Easter Traditions and Surprises

Easter is one of the best times of year in our house. Over the past few years we have done several things during the week before Easter to honor the life of Jesus Christ and to make His atonement and resurrection more meaningful for our kids. Some of our traditions include reading the New Testiment and having an "Old Jerusalem" style feast where we eat from a low table using no utensils. This year the menu included Challah bread, rotisserie chicken, lentil soup (not a big hit), nuts, dried fruit, melon and cucumbers. Of course, it's all done by candle light. This year I tried using oil lamps from Jerusalem to light our meal. It looked pretty cool until one of the lamps caught on fire. On Easter morning among the usual surprises waiting for the kids was this nest and little sign sitting on our kitchen table...

"Time to make a little more room in the nest. We'll soon have a new chick hatching in our family. We're having a baby!"

I have never seen two girls become so excited, and we have had nothing but baby talk since Sunday morning. The girls have rearranged everyone's sleeping arrangements and have just about chosen a name for their future sibling. Now, if they could only convince Mark that we need to find out the sex of the baby--these girls have plans to make. Matthew has finally gotten into it as well and has now offered to teach the baby his ninja moves. He has also insisted on feeding the baby oreos (via mom, of course). Thoughtful lad.

This was definitely an Easter to remember. Only time will tell whether the tradition or the surprise was the most memorable. Probably the surprise.