We celebrated Easter a week early, for two reasons. The first reason is that we are driving back
to Pretoria on Easter Sunday, and the second reason is I thought it would be
fun to include my brother and them in our Easter festivities.
We had to alter and adjust some of our regular Easter
activities, due to our location, and limited resources, so this year we didn't
make any Easter crafts, we didn't make any cookies, and we had to improvise the
egg dying since didn't have white eggs, but we were able to spend lots of time
on the beach in the sunshine, and that was special in its own way.
I am not the biggest fan of a whole lot of candy and sweets
for Easter, so instead we add some toys, books, and any fun educational things
to our baskets with some Easter eggs. I
always end up throwing some candy out since we never manage to eat it all, and
I usually by educational things and toys that I know they will use, it won’t
break in a few hours, and there is some sort of learning and stimulation
involved.
After our morning beach visit, we had a quick lunch, and we
put the kiddos down for a nap and while they slept we got everything together
for out Easter egg hunt. We arranged
everything in the baskets, filled the plastic eggs with sea creatures, and some
candy, and then through the boredom, Nate and I created some Easter graffiti
with side walk chalk.
I am pretty sure my brother thinks I am crazy and in all
honestly he couldn't give a crap about our Easter traditions but he
participated and got involved, and smiled and laughed with the kids as their
excitement escalated.
I love facial expressions, and just like every year before
the kids expressions delivered. I love
watching them, and hearing them exclaim in excitement, and gratitude always
immediately follows, it makes me beam with happiness. Ian and Hayleigh spend almost an hour digging through the
basket, telling us about everything and showing us their new stuff, it was so
cute to watch them explore and learn as they were introduced to a whole world
of new.
The actual hunting for eggs, was a huge success this year,
both kids were into it, and quickly realized that they need to collect as many
as possible, but then Hayleigh realized what was inside the eggs, and she
stopped right in her tracks trying to eat as much candy as she could. She found the good stuff, and Ian was mostly
concerned with getting all the eggs.
We have integrated some American and German traditions into
our holidays, and most of it was foreign to my family, but I think in the end
they enjoyed being a part of it for once. It was a windy afternoon so instead of going to the beach we
stayed home and huddled on the balcony and watched little sticky people play
with new toys, tell stories, and eat candy.
Easter has more meaning to our family though, sure we make
it fun and interesting for the kids, but in all reality it is the freedom that
we in have in Jesus that we celebrate, but for me I celebrate that every day
not just on this specific day.
We had a lovely Easter surrounded by family, and the joy
that comes with that. I am grateful for
love, and for a family that cherish each other.
Happy Easter!
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