OK, I realize this is a little late in the week, but I thought I’d share with you what we’ve been doing to share the true meaning of Easter with Gabriel.  

First, we’ve been reading the Easter story all week.  By that, I mean  reading the stories from the week of Jesus’ death as chronologically as possible.  This is how we did it:

Sunday:  Palm Sunday
Monday:  Cleansing the Temple
Tuesday:  Greatest Commandment 
Wednesday:  Mary Annoints Jesus
Thursday:  Lord’s Supper, Washing Feet, Praying in the Garden
Friday:  Jesus Delivered to Pilate, Crucified
Saturday:  Waiting
Sunday:  Resurrection!

We have read most of these stories from his children’s Bibles’ which are much easier for him to understand and  have pictures.   We also made an Easter mountain.  I got the idea from Treasuring God in Our Traditions – a great book.  She has lots of other great ideas for this special week, but this is the main one we’re using.  Here is how ours turned out.  (I should have put a soup can inside.)

I’m also going to try out a new  recipe that I found.  I’ve been looking for the perfect special breakfast that will be our family’s tradition.  We will eat it for any holiday or birthday, or special day.  The first, and only I guess, criteria  I wanted it to meet was that it had to be totally yummy.  I’m not concerned with health here because we won’t eat this very often at all.  I hesitate to share the recipe because I don’t want you to thing I’m horrible for eating this, but here we go…..Gorilla Bread.  Hey, any recipe by Paula Deen has to be good, right?  I can’t wait to try it!!  Happy Resurrection Day!

UPDATE:  I think the Gorilla Bread was a bit much for our family.  It was really rich.  Very yummy, though.  I think I’m going to try my friend Mendy’s breakfast casserole the next time we need to have a special breakfast.  It’s very yummy and I think fits our family’s taste better.

Since I love our Advent Calendar, I thought I’d share a little about how we use it. It took me a while to find one that I liked. Pottery Barn has some cute ones, but they are more than I want to spend. I finally settled on this one, and it looks so much better in person than it does online.

I bought ours last year when Gabriel was 2 and he enjoyed opening a door everyday.  This year though, he is really into it.  I made the mistake of getting it out several days before December started and he asked me everyday (multiple times) if he could open one of the doors.  I finally put it away until December 1st, for both our sanity!

Behind each door I have tucked away special things.  First, there is a Hershey’s Kiss.  Then, there are either one or two slips of paper.  (I leave the slips in there from year to year so I don’t have to remake them.)  There is always a short passage of scripture to read that will lead up to the Christmas story, written on one of the slips.  On the days when there are two slips of paper, there is something special to do that day.  Today’s was “Sing a Christmas Song”.  His request was “Jingle Bells”, so Johnny and I started singing.  Here are what some of the other slips say:

• Decorate the Christmas tree
• Put together a box of donations
• Sing “Joy to the World”
• Make Christmas cookies
• Watch “Charlie Brown’s Christmas”
• Make and a treat to share with the neighbors
• Drive around looking at Christmas lights in our pajamas
• Listen to Christmas music during bath time
• Choose a needy child or family to buy gifts for
• Open one gift early
• Write a note for each family member’s stocking telling them what you love most about them