In an effort to make sure that my children understand the meaning and significance of Easter, I have worked very hard to put in place family traditions that hopefully will not die in the next generation.  When the children were younger, I remember saying to Don, "I have managed to make this week more stressful than Christmas!"  Now, it is not stressful at all, but a week that I, too, anticipate.  I am realizing that this week I am breaking away, but it is not intentional at all!

Palm Sunday we were in Santa Barbara.  Monday evening held a beloved small group faculty meeting.  Wednesday we will back in Santa Barbara for a wonderful occassion of watching our son get the Westmont Warrior Golden Eagle scholar/athlete award.  And throughout this week, the three who remain at home are taking their standardized tests.  So, the challenge here will be to integrate the traditions as we have time.

After Palm Sunday, I like to decorate the house for Easter.  Then it is on to preparing our hearts.

On Monday, we watch the Disney movie Prince of Egypt. 

On Tuesday evening we watch The Ten Commandments, you know, the one with Charlton Heston. 

On Wednesday evening, we have a "Chametz" ceremony where we clean our house of all leavened bread.  It is actually a Jewish tradition that reminds us of the flight from Egypt, where the Israelites fled without their bread rising.  It has double significance for us as the leaven reminds us of our sin and how we need the Messiah to take our sin away.  After the ceremony we eat with matzo until Easter morning.

On Thursday we used to do a Passover Seder, but because of events in recent years, we save our Passover Seder until Good Friday.

On Friday, I prepare all day for the Seder.  I set the table with care, a full formal setting for whoever will be spending the evening with us, along with a place setting for Elijah. We follow a Haggadah that I purchased years ago.  I prepare a matzoh tosh, though I'd like to make or purchase a real one some day.  I also prepare an afikoman bag, charoset, the Seder Plate, and the items that go on a Seder Plate:  lamb shankbone, roasted eggs, parsley, and maror (I try to find the hottest I can find).  We typically have lamb for dinner, with butter beans, carrots, potato latkes, a green salad, and then Passover cake with strawberries for dessert.  Of course, we drink enough grape juice throughout the ceremony to make that a meal all by itself!

As we go through the ceremony, from the hand washing to the singing to the reading to the teaching, we are reminded each year of how God always comes through for us.  Our Seder has become as a meaningful a meal to me as I can imagine.  I think it is good to reflect on what God has done.

On Saturday, we dye eggs.  We watch The Jesus Film and we go to bed early.  Earlier in the week, I will have gone to purchase some special, meaningful Christian gifts for my loved ones to put in their Easter baskets.

On Sunday, we go to sunrise service.  As the sun rises and I sit in the amplitheater with 5000 other people, and I watch the cars pour in, I always contemplate how wonderful it would be if Christ would come back right in that moment.  The amplitheater would be empty except for all of the blankets strewn all over.  The cars would all be neatly parked and left there to be removed by someone else.  I enjoy the worship, the teaching, the Word, and the whole service, but I always think how wonderful it would be if....

Typically on Sunday afternoon, we have all of the cousins over where we have the most awesome Easter egg hunt I have ever seen.  Everyone brings the eggs that they took home the prior year, and this year they are filled again.  The dads and the bigger cousins hide the eggs and the moms go through the Resurrection Eggs with the little ones.  Then there is eating and swimming.  And, by the way, we eat leavened bread and ham - not kosher!

That is how we spend Holy Week, and I love it!