Beneath the Wraps: easter eggs

Showing posts with label easter eggs. Show all posts

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Easter in Isolation

Yesterday we hid twenty plastic eggs for Jenna to find. The Easter egg hunt has always been a tradition for her. She has participated in at least one hunt every year - and it is usually with someone other than us. But as we are stuck inside this year and I won't allow her to go further than the mailbox, I decided to create a hunt for her. We had purchased Easter candy a while ago and also included scriptures and other Easter thoughts so we could include the true meaning of Easter as well.

Because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to. – Jeffrey R. Holland

His Atonement makes available all of the power, peace, light, and strength that we need to deal with life’s challenges – Sheri L. Dew

For the Atonement of the Lord and His gift of resurrection—for this sublime message of Easter – Russell M. Nelson

To understand the meaning of death, we must appreciate the purpose of life. (…) Our Father knew that because of the nature of mortality, we would be tempted, would sin, and would fall short. So that we might have every chance of success, He provided a Savior, who would suffer and die for us. – Thomas S. Monson

The Atonement is the greatest evidence we have of the Father’s love for His children. – Linda K. Burton

decorated Saturday morning

hid only half of the eggs we had

The white Easter lily symbolizes purity and honesty. Some say Easter lilies proliferated in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus wept in the last hours before Judas’ betrayal.

You won’t see any mention of the long-eared, cotton-tailed Easter Bunny in the Bible, but he has become one of Easter’s most prominent (and commercial) symbols. Seeing rabbits emerge from their burrows in spring, early Christians may have adopted the gentle, meek mammal as a symbol of Christ emerging from his tomb.

Eggs and chicks symbolize new life. An egg can also be a symbol of the Tomb.

He is not here: for he is risen – Matthew 28:6

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Luke 24:36

He is risen! He is risen! He hath opened heaven’s gate.

I wanted today to be a beautiful and spiritual Easter. I wanted to include my family in what I felt. It did not work out to my expectations however. By 5:00 I was watching YouTube videos by myself expecting that Jenna would join me eventually. I figured Roland would stay in the room and watch Sunday morning. But it’s Easter. Come on! We haven’t been to church for a month yet. Nor have we met as a family to hold Sunday meetings. I think this is the first Sunday Jenna has not watched the “Come Follow Me” program with me.

The first video I watched was Finding Joy in Sharing the Gospel (here) as it was the lesson we would have had in Relief Society had we met at the church. Afterward I watched the video “Don’t Miss This” with David Butler and Emily Freeman (here). How awesome it was that they compared the first Easter to our Easter experience today. The world in isolation. Afterward I rewatched the “Come Follow Me” program (Teaching with Power) with Brad Wilcox (here).

When Jenna came into the room she suggested that we watch “The Littlest Angel”. She had received a copy of the 1997 original animation of an angel sent back to earth to help two children during Easter.

I don’t fully remember. I wasn’t as impressed with it as she. I liked the version I had read as a child.

Only the trailer of the 1997 was available and so we watched the full Hallmark movie made in 1969.

That was our Easter together. I tried getting her to watch “Saturday Night Seder” (here) with me, but she lost interest. I didn't realize it was a fundraiser for the CDC foundation. Good cause. Excellent video. Such profound words from each of the Rabbis and celebrities. I enjoyed Judith Lights narration during Ben Platt's performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I also enjoyed the narrations by Richard Kind and Debra Messing. I also enjoyed Harvey Fierstein's monologue on "Next Year in Jerusalem" which gave a whole knew meaning to a phrase I had heard before but never knew what it meant.

I think I’d taken Jenna to a Passover before. Of course she does not remember it. It wasn’t even a Jewish Passover, but a Passover that would pay homage to our Jewish ancestors but emulate Mormonism as well. It was nice that I had a little understanding of Passover as I watched the performances that were so well edited and had been written up and posted in such a short amount of time. It was mind-blowing really. I highly recommend watching it.

I missed having the opportunity to attend it for a while. Our friend Beth was going to invite us to her Passover one year, but we have failed to get together and it didn’t seem possible this year. But I know of other families who engaged in the traditions.

After Roland got up, he started cleaning the kitchen and strongly suggested that Jenna watch “The Ten Commandments”. The problem is it’s just so darn long. She cannot sit still long enough to watch it. So thus far we have watched only half of it. She is now in her room watching online lectures and Roland is watching a recorded episode of “The Profit” – some great ways to spend your Easter, right?

So I am now recording my thoughts on Easter meaning for me this year. I like the parallels of the things I have watched and heard. And I wonder if the amount of time that passed between the initial Passover (before the 10 commandments) and the Atonement and Resurrection was the same amount of time that passed between the Resurrection and Covid 19.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Reminiscing Easter

LaTiesha

My first Easter dress was yellow and had a fish on the collar. I had put the dress in my hope chest several years later (I received the hope chest when I was twelve – it may have been at then?) and was able to use the same dress on Jenna at eight or nine months. Before we moved to Oregon, I had given the dress to my pregnant daughter-in-law that had announced she’d be having a girl (as it turns out, all three of my sons have daughters only – at least thus far) and recently posted to my facebook cover a picture of Jenna, myself, and my granddaughter, Devin, wearing the same “fishy” dress.

Jenna

I do remember bits and pieces of different Easters from my childhood.

Patrick and me - 1970 perhaps

I don’t know when I got or felt too old for the non-Christian Easter traditions. I do remember mom had made Easter “baskets” for my brother Patrick and me. There were two Clorox bottles designed to look like rabbits. They held our Easter candy.

Clorox Easter Bunny

I remember receiving a purple duck for Easter from my grandma one years. I remember watching home videos taken at my grandma’s house several Easters before that. I remember Easter hats. I remember dying boiled eggs and searching for them as my parents had hid them the night before (usually in plain sight)

I don’t remember any specific Easters with Corey or Kayla – though I’m sure I found more joy in watching them than “celebrating” Easter myself. Somewhere along the way I discovered the true meaning of Easter does not really include eggs or jelly beans.

Roland related a time about taking the boys to an Easter egg hunt when Randy and Tony were two and three. Tony would pick up eggs and put them in his basket. Randy followed close behind and would remove the eggs from Tony’s basket and place them into his own. He said that Tony never even noticed.

Before Roland and I were married, Tony had asked if we could draw names and make baskets for each other. A few years later I sent the boys on a treasure hunt with scripture related clues from plastic eggs. I think they enjoyed it.

Jenna was eight days old on her first Easter – the day she was supposed to be born. I dressed her in a green onesie that had a small chick at the top and built in green skirt. It was too big for her, but I thought it was cute for Easter.

The day prior I had left Jenna with grandma as Pamprin and Francis had wanted to go to an Easter egg hunt at the Avery and we were allowed a two-four hour visitation so thought we’d take advantage.

The year Jenna turned three, the young men and young woman created an Easter activity for the primary. I took several pictures of several of the children hitting at the piñata.

I remember Roland hiding eggs in the backyard one year and sent her out to find them. That was before we met Isaac and Paula and Biff and Paula would take Jenna with them on Easter and she would be gone all day. There is at least one time she and Biff spent Saturday night with the family so that she would be there on Easter Sunday.

back yard in Kearns

at "grandpas" in Taylorsville

Taylorsville

Before Paula came into our lives, I do remember taking Jenna to an Easter egg hunt one year when Pamprin had stayed overnight. There are several places in Salt Lake that offer Easter egg hunts. I don’t know how we ended up at that particular location in West Valley as we were living in Kearns at the time. Ironically, we were within walking distance of said location after we had moved to West Valley.

On the Saturday before Easter, the stake in West Valley offered an activity for the primary – well, I guess families, but it felt like it had been geared more toward the primary.

This is probably from the youth/primary activity mentioned above

I don't recall Biff and Tony going to stake activities in WV

Jenna didn’t go on an egg hunt the year she turned eleven. We had come to Oregon to check out the possibilities of moving to this state. Easter was two days after her birthday. We drove the coast and took lots of pictures. It happened to be Easter day, but we didn’t celebrate the holiday on that particular day.

Tillamook Easter 2015

Pacific City Easter 2015

Newport Easter 2015

Dress was waiting for us when we got home. Grandma Lucy had made it for her

but not quite accurate on measurements. It was the only time she wore it.

Last year Easter fell on Corey’s birthday. We were still living at the rental, and Jenna had asked if we would hide eggs in the backyard, but it had been raining and so we hid the eggs inside. They were not the dyed hard boiled eggs that my mom and dad had hid years before but rather plastic eggs with treasures inside; I tried “hiding” them in plain sight.

Treasure Hunt 2017

When we were living at the rental, our situation here was still new. Jenna had more enthusiasm there than she has showed since we had moved to our current house. The holidays are hard – mostly because she has a very bad case of Peter Pan syndrome and hasn’t accepted the fact that she’s growing up. She’s not a child anymore. She hasn’t accepted that she may be too old for Easter egg hunts and other treasures. If we were in Salt Lake, she would be celebrating with either her cousins or her nieces and brothers.

cracking eggs

Overall she really does prefer this rural life compared to the crammed city life in Utah, but each holiday has been a bit harder for her than the last. She misses family members so much – particularly Anna and Gary.

She’s made friends at school, but children’s plans don’t always jive with parents plans. She also has friends who have moved. She might not admit it, but I think for the most part, outside of school and church activity, she is lonely. She had wanted to go to an activity on Saturday night, but Roland didn’t want to take her, and I can’t see to drive at night.

The weather was nice on Saturday. It really felt like a great day for holding outdoor activities. We did get away from the house – but did not engage in any underage activities. Yesterday was quite overcast. There was a thunder shower just after 6:00 pm. The sun made an appearance at 7:00. It was quite different than Saturday had been.

Here are some more pictures in no order: