Easter in our Home

It's nearly Easter!

In honor I'm listening to some of the Easter hymns on the church website. I love the Easter hymns almost as much as some of the Christmas ones, but for some reason, it feels like we don't sing them much. (Maybe it's just the wards I've been in?) I guess maybe it's because we sing Christmas hymns in sacrament meeting all through the month of December, and there are only a couple of Easter songs in the hymnbook-- not like we could do that all month long, we'd surely get a little tired of them.

Anyway, I know that Easter is a big holiday with fun family traditions for many people, just like Christmas, but Terence and I made the decision at the beginning of our family life that we were going to do things just a tad bit differently. We didn't want Easter to become so secular in our family that our kids had only the slightest idea why we were celebrating it. So we have never played the Easter Bunny for our kids, our egg hunt is relatively simple and always done on Saturday, there are no toys or games or movies in the kids' Easter baskets, and we spend more time talking about the Resurrection of the Savior during this time. We do get the kids a nice new church outfit (this year provided by Grandma-- thank you!!!!!) But we've always seen this as partly practical (there is a much bigger selection of dressy clothes during the run-up to Easter) and partly as showing the kids that Easter IS an important day in a way that still honors the Savior by showing respect to Him.

We are going to have a nice Easter dinner tomorrow, but that's only because we eat almost every Sunday at my parents' house and the family opted for a grander dinner than tacos. Trust me, if we were going to be eating at home (like when we lived in Sanders) there would be no major production about it. (Not that I feel a big dinner is too secular, it's just that I'm usually too exhausted on Sundays to want to bother with something like that!)

Anyway, these are some of our own traditions. Every family is different-- I certainly don't see anything wrong with the different traditions that others have. But for our family, I think things have been much better this way. Partly it's for reasons that I couldn't have really foreseen at the beginning of my married life. At the time I was so gung-ho to have a ton of family traditions and to make a fun production of every holiday that came along. But what I didn't count on was my own exhaustion and inability to keep up with that stuff, especially as additional children kept coming to the family. Once you start a tradition, sometimes they are terribly hard to break, but they can become so cumbersome that they take the joy out of what you are celebrating.

Almost every Easter since I've been married, I've either been pregnant (and often sick) or caring for an infant. In both situations my energy level has not been high. Last year was a notable exception, but mostly, I am so grateful that Easter is a simple holiday around here! It gives me time to actually reflect on the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the whole reason we are celebrating a holiday. The one event that gives our lives purpose and meaning! Without it, what good would our lives here on earth be? We would be permanently separated from God and death would affect us forever.

I'm so grateful that the Savior was willing to suffer and die on our behalf and that he was resurrected so that we could all live again too. This Easter I am trying hard to remember that He is there for me, He loves me, and He is quite willing to take on all my sins and sorrows if I will only let Him. Truly, it makes me glad deep inside-- Happy Easter, everyone!