No bunny ?? !!

Some things were said last Sunday in Kids church that really touched my heart.It was about Easter. Made me want to share how we celebrate...at the risk of everyone thinking we are horrible parents and are "cheating" our children out of something. We do not "do" the bunny.(gasp)In our "defense" we did the bunny with 2 out of the 4 (actually 3, but Tori was too little to get/remember doing it) and there is NO DIFFERENCE in the excitement that they have the night before or morning of Easter. In fact the mornings are even more fun..with whoever awakes first waking the others by saying.."He is Risen"...to which the sleeping sibling pops right up and yells " He is risen indeed". It is sooo much fun and such a reminder of the excitement and joy that was being felt over 2000 years ago when our Saviour arose!! We do have their baskets sitting out that we put together while they are sleeping ( Yes..still the same excitement for us in making them..still them wondering what will be in it and trying to hear us while they are laying in bed waiting for morning to finally come :) FOR US it is about building our children's faith / belief up in something that is real...Jesus...yes our kids "pretend " things...we just feel, for us, that the belief and faith of a child is so powerful and strong..( The Bible tells us this) why take that faith and or belief , and direct it towards something that isn't true? Most people can remember when they found out the truth....strong emotions for sure. I was even reading that there are secular studies being done on this, to see if your ability to trust/believe in things is affected negatively. I know everyone says "I believed and I am fine" Lar and I can both say that too...but just because we are "fine" doesn't mean we keep rolling with it...just because we can. Our children should walk even closer to the Lord than we do and again For Us..we believe that this is a way of building up their faith in God. The real story is soo exciting..they don't need a bunny to make it any better.
We do the Resurrection Eggs each year ( Tori accepted the Lord while doing this :) !!!)
Watch the Passion(not Tori/Luke)/read the Gospel of John (have the movie now!)
We always make sure that their baskets are Christ centered..they all have the same traditional candy,including chocolate crosses,in each basket, then each child has their favorite candies/snacks/lil prize(s) in their basket; We serve a personal God who knows their desires and them personally.
There will be something(s)in their basket that they can use to strengthen their relationship with Christ..again what each individual child/teen:) would like/could use.
We do communion as a family.
We color eggs..and taught the kids that the way alot of things we do to celebrate Christ resurrection was also the way pagans celebrated "Easter" before Christ ( We think Truth/the History we know, is really important) we tell them that now we do it for different reasons..IE the egg. It was created good..used in a bad way..now we use it to teach the Trinity and use bright colors to color it ,symbolizing the joy God gives us,the beautiful life we have in Him, and how He changes us.( That ugly color that sinks through is a great way to show how having God in our lives affects not just what you see on the outside, but the inside as well..turns the yucky egg into a good one ..lol ).(our reasons for keeping that fun tradition)
We make a fun craft/activity each year. We are making Christian Fish this year. One year we secretly hollowed out an egg..still colored it ..and had one of the kids smash it on their forhead..lol..it was empty (like the tomb) and we all laughed our booties off !
Anyways..I am rambling.... Just wanted to share. Hope you don't think we are horrible..(we don't think people who "do" the bunny are horrible) This is just how our family celebrates the amazing and glorious resurrection of Jesus. Most importantly is that we believe in Him and His resurrection. How we choose to celebrate it comes in at a far 2nd. God Bless<3