For Spring break my family and I took a colonial road trip from Savannah to D.C. This post is not about that but Lord willing, that post is coming. However, on the way we had two fun holidays: Mardi Gras & Dr. Seuss’ Birthday.
Our Dr. Seuss celebrations weren’t as elaborate as last year’s : https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/my-family-rocks-sunday-dr-seuss-birthday/
I knew we’d be on the road but I didn’t want to miss the holiday completely. So we bought a new Dr. Seuss book for our collection and we put together a bookmark. It worked well for our road trip. Michael and I took turns reading our Dr. Seuss books and the book mark came in handy as Michael was starting the Narnia trilogy (By the way, Aslan is on the move ;). It’s coming! Hint hint).
We didn’t get to celebrate Mardi Gras on the day itself. We were exhausted from touring D.C. I brought everything along to celebrate but we just put it off until the weekend after we returned home. This was our first year celebrating Mardi Gras as a family. I didn’t know much about this holiday until my friend Rachel taught about it at our homeschool group last year: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/crafty-monday-gods-love-hearts-galore-plus-mardi-gras-celebration/
I hid a plastic baby in our corn bread. Yeah, I didn’t have time to make a king cake. “Surprisingly” Michael found it in his slice. Since Michael found the “baby Jesus“, he had the honor of throwing the beads and moon pies while parading around in his jester hat. We all wore masks and blew horns. Then we read our Lent devotional since by this time Lent had started. We talked about the wise men coming to see Christ as a baby/toddler. We talked about the colors of Mardi Gras and what they symbolize: Purple (Justice), Green (Faith), & Gold (Power). We talked about the history of the holiday and different ways it’s celebrated. I truly enjoy holidays..if ya haven’t noticed ;), but I like to know why I celebrate something. I want Michael to know why, too. Sometimes it’s just for fun, other times there are Biblical lessons to be learned. Mardi Gras has both. Any holiday that celebrates Biblical events, whether Purim or Lent, gives us a great opportunity to dig into God’s word & to make history come to life. We also like to put our own family twist on holidays. We don’t necessarily celebrate the same way as others. Christ is our core & we chuck any traditions that would challenge our morals. That being said, we had a blast boogying to jazz music in our living room. It was a short and sweet celebration but it gave a pinch of color to our evening.
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
Dr. Seuss Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/dr-seuss-day/
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