A bit of normalcy

Traditions have never been more important than today.  I started this blog 7 years and 115 posts ago specifically to write about family traditions.  I've shared how important photos and parties and presents and music and holidays and a really special stuffed animal are to our family over the years.

This is why when I finally found a reliable egg dealer* in these COVID times, I went there 3 days in a row to get enough eggs for Zoë to be able to dye them for Easter. It was great. Just wonderful. She, in her typically witty fashion, made Corona, Quarantine, Lysol and Wash Your Hands eggs along with the traditional family names.  I can't wait to make them into Rainbow Egg Salad next week. Zoë has had a really great attitude during this crisis, for which I am very grateful, but she has her sad and mad moments.  I really wanted Easter weekend to feel like a bit of normalcy in all the anxiousness. So we did all the things - bringing Bramble, the stuffed rabbit, in for egg dyeing, finding baskets on Easter morning, and over-eating chocolate for breakfast. Her dad was even dressed for church when he came over to pick her up for lunch.

As a high school senior, she has already missed so much, including her 18th birthday, her UIL One-Act play theater competition, senior directed plays (which she had been looking forward to doing for 3 years), senior superlatives, theater banquet, her Summa Cum Laude ceremony, and getting her braces off.  We also just heard that both colleges she is considering have canceled freshman orientation and are creating an on-line check in instead. So lame. We are still waiting to see if graduation will even happen, but her graduation trip to NYC to see the Broadway play, Beetlejuice is now off too as Broadway is closed through at least mid-June.**

It really is such a loss of so many important rights of passage.  Just when all the hard work was pretty much done and seniors could relax and enjoy their last few months of high school, they went on lock down, like prisoners.  No proms, no parties, no closure on a period of their life that lasted for 13 years. That closure of childhood is so important for embarking on the next phase - endless adulthood filled with overwhelming responsibility. I think I am even sadder than she is because I am more aware of the depth of the loss.

So today, we surrounded ourselves with chocolate and bunnies and family memories, which when all of this is over, we will still have, for years to come. I'm not sure how all this social distancing will end, but I have already started thinking about what I can do over the summer to provide that closure for Zoë.  For now, she is very distracted with Animal Crossing. I bought her a Switch for her birthday. At the time I thought I was wasting $200, because she never had time for video games before, but it has actually been worth ten times its weight in gold to distract her in the lock down.  She is also playing with her sister, Lacey, in Connecticut, which is really sweet.

I can't make up for everything she has missed, but I can do my best to create new memories and traditions and reasons to celebrate and be grateful for all the things we have in our lives to enjoy.  Yesterday she shared the memory of the time in elementary school when she first heard that she was in the Class of 2020. She said: "I thought that was so cool, but who knew it would be such a disaster." That is just too sad of an ending for me. I will figure something out once this is all over if I have to spend my savings to do so.

But for now, I am letting her eat chocolate, play Animal Crossing and stay up late as much her heart may desire.

Happy Easter.

Hard at work 

Traditions

Most Witty

Bramble - this is his favorite holiday

Lacey and Ariel eggs

Easter morning

FOOTNOTES

*Target at 281 & Bitters, San Antonio, TX always has eggs. Limit 1 per. 

**Although Eddie Perfect tweeted me when I expressed our sadness about the play's cancellation, which was way cool.