How to Have Fun and Special Meaning at Easter - Some Things We Have Done

I have a special fondness for Easter and everything it entails. From a very young child until now, I don't think there has ever been an Easter that hasn't been celebrated in some form or fashion. I will start sharing my thoughts here that may translate into ideas for others perhaps, or spur on some comments of further ideas I may not have thought of myself.

Some of my earliest memories of Easter are tied in with the pictures that I still have of those times. My mother is a wonderful seamstress though rather humble about that idea, but she is. She would design and sew these beautiful Easter dresses for my sister and myself, with the loveliest of fabrics. We still have pictures of us in front of the blooming spring trees when we were little girls. Thanks Mom, for doing that for us!

On top of that, my mother would take us to South Coast Plaza Mall, a mall that has been around for some time, several decades now and is still going strong. She would take us to see the Easter Bunny, and get a picture, in much the same way many go to see Santa Claus. They would have quite a set up, and she was very faithful about trying to get a fun picture for the family! Sometimes, my sister or I were less than thrilled with this experience, however! You could tell from these photos.

Easter baskets and an Easter bunny, along with coloring eggs were never left out of the mix. I was no different from other children that enjoyed these things. In fact, my dad captured a couple pictures of me running down the hall in excitement on Easter morning, and I am half asleep but so excited. Those are great memories, and that includes the smell of vinegar when creating the dyes for the Easter Eggs. Sometimes just the smell of vinegar will take me down memory lane!

My sister and I, would have our own Easter egg hunts as well in the house, and sometimes outside. We would take turn hiding them and have the most fun with that! One time, we didn't realize we hadn't found one, only to find out later through mother natures own way of letting you know!

An Aunt or Grandmother almost always would make some deviled eggs as well, which are a treat. Add to that, egg salad sandwiches later on for lunches the next week!

Other than take out the tradition of going to see the Easter Bunny at the Mall and getting pictures, we do much the same with my children. I see nothing wrong, by the way with taking children to see an Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, and getting a photographer to take a picture.

My boys grew up enjoying the process of coloring eggs as well, and getting creative with that coloring process. Part of the whole point of that is to create what they would later search for in a huge outdoor Easter egg hunt! We also add to the real hard boiled colored eggs, some plastic eggs filled with candy! That is just too much fun to miss, and I am so glad that my love of photography and scrap-booking turned me on to wanting to catch the whole process on "film." Its just too fun!

It is fun for the adults to even hide the eggs outside, as we got really creative with that, as the kids got older. If my sister and her family were visiting, it is all the more fun to do it with more cousins around. We also were involved in some community Easter Egg hunts that the community put on for kids. We only did that a few times though, and those are fun as well. When I was helping out with a local MOPS Group a couple of times, we put on some fun Easter Egg hunts as well for our children and all our friends children that were part of that MOPS group. The moms got some of the most fun pictures during these times.

My husband and sons developed a game with left over hard boiled colored Easter Eggs. I can't believe I am going to share this, but they have this spinning and crashing game they do with the eggs! The both sit down at a table, with the eggs nearby. They make a kind of contest out of spinning the eggs toward each other until they crash with enough momentum and one of the eggs "loses" to the other egg! Oh my goodness, you wouldn't think this would be so much fun, but they laugh and don't mind even having to clean up the mess later.

That last idea, brought me to recall another one they did with Grandpa and his outdoor catapult he created! When all the grand kids were over once, one of them had the bright idea to catapult the eggs, "to see what would happen!" This is done on a hill, with lots of trees in the distance. You can't begin to imagine just how fun this was for all of them, and the huge smiles on their faces. By the way, that is the only reason I let them carry through with that idea, as I am thinking, "Oh no, my potential deviled eggs or egg salad sandwiches!" So they had a certain amount to do that with, then that was it. They so enjoyed this and my thought is, life is so precious and flying by, let the kids have some fun!

Perhaps all that precedes Easter and all the above activities is what is makes it the most special of all. I am convinced that there is a God, based on many decades now of study and research and just all I have personally experienced. Easter is so precious to me, because I truly think that Jesus was the revelation of God for many reasons, and what sealed the whole deal. Without the great focus of the resurrection, the death of the Son of God would be meaningless. This gives hopes for all people that he paid a price we couldn't pay and then resurrected from the dead.

Thus, we have always taken Good Friday to heart, for what it represents, to show respect and just remember and be thankful. To get to celebrate what I think life is all about, is so incredibly important to my whole family. It has been encouraging to me to test that faith, with all the skeptics attacks on it that I see, and I try very hard to hold my own thoughts and beliefs to the test with each and every attack. This has bolstered what I have believed all the more, and is explained by what I believe actually. There are great reasons to believe,and the more I see, observe and study, the more convinced I am. It is not at all, just a leap of blind faith, or about feelings, or about needing a crutch, or being brainwashed, etc. It is what it is, and continues to stand on its own, despite its attackers ever since it came into people's knowledge. Add to this, that I respect all others beliefs and views as long as they do not include terrorists teachings or are not terrorists themselves, and/or hurt the freedoms of others in any way.

So you can see, why Easter is so special to my family! I think it is wonderful however people celebrate Easter and the Springtime. Glad to get the idea to write about this, and look forward to seeing others contributions about Easter as well.