Easter Traditions (old and new)

I've been dying Easter eggs since I can remember, and even as an adult who has done it over and over, I still get excited about the tradition.  A little of it is the fun of creating and a little of it is the excitement of the season.  We actually dyed Easter eggs as a family this past week, this was Leeland's 2nd time dying Easter eggs and he was so excited to do it.  Hayden sat in his high chair having Cheerios-- he'll get in on the action next year.  Leeland doesn't have the greatest patience (Does any almost 3 year old?) so he just likes to dunk the eggs in and out of the cups.  Just like last year, he had one egg that got several dunks in several colors, all in good fun!

Not so patiently waiting for the dyes to be made.

 Checking on his eggs

 Cheerio monster :)

 The classic white crayon

 We ended up with a nice assortment of eggs! They were later made into deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches. 

The "overly dunked" egg.

The new tradition that we started this year was "Resurrection Rolls." I'm not gonna lie, when I first read about them here, I thought the idea was a bit cheesy.  But when you're trying to get a point across to a preschooler, it totally works and I'm glad we gave them a shot.  We made them tonight, and in a perfect world I guess they should be made on Sunday, but we had the time tonight and were all together as a family, and Leeland walked all over the store with the bag of marshmallows today anxiously awaiting making the rolls, so it happened tonight.  And I'm glad that it did-- this whole weekend is dedicated to the Lord and His sacrifice for us, so what's a little extra teaching on the "wrong" day gonna hurt?

So the rolls... All you need is a tube (or 2) of crescent rolls, melted butter in a bowl, cinnamon sugar in a bowl, and large marshmallows.  (An after thought... wonder how peeps would turn out? Might have to try that next year.)

We also read a storybook about Easter to better explain.

 So you take your marshmallow, roll it around in melted butter and then roll it around in the cinnamon sugar and place it inside the crescent roll being careful to seal it up well.

 Seriously, seal it up good or you might end up with an oozer in your oven.

So the story behind the rolls is to teach the resurrection.  You explain that Jesus was crucified and buried in the tomb-- the imagery here is your marshmallow in the crescent tomb.

Bake them at 375 for 11-13 minutes, they'll be golden brown, and while you wait, you eat the remaining marshmallows.

 Cut into it when it comes out of the oven and....

... The marshmallow is gone.  "He is risen!"  

And then you get to eat them and enjoy the buttery, cinnamony goodness that they are.

Leeland really loved it!  He loved helping make them, he definitely loved eating them, and he kept saying to himself "I learn about Jesus".... Such a sweet kid.  I only pray that he, (and Hayden) get so excited about learning about Jesus as they get older.