During the quarantine many family celebrations have come and gone. We all thought birthdays couldn’t be celebrated with friends and family and with mother’s day this past weekend my entire family couldn’t get together to do our normal celebrations. Luckily I’ve had the chance to help make two of my friends birthday’s special. 

The Birthday Drive By

On the first weekend in May my friend was turning 16. For months she was planning her party so when quarantine struck she was more than disappointed. A week before her birthday her mom sent a text to me and two of her other friends as to what she wanted us to do that Saturday. At 2:55 that Saturday the three of us gathered at the end of her street and once three o’clock struck we all headed to the front of her house and the horns started blaring. We all were blasting the horns on our parents cars until she came outside. She had the happiest, most surprised look on her face when she walked out the door. We got to give her her gifts and celebrate with her for a short time. We maintained social distance and celebrated. We couldn’t stay long but when it was time to go her mom gave us cookies as a thank you. Later that night we played a Kahoot about her that she had been working on for months

That was the first celebration of quarantine that I got to participate in and each one got more elaborate than the next. 

The Social Distancing Picnic 

This past Wednesday I got a text from my friend Cate’s mom saying she planned to have a surprise picnic for her 16th birthday. The plan was for me and two of her other friends from her old school to meet on the greenbelt in our neighborhood and then Cate would drive up and we’d surprise her. As I was getting to know her other two friends Cate arrived. She walked up to the picnic set up expecting to see her mom and her sisters but saw us instead. One by one she saw each of us as she got closer and closer. “Woah” was what left her mouth every time she saw someone new. We spent three hours eating philly cheesesteaks and catching up. 

Mother’s Day

This past weekend was Mother’s day. Normally my family will spend the morning with my mom and we’ll go get brunch with my grandma and my Aunt on her side of the family and later in the day we’d go to my grandma’s house to celebrate with my grandma on my dad’s side. All of my cousins would be there, which is probably about 20 or more people. This year we did things a little differently. On Saturday we went to my grandma’s house (on my dad’s side) and brought her food from her favorite restaurant. We brought her flowers and spent the evening with her. 

On Mother’s day my family started the day by making brunch for my mom. We originally planned to get dressed up so it would be like a traditional mother’s day but we ate in our pajamas instead. Of course the kids did all the prep and the clean up. My sister went over to my Grandma’s house (on my mom’s side) in order to help with dinner. I spent the afternoon painting a bin for my mom that she wanted to plant flowers in. That evening we headed to my grandma’s house to have the dinner my sister made. We got to spend the evening with my Grandma and my Aunt before we all started to feel tired from the day and headed home. 

The world may not have gotten their traditional celebrations, but we got creative. We adjusted our norms in order to make people happy and feel amazing on their special days.