Growing up, we had a lavish meal to celebrate Easter. A huge ham and sometimes also a turkey. My mother started cleaning on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday she made the homemade rolls, the jello salad, the homemade pies. She conscripted me as her assistant, willing or not.
When I was younger, making food with my mother was often pleasant, but as I became a twenty-something, I wanted to set my own course. Remembering those feelings gives me the desire to free my kids from these traditional, but not essentially spiritual, ways of celebrating Easter.
So for Easter we had lamb stew with some fresh peas, bought from our trip to the coast. My girls had voted for spending time in nature, rather than having a huge dinner or joining in with others to celebrate.
My husband gave me the wonderful gift of roasting the leg of lamb on Saturday and making Sunday's stew. Both were delicious! And they remind me of how Jesus is called, "The lamb of God." He became the Passover Lamb, which the Jews killed yearly at Passover time to commemorate how God saved their lives when they were slaves in Egypt.
The beach on Easter was foggy and cool, but still fun. I love hearing the waves and seeing with wide expanse of sea and sky. These too reminds me of God's love. Maybe it will become our own family's way of celebrating Easter.
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