The Easter Story...for toddlers

I'm writing this while I distract my toddler with the DVD of "Tangled", so I'm still on mommy-duty today.  Forgive me if the post is disjointed or feels like it was written in spurts (because it was).

Last year, Easter with my son was pretty easy.  He was only 9 months old, so getting a bite of chocolate candy was the pinnacle of his involvement.

This year, he's already been in multiple Easter egg hunts, met the Easter Bunny, and has been taught the little story about what jelly bean colors mean.  (It only applies to basic colors, not Jelly Belly flavors like popcorn and margarita.)

And, judging by the way he is totally absorbed in the plot of "Tangled" (though his favorite character appears to be the horse), I feel like he's old enough to learn a little bit about the Easter Story.

But, obviously, I'm not going to give him the full "The Passion" rundown.  So, I think this is the gist of the Easter Story I'll tell my son.

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We were hit hard.

The photo to the left is of an area less than a mile from my house.  Everywhere around here looks like that.  None of my family and friends, nor even their property, were harmed.  We were very lucky.

I'll admit, growing up around here, I don't always take severe weather as seriously as I should.  I've been through major hurricanes, tornadoes, and once lost power for two weeks during an ice storm (we showered at the gym).

So, when I heard that thunderstorms were being predicted for this past Saturday, my only real concern was how much it would affect the church Easter Egg Hunt.

I was volunteering, so I got to the egg hunt early.  We had a bouncy house set up, tents for candy, food, and hid eggs everywhere outside.  Our contigency plan was that, if it rained, we'd just move inside.

The sky darkened, but there wasn't any rain, so we were go.  We had our first group of egg hunters, no problem.  Then the wind started to pick up.

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Happy Easter?