Easter weekend is here! My family and I love the beautiful week of Holy Week. For as long as I can remember, I have spent the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday in church with my family. Palm Sunday kicks off Holy Week, a celebration of Jesus making his way into the city of Jerusalem while crowds shouted 'Hosanna!'. I absolutely love Palm Sunday, and last Sunday, we celebrated with singing, the waving of palm branches, and reading The Passion text from scripture.

Moving through Holy Week, the week seems slow until we get to Wednesday, a big evening for rehearsals for our family. From choir practice to rehearsing with the Easter brass, every member of our family has a musical role on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then again on Easter Sunday. Rehearsals are just part of the typical rhythm of the week leading up to Easter. 

While the rest of my family spent Maundy Thursday participating in worship at church, I stayed home with my girls and watched the service online while I gave them a bath and tucked them into bed. On Good Friday, our family tradition is to gather at my mother-in-law's house to eat lunch and dye/color Easter eggs. Our group was smaller in number than usual, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Even Baby C got to dye eggs by adding food coloring to a baggie of white rice. She was able to shake the egg around in the bag of colored rice to make very cool-looking eggs.

We spent Good Friday evening at church, taking in the beautiful music and the emotion of watching the cross carried in, hearing the nails being driven into the cross, and dropping our nails at the foot of the cross on our way out the door, in darkness.

Today, we'll make our preparations for Sunday. We have a few errands to run, a few grocery items to grab, Easter outfits to press and fluff, and food to prepare. Tomorrow will be glorious, and we cannot wait to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior with our loved ones.