Dear Tray,

It is the year of 2017. If you are reading this, it should be the year of 2022. It is Easter time, once again. By this time, you would be married to Lindsay for four years, and you may have one or two children. Are they both boys? Are they both girls? Do you have a boy and girl? Life as a married man and father must be nice. At this point, you are still living in Louisiana. Which city are you living in? Are you living back at home in Plaquemine, LA? Are you living in Baton Rouge? Are you still in Monroe? Where are you? Your house is somewhat nice. You have a job teaching. What school are you teaching at? When you aren't teaching, you are doing some part-time counseling. You have a habit of doing all you can to help people.

I'm writing to you to discuss your Easter plans. When you were little, your family did not do much for Easter aside from going to church. Occasionally, your sisters and you would participate in the church's Easter egg hunt and take Easter photos. You will never forget the photos of you sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap. Now that you are thinking about it, you still have one of the photos in your memory box. Somewhere, there is another photo of Keion and you sitting on an Easter bunny.

As you can see, there were not many family traditions for Easter. You should change that, if you have not already. You have your own family now. This letter is to remind you to make every Easter special in a way that your sons and daughters will always get excited and look forward to it.

What will be your family traditions?

Remember the reason for the season. Easter is a special time for celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Your parents, especially mom, did a wonderful job on making sure your sisters and you learn and remember the reason for Easter. You should do that, too. Help your children understand and remember the true purpose for Easter. When you wake up, you can prepare breakfast and tell them the story. Eating dyed eggs for breakfast is a good idea. Reading a children's book about it may help the kids be more interested in it. You can also give them a coloring book. Afterwards, the family will go to church.

A unique way to start leaving a mark for every Easter is creating a family painting. To make this successful, you should draw something on a canvas and buy paint and paintbrushes before Easter Sunday arrives. Each of you will paint a portion of it throughout the day. If you can't think of anything to draw, leave the canvas blank to allow everyone to freely paint whatever is on their mind. Place the painting on the wall after everyone has add their piece to the painting. Lindsay and you are pretty creative. Do not be surprised if your children turn out to be artistic.

Easter outfits and family photos aren't important to you. You have to understand that it is your job to make Easter more spectacular than that. You do not have to get a new Easter outfit, but do get them something. Buying your daughters an Easter dress every year would mean a lot to Lindsay and them. You know the girls would look so beautiful in their new dress. Easter is a great time for family photos. The weather is usually nice. It would not be hard to find good looking scenery for outside photos.

Easter egg hunting is always fun. If your church is not hosting one, you should do one in your yard. If your yard is not big enough, go to the park or a family friend's house. Each egg needs to have a prize (most likely candy) in it. There should be at least two golden eggs. You are known for encouraging others, so it would be a good idea to place a few words of encouragement, quotes, or scriptures in each egg as well. Figure out a way to make egg hunting a little bit more fun. Instead of allowing the person with the most eggs be a winner, use a point system. A smaller egg can be worth one point, and a bigger egg could be worth two points. You can have a few three-pointer eggs laying around, too. The golden eggs should be worth zero points because the cash inside of it is already a big deal. If you want your family to be pumped about egg hunting you need pumped with them.

Egg hunting is not competitive enough for your family. It is time for family game night. Would it be athletic games, board games, or card games? Playing video games is another option. At this point in life, your kids would be too young to play games with you. You know what that means. The games will be Lindsay against you. Now, that would be very exciting. Think about when you are kids are older in a couple of years. Having a family game of soccer and basketball would be even better.

To wrap up the day, you should do something relaxing. You may be exhausted from the egg hunting and other games. Eating dinner and watching a movie would be a nice way to close out the long day. Pizza from Pizza Hut was the first food Lindsay and you ate together, so you can buy pizza. Or, you can make your own pizza. Hopefully, you have experience with making homemade pizza by now.

Remember to read this letter in five years. If you have not already started any Easter traditions, you can start today. Happy Easter! Enjoy your day.

With grace, love, and faith,

Yourself, Tray Washington