Easter!

Easter is coming!

So some friends of mine have made their top ten Easter traditions posts. 

Easter was never a HUGE deal with my family growing up - we didn't do Easter baskets or find eggs on Easter morning, but I'll see what I can do to knock out my own list (in no particular order).

1. Starburst jellybeans. So delicious. So juicy.
2. White straw (i think) hats. We had a couple of Easter hats when I was little. I remember one Easter when I got to wear my favorite dress (a white one with smocking my mom made me) and one of the hats. I was very excited. There's a slide (as in sit around the projector and look at slides together) of the three of us in hats and our pretty dresses.  This was during my super-girly phase. There might even have been gloves.
3. Choir specials. The church I grew up in and the one I spent most of college going to had pretty darn good choirs.  My senior year in college, in particular, the choir music was SO AMAZING. It lifted me right out of my seat. I love a good choir special.
4. The beginning of Spring. I appreciate the timing of Easter so much more now that I live in New England and cannot see the ground for the 4 months leading up to Easter.  I love the color green, that it represents life, and that it reappears at Easter time. 
5. Coloring eggs. For many of my elementary school years, we would go to Knoxville to visit Grandma and Grandpa for Easter.  We would color eggs, hide them in the den, find them, and then repeat the process over and over.  After a while, we got my aunt and uncle to hide the eggs because we were using the same hiding places over and over and it was getting too easy. To this day, the smell of vinegar reminds me of coloring eggs.
6. Shevenell home group Easter day. My home group is the core of my New Hampshire family. My first Easter in grad school, they invited me to join the four of them for Easter dinner. It felt so much like home - nerd parents and two little sisters, one more talkative than the other. The following years it has turned into a gigantic pot-luck, followed by desserts galore, quick nap/rest time, family walk, game time, and then home group meeting. We celebrate Easter ALL DAY LONG!
7. Oooh! Children's choir. My current church usually has a children's choir on Easter Sunday. All the adorable little kids in their Easter best, belting out songs about Jesus. SO CUTE. (Gina, please tell me Louisa will participate in a few years!)
8. Lent. This year I actually participated in Lent - to a degree. It was my first Lenten experience. I know that some people don't believe that we should mourn Christ's death when he is risen, and I can see the reasoning behind that.  So my Lent practices were not to make me suffer or mourn, but more to help me be aware of things that I know I should think about, but normally don't.  It's kind of an attention-getter for me. And I think it was good for me.  It's nice to have a special time to do the things you always mean to do, but somehow don't always get to.  Like saying 'I love you' on Valentine's Day. You always mean it, but sometimes forget to say it because the cares of life get in the way.
9. Cadbury eggs.  I am not a huge fan anymore, but this was the one way my mom would celebrate Easter (commercially) when we were little and WOW I enjoyed them then. So messy.  (Halloween is marked with candy corn and candy pumpkins, Christmas with red & green m&m's and Dove promises. Daddy gets us Whitman Sampler hearts for V Day.) 
10. Pastel m&m's. They DO have little bunnies printed on them. 

Candy sure does seem important for my celebration of major holidays. Also, I'm running out of ideas. Like I said, Easter wasn't a huge momentous thing for us growing up. Not like Christmas is. I'll do a top 20 list for Christmas. :)