Who says you have to hunt eggs on Sunday?

I have said before, my dad was a pastor when I was growing up.  I have wonderful, vivid memories of hunting eggs with my sisters early on Easter Sunday morning before church, then getting dressed up in a new dress and new shoes (usually matching my sisters, hmm, wonder wear I get this from?) before heading to church.  I remember waking up to an Easter basket filled with goodies outside my bedroom door.  Good times.

I love Easter.  I think it is because my mom always made it so fun and special.  Plus a new dress, that was the best part, forget about the chocolate bunny (I never ate mine).  We didn't believe in the Easter bunny.  That was my mom.  And she had one rule: all eggs below the knee were for my little sister, Joy.  I even remember her hiding eggs in the house one year when it was raining.

As I think back on these memories as an adult, and more importantly now, a pastor's wife I am amazed at my mom.  My dad, of course had to leave early for church.  And I am sure stayed up late putting the finishing touches on his message the night before.  So our experience was all on my mom.  From the baskets filled with goodies to hiding the eggs, then to dressing three little girls all with a lot of hair.  To top it all off, she looked amazing herself by the time we all arrived at church.  Now thats what you call a super pastor's wife.  She probably sang a solo that morning at church too.

Ok, sorry for all the nostalgia, on to my point.  This past fall I had the opportunity to spend some time with some other pastor's wives.  One of my biggest take aways from this was that the Easter bunny doesn't have to come on Sunday and Santa does not have to come on Christmas Eve.

So tomorrow our kids will wake up to their Easter baskets and tomorrow evening, they will hunt eggs that their daddy hides for them in our yard. They won't know that most kids will do that stuff on Sunday.  And it will be fun and relaxing for all of us.  Saturday night our services begin.  We are anticipating an amazing weekend. 

Enjoy the pictures below that my mom sent me (I am the middle child).  There may be more to come later today.  And please forgive the cursed scanner for their crookedness.

   

 

Comments

[Tiffany Cooper]

First...great post. Love the pictures. You were blessed to have a great example in your mother---and I'm sure you're still blessed by her example.

[Sheila]

Thanks for sharing this post! I too am a PW and this was a good reminder that yes....everything doesn't have to happen on that specific holiday! I think I am trying to do what I remember growing up and doing. I had Easter baskets for my girls on Sunday morning while their daddy was already at church. We had a good time, but I think next year we will try and do all of that on Saturday night!

[Tara]

You do really look like Elijah in the picture with the bow! I have never really thought he looked like you. But maybe the older he gets the more he does? When you look at that picture of him on your blog beside the one of you in the bow, you look so much alike.

[Angela Slaughter]

What a great suggestion.

Those pictures of you and your sisters are precious. I am an only child, raised by my grandparents, so it was always just me . I love that you can look back now and have great memories of holidays with your siblings--I want that so bad for my children. It sort of gives me an extra push to try to get things 'right'.

[Emily]

Thanks for posting me in my panties! LOL!

[Terri]

I'll be at Providence all day Sunday, so we're doing our family Easter on Saturday!

[dawn massey]

i am so glad you posted on this!! we gave our kids their "easter basket" last weekend for two reasons, one being that the contents were art supplies which are keeping the kids busy during down time on spring break! and the second being that we couldn't figure out how to do it this weekend with saturday and sunday being busy with elevation's worship service schedule and jamil being gone. i didn't even think about trying to do the egg hunt on a different day...but we might just do that too!!! thanks holly!!! enjoy your easter celebration as a family and i know i will see you at some point on sunday!!! can't wait to see how God works in our church!!! it is going to be amazing!!!

[Colleen Corbett]

How stinkin' cute were you?

[Ami Coltrin]

Thanks for the ideas! I don't know WHY on earth I didn't think of it. I mean...why can't the egg hunt & easter basket mania happen before Easter!? My husband and I teach preschool kids at church and so to enjoy the Easter service, we have to come to an 8am service with four children. Then our kids help us teach during our second service. You are just a plethera (spelling???) of ideas! Thanks again & Happy Resurrection!
-Ami

[Stephanie]

Elijah is so your child!
I also love your hairbow. :)

I think that the boys will love having their Daddy with them for their egg hunt and Easter fun.

Growing up I have the same memories of mom being the one with us when the Easter bunny came. Then we would go to my Dad's office before service started and tell him everything that we got.

Alyse, Daddy, and I will be dying our eggs Saturday morning. Then I think we are going to do our Easter basket and egg hunt after Josh gets home on Sunday afternoon (before nap time and Josh headed back out.) I hope that plan works well....

[Jessica]

I've been thinking about the scheduling of "Easter bunny" things this year, too. We're in the same situation with Daddy leaving early, and I hate for him to miss all the excitement. So we're not going to do the baskets and egg hunt before church Sunday AM. I like the idea of the first thing we do Easter morning is go to church, I hope it teaches that church is the most important thing.

After services we're going to my mother's for Easter lunch. She's agreed to host the egg hunt. The men can hide the eggs while we finish meal prep, and the kids can hunt right before we eat. That's going to work out nicely, I think.

So that leaves the baskets. I think the Easter bunny will stop by our house while we're at Grandma's. Matt and I will be driving separate cars, so I'll just have the baskets ready on Saturday night, and he'll need to arrive at our house just before us to set them out.

It's funny how we can be so creative to figure out ways to make everything work.