Pandemic birthdays

Birthday parties cannot be the way they once were, so, we have to try new things. For Aaron’s birthday, we invited a small number of friends to hang out outdoors, masked; we figured they could play badminton and just hang out. No birthday cake would be shared... can you believe we used to blow on cake and then pass it around? will we ever do that again? Sigh. Aaron doesn't care for cupcakes, but loves donuts, so we had individually-packaged donuts for everyone, and sparkling water. It felt extremely strange to have such spartan offerings. But here we are.

Then we learned that it would rain. Ugh. So we cleared out the carport and decorated it with colored lights and balloons. It could be worse?

While we were waiting for friends to come, I was feeling pretty low. Aaron was supposed to have a beautiful bar mitzvah celebration, and instead he's stuck in the carport in the rain. Aaron felt it too, for sure: he started out saying this was "the most ghetto birthday ever," and I cannot disagree. However! Once some friends showed up, it was worth it. They enjoyed each other's company, they gorged on donuts, and the sun even came out for a while.

For a family celebration, Aaron asked for the classics: waffles for breakfast, his favorite sushi for dinner, and a traditional birthday cake. Done.

Jordan did not prefer to have any form of birthday party. He asked for sourdough waffles for breakfast, Indian food for dinner, and happily agreed for me to make him a salty pretzel peanut ice cream cake for dessert. Here he is photographing it to show his friends. It was delish.



While I had the sourdough awake I made my first-ever sourdough bread. Pretty darn good!

And finally, there were birthday haircuts. Haircuts are a rarity in these times, but we have someone who can come and do me and the boys quickly and outdoors. We are grateful!