More Easter!

This is our Easter Advent set-up. Don't laugh, I didn't know there was a proper way to do this so we kind of made up some of it. I got the idea from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions. It has some wonderful ideas, some of which I have listed below. In case you have never heard of an Easter advent (I hadn't), I will tell you what we have done here. The Sunday before Lent is the starting date. Seven candles, seven weeks before Easter. All of the colors represent something pertaining to the resurrection. Each Sunday we light all of the candles and then we will blow out one for each week that has passed, talking about what the color represents. The gradually increasing darkness is the world without Christ. On the day of Easter, every candle will be lit, representing Christ's resurrection. Because we used things we had, it cost about $4. The most expensive thing was the black candle representing sin and darkness. (I should have known anything having to do with sin would cost me.)

(yeah. stupid joke. so what, it's my blahg)

Here are some of the other ideas Noel suggested:

1. A resurrection tree - get a branch from outside and hang on it things that remind you of the resurrection. A piece of white cloth, a cross, a rooster, a crown of thorns, a nail hung by a string, are all ideas that were listed in the book.

2. A cake on Easter made like a lamb. (I think this might be a little morbid though, to slice right into the lamb-of-God-our-perfect-sacrifice).

3. A tomb and hill made out of play dough and figurines to act out the events as they happened the week before the resurrection. Each day you can describe one thing that happened, then the last three days before Easter "Jesus" is in the tomb.

Jamie, thank you so much for the Resurrection Cookie recipe! I cannot wait to do that with the kids. I love that idea!