The currency of Grace is where my song begins...

Holy Week at The Burger's

You might get tired of me linking this book each and every holiday season, but it has made such an impact on my life as a parent and the traditions we hold as a family. Treasuring God in our Traditions by Noel Piper is an excellent recourse for any family who has a desire to pass down a legacy of God centered traditions to there family and might not have many that were pass down to them. Noel Piper tells about the purpose of traditions being passed down and then gives great ideas for each major holiday. What I took away from this book most is that each family is unique and creative in its own way. I was encouraged, not to do exactly what The Piper family does, but learn from them and make new traditions for our family, unique to The Burger's. Some I have come up with have been spontaneous and some have been thoroughly thought through. It has been so fun over the years. I encourage you to join in and make some fun new traditions for your family.

Here is what we do for Holy Week:

On Palm Sunday: We go to our churches Palm Sunday Service. On the way home we talk about the service and why they were waving branches, etc. When we get home we hide a lamb (stuffed animal obviously) somewhere in the house and Titus has to find it. We talk about how on the same day Jesus was coming into the Jerusalem the children would have been searching for a lamb without blemish for there Passover Sacrifice. Once Titus finds the lamb we talk about what they would be doing with the lamb that week and about the story of the plagues from Exodus. (this is the first year we have done this and it has been a BIG hit! Titus is REALLY getting it and he wants to keep hiding the lamb, find it and tell the story over and over....whatever works!) We tell him that while the kids were out looking for there Passover Lamb, Jesus had come to be there final Lamb to be slain!

Also on Palm Sunday we light six candles and talk about what the upcoming week is. Usually I tell part of the story and ask Titus to fill in other parts. At some point in that day we blow out one of the candles. Each day following we light all the candles and talk about the story and how Easter is getting closer but each day one more candle gets blown out by the kids. So by Good Friday ALL the candles are blown out. Then on Saturday the kids want to light the candles and blow them out only this time we don't let them because Jesus died and is in the grave. Then on Sunday morning when the kids wake we have ALL the candles going when they come in the room! "Jesus has Risen!" we tell them. Sooo fun! (At some point as the boys get older, I would like to spread this out over the coarse of Lent but for now, one week is plenty!)

Saturday of Holy week we go to our church's children's Easter Party where there is a big Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter story told. We like to dress the boys up and take there pictures in the blue bonnets on the way to the Easter party....we will see what it is like photographing two this year!

We like to make Easter as big a celebration as Christmas, which is pretty hard because there are few decorations and family members don't seem to send big gifts etc. (although we got some great Easter packages yesterday from my mom and Robin's parents!) So Sunday morning along with the candles being lit we get them gifts to open Easter morning and then celebrate with family and friends all day.

This year we are adding THIS to our traditions...I am going to attempt it tonight along with dying eggs...you can pray for me!

What do you do for Holy Week?