I take my job as bringer of childhood magic pretty seriously. Not in a grandiose, giant-bouncy-house-tables-full-of-candy kind of way...but in a small-pockets-of-sunshine kind of way. There are a couple of days that get the magic ramped up though - Christmas, Easter, birthdays. And in a family that celebrates with our giant tribe - Easter and a six year birthday without our tribe is looming hard on my mama heart.
My side of the family rotates holidays - and my holiday to host is Easter. Obviously, that is not happening this year. And I have been spinning out a bit thinking of how to make this Easter different enough to feel like a true holiday with lots of magic when we are living in a time where every day seems to be bleeding into the next, with nothing to mark the days as different from one another. Normally on Easter, after the magic of the Easter bunny, we get all dressed up in new spring dresses and hairbows. Baby Girl gets a little matching purse. We go sing Hallelujah and then come home to meet our waves of family showing up. We do an egg hunt and run around and then sit down together and feast and drink. At some point, decks of cards come out or a bonfire gets lit and the kids get let wild while the adults relax. This year, the Easter bunny and I have plotted. Normal Easter baskets will be coming, with hidden eggs. Mom and Dad also got each of our kids an extra covid-easter gift that they can use outside during this shelter in place. I have an Easter ham in the freezer so we will have a big Easter dinner. And I have a gazillion plastic eggs floating around in my basement somewhere that can be put into service for an egg hunt in our yard. Easter Mass with the bishop is live streaming at 8am - is it sacrilegious to have the bishop in the background as my kids exclaim over Easter baskets? Cuz that is how I foresee the timing working out. Someone tell the bishop to conference with the Easter bunny next time we have a pandemic and adjust Mass time accordingly.
Two days after Easter and whatever magic I can muster...Baby Girl turns six. Not even going to lie - Mama bought extra presents this year. I think it is a rule. If you have a birthday during quarantine, your birthday budget gets an extra $50. (We will just say it was 50...) I asked my FB friends to send her cards and they have started to come in. Thank you so much to the people who are sending cards and gifts - our virtual tribe :) I ordered some streamers from Amazon last week and after she goes to sleep Monday night, we are going to streamer off the dining room and set up the table with everything everyone mailed in along with breakfast birthday cake - so she can wake up and break down her 'streamer wall' and see all the birthday love first thing in the morning. I am going to try and set up some Zoom video chats with family through the day so she can connect with everyone that would normally have been at our house for her live-in-person party. I think we are going to make homemade pizza dough and let everyone make their own pizzas. And obviously, have more cake and sing and give her our gifts. And then I think we are going to rent a new movie that should be in theaters right now off of Amazon and have a giant family movie night in the living room.
So if anyone has any mama magic tips for making Easter or birthdays special, I would love the ideas. Even if I can't implement them fast enough for this week's upcoming events - it feels like I am going to need some tricks up my sleeve for many weeks to come.
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