My family has always been big into traditions, from reading of A Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve to baking monkey bread for breakfast on holiday mornings.

Another custom we celebrate is on Easter, having our grandma (sometimes accompanied by our little cousin) join us for dinner, along with her signature batch of cinnamon sticks.

With the COVID-19 in full swing this year, our grandma was stuck in her house except for a brief walk, and mass was cancelled. Our little cousins were were sheltered in, too. So my family and I decided to bring Easter to our grandma, while also helping our Aunt Heidi by getting the cousins out of the house for a while to burn some energy.

While our grandma watched from the porch, my younger sister, Paige, and I hid eggs on the lawn for the littles oned. Then then had to decorate the driveway with chalk and blow grandma ten kisses each before they got them. This way, our cousins got to race around and have an Easter Egg Hunt, while our grandma got to celebrate with her grandkids, six feet apart. 

Unprecedented times call for changes, even of beloved traditions that span nearly my whole lifetime. However, the tradition itself isn’t as important as what it represents: our family coming together. The videos our aunt sent us of our cousins tearing up the yard and our grandma’s smile as we left were just as priceless as the usually predictable Easter celebrations.

It may not be an ideal time, but that doesn’t mean people can’t come together with a little ingenuity. Maybe an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma’s house will end up being the first of many, and a new tradition can begin.