Holy Week

With branches waving, Xander recited a recent Cubbies verse:

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

A perk of living in Arizona is ready access to palm branches!!!!

Our plan is to chronicle our adventures this week leading up to Easter Sunday! I would love to hear about any memorable Easter celebrations or memories you all might have.

To start things off, here are some of our favorite books:

The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale ~ This beautiful tale is perfect any time of year, but we especially enjoy reading it at Easter and Christmas. It ties both in beautifully!

The Legend of the Easter Egg ~ We discovered this one at the local library this year. Xander is mesmerized with the story of this little boy. I think we’ve read it at least a dozen times in the last week! It is one I would love to add to our permanent collection!

Easter Eggs for Anya: A Ukrainian Celebration of New Life in Christ ~ I love how this beautiful story depicts such this girls simple, honest faith in Jesus. I probably am most drawn to it personally because the girl in the story has a special “praying place” where she goes to talk to God. It brought back wonderful memories of a couple of my “praying places” that I had growing up. My favorite was up on our roof, leaning against the chimney. (Shhhhhhhhhhh. Don’t tell my mom or my kids for that matter - yikes…) This one will be making it's way to my permanent collections as well!

What Is Easter? ~ A recommendation from my friend that would be perfect for one incorporating all of the secular and religious aspects of Easter. Although we didn't do the Easter bunny growing up and have no plans to do so now, this delightful little book does a great job at showing the primacy of Christ's Resurrection during this season without putting down the more secular traditions.

The Easter Cave ~ This story is told in the format of "The House That Jack Built." We love the repetition and rhyming. Even Keegan starts memorizing portions of books written in this engaging style.

The Easter Story ~ I love Gennady Spirin’s illustrations. His The Christmas Story: From the King James Version is so lusciously illustrated, that I checked out ALL of this books from the library. This one is beautiful in a symbolic way. Christ is always the focal point of each picture and depicted as the light coming to a world darkened by sin.  The symbolism will probably be lost on the little one's, but very enjoyable for you and also your kids when they are a bit older...

 

Easter ~ I love Fiona French's Christmas and Easter books. The illustrations all look like stained glass windows. The text is straight from the good ol' KJV.

He Is Risen: The Easter Story ~ This beautifully and realistically illustrated book gives a very thorough account of the Easter story.

On That Easter Morning ~ Stunning and uniquely illustrated, this book takes the reader through the events of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to the Resurrection. I just love how it ends:

"Jesus was alive again; not a king in this world, but the king of heaven.  The dark power of death was defeated.  God's own love lit the world on that Easter morning."