Easter-ous Festivous

(We've already established over at God.Love.Family.Life that Easter activities have no special holy significance, nor do they have anything to do with the "now reality" of Yahshua's resurrection.  We won't get into that here.) 

So having gone over and over for my son that there is a HUGE distinction between holiday shenanigans and the holiness of what we live every day, we had so much fun on Easter!  We did it up and got giddy about it just like we would for a family day set aside to go to Pizza Putt.  Was I just another lemming as I went through Walmart perusing chocolate bunnies and mints?  To the degree that I was pumping cash into the massive machine that is holiday consumption, I was aware of it and made the conscious decision to dive right in this year, lemming or not.  By diving in, I mean a few dollars, though, so don't get the wrong idea.  I had to fit it into my budget or it would've been a no-go.  Sorry, kids.  We don't go into debt for this stuff (says the woman who actually had a bag full of horrible, plastic Easter grass tucked away in my closet with the basket and plastic eggs we use every year)!  (But, hey, at least I don't give him chalky, crumbly, old chocolate I bought on sale last year...Tempting as it may be.) 

For the first year, Levi got an Easter basket of goodies from the "Easter Bunny" who he knows is not real, but we have a fun time pretending it (Last year, he just used the basket to collect eggs).  His reactions last week were hilarious as I explained to him in excited tones the things that sometimes happen on Easter...things like egg hunts and baskets and...caaaaaandyyyy.  When Saturday came and we were looking forward to the next day, Levi ran through the house screaming, "I LOVE EASTERRRRRRRR!"  Jed and I were cracking up as he raced by his sister and began his "I'm excited" ritual of running laps around the kitchen, circle after circle after circle.

Sunday morning, when he came out of his room with puffy eyes and crazy hair, he gave me a big, sparkly smile and yawned out, "Happy EASTER, Mommy!"  Finding his Elmo basket on the table downstairs was delight beyond compare until he spotted one of his dyed eggs peaking out from the corner under his work table.  Total glee.  I told him he better get after it, because those eggs were his breakfast!

We did breakfast (in a rush, despite my best efforts to get us all down there with plenty of time), then had an incredible time at our church gathering, then came home to our ham and saucy potatoes cooking (not quickly enough) in the crockpot.  We made it through the al dente potatoes so we could get outside into the beautiful sunshine.  Levi had more eggs to hunt: these were the plastic ones with you-can-only-guess-what inside.  Actually, we did take the extra time to eat the fluffy strawberry Jell-O pie.  This was the first year I'd made one of those, and I have to admit, we were a touch disappointed.  Are we crazy?  One more tradition we'll not embrace.  One year when I was about 9, my mom made a coconut cake in the shape of a bunny, and if I'm feeling all Martha Stewart next year, maybe I'll give that a try.  Sorry, Jell-O.

The especially good news is that none of the squirrels partook in Levi's egg hunt this year.  Last year, the thieving marmots helped themselves.  As if those neurotic bundles of energy need ANY more sugar!

We did get a few pictures of it all, then we took a walk and later that afternoon ran Levi at the playground until we could tell that the sugar energy was expended and he had reached exhaustion.  Mission accomplished.

We Finleys hope that your celebration was full of cheer as ours was and that, while Easter is over, the resurrection power He intended for us all is ever-increasing in your life.