For many during the pandemic, most, if not all, family traditions were put on hold. Now, as we emerge from those circumstances, some of us are finding that new traditions have to be established.
For me, things will never be the same as it was before the pandemic. We have lost three family members and moved the matriarch of our family into an assisted-living facility. In the past, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were always celebrated with a mass of people at my grandmother’s house. My grandmother, who has three daughters, married a man with five children. I think they officially lost count of all the grandkids and great-grandkids this year. And we never knew who else would be there, because Grandmother would invite those at church who had no place to go to join us. There was never a question of if we would celebrate with everyone . . . only what time we would do so.
Holidays that were once filled with extended family, special food, and grandma’s house are now over. On top of family members passing away, my grandmother’s house was sold. Our nuclear family has been forced to re-think and re-work how we celebrate and what traditions we want to pass on to new generations.
This Easter was our family’s first Easter in this brave new world. Grandmother’s Easter celebrations were special because of the people, the food, and the fellowship. (The forty years of children’s Easter Egg hunts didn’t hurt either.)
So, this year, while modeling our Easter after Grandmother’s, we added a new tradition that is uniquely ours. Our family’s first annual Easter Chopped competition was held this year.
“What is an Easter Chopped competition?” you might ask. Good question! Lucky for us, my brother and I married two people who love to cook. My brother purchased random ingredients (see list below) that my sister-in-law and husband were tasked with turning into delicious desserts for our enjoyment. And, yes, there was a prize (a chocolate bunny) to be awarded to the winner. The results were . . . interesting, bordering on good.
My sister-in-law, Yeisa Williamson, came out the winner after a false start. With two selections in the judging she took both first and last place. The deconstructed strawberry/raspberry cheesecake with trail mix crust was questionable at best but she received extra points for it because it looked good. While my husband, Benjie Shaw, made a beautiful cake layer cake which had a ton of ingredients added to it, he says, “Could have been better.” The winning dish was a hard-shell white chocolate bunny stuffed with ground up trail mix and brownie goo. While not all desserts were necessarily edible, good times were had by all.
This Easter was a great Easter; it was also a sad Easter. Hopefully next year will be just as great and a little less sad as we settle into our new traditions.
