So far, my preparations have included: making egg nest cookies (see recipe below), gathering up some favorite candies like Brach's jelly beans, Cadbury mini eggs, Reece's peanut butter eggs, and the smallest chocolate bunnies I could find, and making sure we have this year's collection of puppets. (Long story coming.) Still to do on my list: boil and dye eggs with the kids on Friday night, make Finnish Pulla (cardamom bread), and plan the meal. Long story: When Sonja was born, we lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One day, near Easter, I was browsing in The Wordsworth Children's Bookstore (now called Curious George and Friends) at Harvard Square.
I came upon a display of Folkmanis puppets and fell in love with an 11" tall chipmunk. I dug really deep for the seventeen dollars he cost (these were grad student budget days) and decided he would be the only thing in Sonja's Easter basket that year. After all, she was only 6 months old. We called him Filbert, and he was a huge hit. He played peek-a-boo, he clapped his hands, he scurried all over and tickled... he was lots of fun, and still is. He played a major role in Sonja's adjustment to Turkey the next year. Most Easters since then have featured a Folkmanis puppet as the main thing in the basket and we now have a good, if varied and odd, collection of puppets. (This year it's a skunk, a fairy, and a river otter.) Traditions are funny things and they often begin in accidental ways.
This year, though, I am looking forward to deliberately trying something new to see if I can bring an added measure of spirituality to our Easter. I was reading the February edition of the Ensign magazine, and came upon a great little collection of reader-submitted ideas for making a family Easter celebration more spiritual. They all sounded good to me, but there was one in particular that got me thinking. I decided to run it past Quinn to see if it was okay to adopt, and he agreed.
Thus begins our new tradition of Spring Day. From now on, we will have our egg hunt and baskets on a Saturday before Easter (which we shall call "Spring Day"), and Easter Sunday will be reserved for a special meal and Family Home Evening devoted to reading the scriptures and learning new Easter songs. No commercialism allowed that day. Whew, what a relief! Now I can separate those two halves of the holiday and emphasize the spiritual message without distractions. I have great hopes for this system, which is similar to the way we do Christmas at our house.
I'm so excited for Easter! I've felt the wonderful joy of this celebration before- it's been burned into my heart on several occasions- and I always look forward to hearing the story and feeling that exultant elation of the Spirit again. Christ is the Lord, our Savior, and I know it! He atoned for our sins, died and was resurrected for us so that we might have the opportunity to return again into the presence of God the Father. It's the most amazing and wonderful gift, and it fills me with joy. Happy, Happy Easter!
What are your family's Easter traditions?
Egg Nest Cookies:
1/2 cup butter
3oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond or lemon extract
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon water
4-5 drops green food coloring
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
Jelly beans
Beat the butter and cream cheese together till well mixed. Add sugar and extract and beat till fluffy. Add flour, baking powder and salt and beat until well mixed and cohesive. Cover and chill dough 1-2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare the coconut by adding water, food coloring and coconut to a screw-top jar. Shake to color all the coconut. (I spread it out on waxed paper to dry a bit.)
Heat oven to 350ยบ. Remove dough from refrigerator. Shape into 1" balls, roll in coconut, place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes till edges are firm. While cookies are still hot, press a jelly bean in the center of each. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 25 cookies.
7 comments:
I LOVE this idea. Our ward does an Easter Egg hunt and the Easter Bunny comes, and I hate it because I think it sends all the wrong message to the kids. I don't think they should confuse the sacred and secular parts of Easter too much. This sounds like the perfect solution.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE folkmanis puppets. I found some finger puppets they make that are a little cheaper. I have the possum and the beaver for really no reason but that they are so cool.
I found your site through my sister Jenny. How did you come upon Pulla? My husband was a missionary in Finland and we make Pulla at Christmas time, or whenever he sneaks cardemum into my roll dough.
I don't do much with the Easter baskets anymore at home, but I do love the image of new life springing forth out of old, and for some years now I have tried to get outside and plant something on Good Friday. I also love the sunrise on Easter morning. Aunt Pat and Uncle Roy do a plastic egg hunt outside with the grandkids, with coins in the eggs.
allyn: (Welcome, by the way) I had it once at my mother-in-law's at Christmas... I think it was a gift from a neighbor. I loved it and when I found the recipe in my Baking With Julia (Child) cookbook, I tried it. It has become the standard celebration bread at both Christmas and Easter at our house. Yum!
Mom: I wish I could plant something outside on Good Friday! As a nice Easter surprise, though, I came home from church to discover several yellow crocuses opening up.
Mom: What did you plant this year?
Sorry I am a month behind loser on keeping up with your blog. I love the idea of coins in the eggs! (After they're old enough to not choke on them.) My friend david had the same tradition in his family that you are adopting but they called it "Bunny Day" - I like Spring Day better. I'm all for it - I mean, we're busy enough already on Sunday mornings and as a primary teacher I can appreciate not having the kids on sugar highs (although I didn't help the cause by bringing in Peeps). It's nice to celebrate Spring and the Resurrection as separate things. I try to make this point to my friend Corey who's Jewish and guiltily confessed to me she always wanted an Easter basket, new Easter dress and to let her kids to egg hunts. I pointed out to her they were heathen cultural traditions, not Christian ones, to celebrate springtime and she's allowed to do that. "Tell that to my mother!" she said.
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