A New Easter Tradition In Our Family....

I came across this book when I was looking for a special book I had wanted at Christmas Time.  It was suggested by Amazon, and I decided to take a chance.  The book is entitled "The Story of the Resurrection Eggs, Benjamin's Box" written by Melody Carlson and Illustrated by Jack Stockman (1997).  Essentially, it is a story told from a child's point of view about the time of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I thought that this would be a fun thing to do with the little ones in our family....so I made my own Benjamin's Box.

Here is a picture of all of the items mentioned in the story. 

You will need some plastic eggs.  I bought these on clearance for about $.25 one year.

You do not have to do things this way, but I like "neat"!  I printed off the numbers 1-11 on my labeler.

Then I affixed one number to each egg.  You could write the number on the egg or just try to remember which item is in what color of egg.

Then put the correct item in the correctly numbered egg. Here, I have a bundle of Raffia that is supposed to represent some hay taken from the manger at the time of the Savior's birth.

I prepared a list to keep in the box from year to year. It has the items listed in the correct order in which they appear in the story, so you know what item goes into the accompanying numbered egg. This, of course, will be taken out before you read the story to the little ones.

You do not have to spend a lot of money to do this.  I just used inexpensive items. Here, I cut off the medallion from these 'awards' to use as the coins. You may ask why I didn't use real coins?  Well, in our house, the focus would be more on the real coin and who was going to get it instead of the real meaning for which it was intended in the story.  The coins represent the wages Judas was paid to betray the Savior.

I bought a bag of miniature dishes to get a cup. I just didn't have any Barbie dishes around anymore!

If you have a Scout or a Scout Leader, you probably have some leather lacing round.  This represents a piece of the whip used to beat the Savior.

For the crown of thorns, I was going to use pieces from my thorny bushes outside, but I worried about little fingers getting hurt as they opened the egg and then placing the item into the box.  So, I found this leather 'barbed wire' item at the craft store.  It still looks thorny, but is soft to the touch.

The Dollar Store had dice, which I included to represent the gambling the soldiers did for Jesus's personal effects.

The Donkey hair came from a new cat toy that I cut apart. The stone was from a vase with stones that I put flowers in, the cloth was a small piece from my sewing room, the twig really did come from my backyard, and the spike/nail is a Masonry nail that was small enough to fit into the egg.

Here is a list of each item (in order) that you will need if you wish to do this with your family (along with a Wooden box...easily obtained at a craft store or made if you are handy):

1. Hay (Raffia)
2. Donkey Hair (Faux Fur)
3. Coin
4. Cup
5. Twig
6. Leather Strip
7. Thorns
8. Nail/Spike
9. Dice
10. Cloth
11. Stone

Now, here comes the fun part.  We have given each of our adult children (with small children) a Benjamin's Box of their own.  Grandpa and I will read the story to our grandchildren....spread across the country, tomorrow online.  As we get to each item in the story, we will pause and let a grandchild find the correct egg and put the contents inside of their wooden box.  We will be using DimDim (as we have an account with them and can record this to keep). DimDim also has a free service, but you cannot record it.  You could also use Skype if you wished.

So, we are looking forward to tomorrow when we can share the story of the Resurrection with the youngest members of the family.  Wish us luck!