Preparing for Resurrection Day

I have been wanting to make decorations for Easter. (But started a little late.) We don't have plastic eggs so I couldn't do anything with those. But then the more I thought the more I am not sure I want to decorate with eggs. Why do we decorate with eggs anyway, why do we do some of the things we do to celebrate this holiday? I did some research online and read about the pagan background, hum... I don't know what we want to teach our kids. We have tried to be very intentional with other holidays especially Christmas and wouldn't Easter be just as special of a holiday?

Actually the word Easter comes from Eastre a goddess of fertility. I never realized this and prefer using Resurrection day instead. I like how in the language I am studying the holiday is called "Fu huo jie" (Resurrection) day.

One thing I like are the Egg trees I've seen on websites. So I created my own. On my way home from class last week I walked by this row of bushes and looked both ways before I tore off a few branches to use as my Resurrection Tree. I noticed that where I tore the branch off there was bright green inside so with my husband and helper looking at me like I am crazy I placed the 2 branches in a vase and added water. A few days later the buds started opening up. This was even better than I had planned. What looked like 2 dead branches came to life.

I decided to cut out small pictures of various things relating to the last week of Jesus' life. I hung them on the branches with some ribbon and had Ev color them. Next year hopefully she will understand the meaning behind the more. This year when I told her the story she wasn't too interested.

I'm also planning on making "resurrection rolls" for Sunday morning. If all goes as planned there will be a hole in the middle of the rolls. As if it was the empty tomb. How are you celebrating the holiday?