Good Friday is observed every year on the Friday before Easter.  It is a holy day celebrated by many Christians around the world.  On this day, Christians commemorate the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ.  It’s called “Good” because of all the wonder and meaning that flowed from it – “love is stronger than death”.  This is the day when Jesus was handed over for trial, tortured and forced to carry his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, nailed to the cross on a hill known as Calvary, and allowed to die a slow and agonizing death while being mocked by the crowd. 

Holy week began last Sunday with:

• Palm Sunday – Jesus entry into Jerusalem
• Maundy Thursday – The Last Supper
• Good Friday – Crucifixion
• Holy Saturday – Day of waiting
• Easter Sunday – Resurrection

I remember going to church with my family when I was little and getting so excited about the Palm fronds that you would get on Palm Sunday.  My sisters and I would each get a Palm and take it home to braid and hang over a picture of Jesus we had in our hallway.  My brothers, of course used their Palms to smack each other with on the ride home from church, that is until my mom would take it away from them and they would get in trouble.  Easter is two days away and I’m looking forward to my family getting together in celebration.  I love the early morning when the kids get up and are wanting to go downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny left for them in their baskets.  Spring is officially here and the weather is finally getting warmer.

 Happy ”Good” Friday!! 

Wow, can you believe Easter is only 10 days away?  This year is already moving way too fast!  Many college Spring Break’s are happening at this very moment and I’m pretty sure a lot those college students headed south to enjoy some fun in the sun.   The first official day of Spring is one week from today on March 20.  We had a few “spring-like” days here – just enough to have me looking forward to warmer weather and putting all this cold, ice and snow behind us.

However, Mother Nature had a different idea in mind.  I don’t know about you, but we were right in the middle of that blizzard snow storm that blew through the Midwest this past weekend dropping over a foot of snow!  I couldn’t believe it!  Here it is the month of March and I’m more than ready to put away my winter clothes when ”surprise”, we get the biggest snowfall in years!  Thankfully, it was quick (but not painless) with only two days of lots of snow and bitter cold temperatures on Friday and Saturday.  By Sunday the sun came out and when I look outside my window today there are only small patches of snow to be seen – except for in my front yard.  During the massive snowfall my son and his friends (with the help of my husband) decided to build the biggest snowman ever measuring in at a little over seven feet tall.  To this day that snowman is refusing to melt so we decided to make it a Snow Bunny to go along with our Easter decorations.  With the help of bunny ears, a bunny tail and a jumbo carrot that we found at Halloween Express we have ourselves the Easter Snow Bunny!  

Don’t forget to get all your Easter costume accessories soon!  Halloween Express has everything you need to make this Easter one to remember!   

Every year at Easter one of the most important traditions at our house has always been the coloring of the Easter eggs.  The kids love it!  My daughters Olivia and Sydney are in it for the long run.  They start early Saturday morning, the weekend before Easter, by getting all the eggs boiled and cooled.   We always color two dozen eggs so that the kids each get to color eight eggs each.   The kitchen table is transformed into their very own egg coloring craft table so that everyone has plenty of room.  But most importantly (and I have learned this the hard way over the years) we always have three boxes of Paas Easter Egg Coloring Dyes so that no one gets accused of “hogging” any specific color and they each have their own colors and crayon to design with.

The girls always go for the bright spring colors and of course they have to be perfect, while Caden my son tends to dip his egg into as many colors as possible for a darker color.  The crayon that comes with the kits always gives them plenty of different ways to decorate their egg before dipping them into the color.  Once all the eggs are done, which can take up to an hour to achieve perfection in egg coloring with youngsters, they put them in a basket on the kitchen table for all to see.