Happy Easter!

Today is Easter, which, for me, means spending time with my kids and doing some fun things with them. I am trying to develop some traditions with them so that they will have good memories of childhood. Since they are still young, we are still developing these traditions. For Easter, we always dye eggs and hide them in the yard and they always receive a gift on Easter morning. Brent and I aren't into the holiday "characters" and telling our kids that these fictitious characters leave them gifts, so for holidays we give Nolan and Elijah each a gift from us. (So far this year, Nolan hasn't even mentioned the Easter bunny, for those of you that are wondering.) Later today we are taking the kids to the park for a picnic. Maybe this will become part of the tradition. Last year during Easter we were camping so we had lots of "picnics". Our family loves to camp, so I guess that is one of the traditions that our kids are learning. We are excited about Spring Break because we are going on our first camping trip of the year. Then, later on in June, we will be going camping at the beach for 8 days.
I love traditions. Those things that I remember most about my childhood usually center around our own traditions. Remembering these traditions helps me to remember different members of my family. On Sundays growing up we always went to my Grandmother's for lunch (who we called Maw) and a tradition that I had was always eating off the same plate. That same plate now hangs in my kitchen. We even had some traditions that were just plain silly. My brother and I often recalled a silly game that we played once during childhood and several times growing up we tried to "replay" the game but it was never as funny as we remembered it being that first time. (I'm not even going to describe the game, because it would make sense to no one else!) Recalling that game was a kind-of tradition for me and my brother...when one of us thought of it we would tell the other and we would just laugh and laugh about that time. I remember hearing something once that made an impact on me. It was that "friendships are just a collection of shared experiences". Spending time together with our friends and families creates memories and traditions. Taking the Lord's supper at church on Sunday mornings is also a tradition. It allows us to remember and focus on Jesus and the sacrifice that He made so that we can enjoy eternity with Him one day.
For today, I am thankful for traditions and the memories that they invoke.
"I thank my God every time I remember you." Philippians 1:3