Monday, April 13, 2020

#MicroblogMondays: Pandemic birthday/Easter weekend

Saturday was dh's (63rd) birthday, sandwiched in between Good Friday & Easter.  Of course, because of COVID-19, there wasn't much we could do to mark the occasion(s).  Just about everything apart from supermarkets and pharmacies is closed -- no dinner out (we could have ordered takeout or delivery but dh prefers not to do that). Social distancing = no get togethers with family for cake.  I actually managed to scrounge up a birthday card for him from my stash. It wasn't a card I normally would have given him, but beggars can't be choosers right now, and it was SOMETHING birthday-ish. I did offer to make him cupcakes -- I had the ingredients -- but then of course, the two of us would have been stuck EATING them all over the next week, and all we need right now (NOT) is more sugar & more useless calories. I promised him a nice dinner out, when we can do that again.

The best present was later on Saturday evening, when stepSIL messaged me and proposed trying a three-way video chat between her (plus her brother, nephew & mom/dh's stepmother), us, and BIL & family. It was great to actually SEE everyone and chat for a while. The star of the show, of course, was little Great-Nephew, with runner-up status going to the dog, lol.  I was simultaneously happy to bask in the cuteness and thankful for the technology that allowed us to do that while sad over the reminder of everything we're missing, both in terms of having our own family as well as not being able to share in this all-too-quickly-passing time in little Great-Nephew's life. :(

Easter itself was pretty quiet. We talked to my parents on the phone, dh made scrambled eggs for brunch, and we had crockpot chicken and dumplings for dinner. Not traditional, I know, but we had chicken breasts in the freezer, and I couldn't see the sense in cooking an entire turkey or ham for just the two of us (if we could even find them, with all the supermarket shortages right now...!).  Easter is usually a bit of a toss-up for us anyway (as you'll know if you're a long-time reader of this blog) -- sometimes we'll be invited somewhere, sometimes not.  Pre-COVID, we didn't think there would be room for us at BIL's anyway, because SIL's family is usually there and it's not a very big house. But we did hope to be able to drop by to see the baby for a while after dinner. Ah, the best-laid plans...!

How was your Easter/Passover/long weekend?

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

3 comments:

  1. Chicken and dumplings sounds divine. (I'm a sucker for dumplings - carbs of any kind!) Happy Birthday to S. I feel as if I know him after all these years. lol Cupcakes would have been great - at least you can freeze the ones you don't eat. But yes, when there are only two of us, I think twice about doing any baking, too.

    I hope you get to go on a nice dinner out soon. My DH has his birthday in a month, and I'm not sure whether we'll be going out then or not. It might be a bit too soon.

    Our Easters are always quiet. We usually have a nice meal on one day with DH's parents (or father, now his mother has gone). So this year, thanks to my freezer, we had a nice meal just the two of us, before watching a movie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. COVID has changed things around us. We had a day off on Good Friday. So it was the long weekend. If things had been good, we would have met friends, stepped out and in the best scenario took a quick trip somewhere close by.
    What we really did was binge watch TV shows.
    Belated wishes to him and take care you two, Lori!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That sounds pretty good, all things considered! I'm glad you could see Great-Nephew through the internet, and the adorable dog, and I'm glad you could celebrate your husband's birthday. It's a good time to have a stash of cards! We aren't big Easter people (minus the basket hiding tradition we let go of this year to my utter sadness), but we did a family Zoom on Saturday. Which was...interesting. I'm glad you made the most of what you had this past weekend!

    ReplyDelete