Celebration in the Time of Coronavirus

At some point when Samuel and Brie were very small, Oprah touted the merits of Gabriel García Márquez's book Love in the Time of Cholera. I dove into it and liked the story and thoughtful word choice (even in the English translation!) very much, but could not stick with it. It was so heavy and the writing tended to be flowery... Regardless, for some reason, I keep thinking of the book's title as I watch our family fashion happiness out of an otherwise unpleasant and helpless situation. I think it accurately sums up our life of late, but I still find myself trying to quantify our efforts.

Last week and this week, the New Kids on the Block (yes, THAT New Kids on the Block) hosted a YouTube Live session where they answered questions from fans and were their true, goofy selves. It was loads of fun to watch and we laughed a lot, which felt great.

One fan asked, "Share one 'oy' and one 'joy'" about being in quarantine. I thought it was a perfect way to vent, but also show gratitude. That really is our whole life right now...it's like Groundhog Day and we have to try to focus on the positive.

Along those lines, I thought I'd share some of our oy and our joy lately. For one, Brie beautifully created and executed a Staycation (pronounced "stuh-CAY-tion" because she wanted to emphasize the vacation part over the staying part) in our front yard. We built (kinetic) sand castles, played games, ate snacks, enjoyed her photo booth (Brie did an excellent job of finding props around the house), relaxed in the sun and played in the sprinkler (it was in the 60's...brrrr!). It was a lovely idea!

On Wednesday, we celebrated our family seder for Passover. We usually have a small crowd, but it felt a bit more so this year since we didn't have any guests and we knew that similar seders were happening all over the world without family and friends in attendance. We did video chat with Gammy and Granddaddy Rob a bit, which made our meal more special. And the food was goooood.

The kids are getting to be old pros at the symbolism and telling the Passover story. And Brie has discovered that she really loves horseradish, so that gave us a good laugh!

Afikomen hunting!

We do have some "oys," of course. For one, the groceries. Major OY!! At this point, we're alternating between Click List and shopping. Click List is nice because they shop for you and bring your groceries out to your car, but if Kroger doesn't have an item on your list, they often won't make a substitution and you're stuck with nothing. The other day they didn't fill my apple order. Really? Zero apples at Kroger?! If I go and shop in person, I'm fast and adept at finding substitutions, but I have to wear a mask and avoid people, which I hate because I'm social and who wants to be anxious while they buy pretzel chips? (This is my homemade mask using a loop scarf that my dear friend Jenny gave me awhile back...it worked well!)

And, honestly, neither of these scenarios is really the oy part. That comes when I get home with the groceries and then Tony cleans off every, single one of them with bleach wipes. It's tedious and stressful and, when you've lived the good life of never caring about what's on your groceries, increasingly tiresome.

One joy remains the baking and cooking. I made Beth's famous (in our family) vegan brownies and they were (as always) amazing.

Here's the recipe:

We also tried a new recipe for carrot and white bean burgers. They turned out really well!

More carrot cooking: carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! 😋😋

We also made pulled pork in the slow cooker, which is very satisfying since it smells wonderful while it's cooking and then lasts for many meals.

On an equally tasty note, our neighborhood invited the food truck of one of our favorite local burger restaurants to come. We've been cooking nearly all of our meals, so this was a much-needed change of pace. And eating outside is always more delicious!

Speaking of baking, cooking and eating, the New York Times offered up this gem and photo yesterday: "The Food Network is offering quarantine recipes, while Americans are flocking to familiar processed foods like SpaghettiOs, Spam and Cheetos." 

I am insulted! Our Spam and Cheetos consumption has nothing to do with quarantine! Or does it?? 😉

More joy? Tony's most recent publication was chosen to be the cover of next week's "Cell Reports." We're looking forward to seeing it in print!

Brie's Staycation prompted us to run a piece of yarn between two trees, so we could play volleyball, badminton and other games in the front yard. It's perfectly suited for this great weather we've been having.

And how about Brie's sweet sign on her bedroom door? Love the message!

Cards from grandparents, friends and neighbors have generated a lot of smiles lately.

In very un-De Falco fashion, we bought a Sega Genesis that has 80+ old-school games. It's been fun for everyone and a nice distraction.

Did I mention the ample outdoor time? Tony and I have pretty much started running again. Before, we'd go once a week or once a month/year (no, seriously), but now we have so much time and sunny weather and anxiety! So we take turns...each going on average every other day. Can't beat getting out in the sunshine and fresh air. We're also taking lots of family walks...

The kids have easily had more playtime together in the past few weeks than ever before. From time to time, they do get a bit burnt out on their limited number of playmates, but overall, they've been amazing.

Celebrating both Passover and Easter this week really drove home for us how different things are these days, including not being able to host Nonno and Nonna this year...or receive one of Maria's packages filled with her yummy baking. I've tried to make up for that. For Easter brunch today, I made almond pound cake and egg cups...with sides of cottage cheese and Cap'n Crunch. Haha.

And the kids each got a bag of Easter goodies. Those were really fun to pick out...lots of my favorite Easter things, too.

We even did a little egg hunt in the house!

With Haribo and Hi-Chew as prizes!

One last oy? This week marks one year since UVA won the national basketball championship. Having zero March Madness has sucked and this anniversary hit home how big that hole has been. No team wants to be champs for two years in a row thanks to a deadly virus.

So...here's our aim: we'll be looking for more reasons to celebrate and to add joy to our scale and to have fewer oys weighing on the other side. It's a tough balance!

Happy Passover, Happy Easter and Happy (not planned at all, but everlasting) Staycation, everyone!

P.S. Here was our smaller and littler crew exactly 8 years ago...shortly before we moved here. 💗 Hardly looks like our family now and feels like so much has changed!