seem -- how can Good Friday be good when that is when Jesus dies? We have been talking about talking about how Jesus died because he loves us and wants us to live forever. After the service we headed up to Nonni and Gramps for Easter anticipating a risen Savior and mindful of his death and burial.

Easter At Our House: Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday

Today we recognize the Last Supper Jesus shared with his 12 disciples - his body and blood.

William brought home a sheet from Preschool today sharing some questions and answers to help dialogue about Easter with our preschool children. They talked about "...the bottom line of Easter. God loves us enough to send his son Jesus to us and is then big enough to make him come back to life."
- How did Jesus' friends feel about Easter?
- Why did they kill Jesus?
- Where is Jesus?
- What is Jesus doing in Heaven?
- What is it like in Heaven?
I got some other questions at our house:
- How big was the stone that was rolled away? (so we got to look at pictures of when David and I went to Isreal)
- What does it mean that the stone/tomb was sealed?
- How do we know Jesus was dead?

We had planned to go to church tonight but instead we had a quiet evening as family.

I'm not quite sure what I think of having April Fools' Day and Maundy Thursday on the same day...