The Substitute
Surely every American family has at least a few stories about how a worldwide pandemic has made things different for their family. I like the stories of creative substitutes for things that couldn’t be the way they would have been a year ago.
I know a young family who takes drives while listening to educational podcasts. What a fun and creative way to have a safe family outing.
Ray and I did a substitute of our own the other evening. Several months ago one of our grandchildren expressed concern that she wouldn’t be able to enjoy our hometown Christmas parade this year. I told her and her siblings that if they couldn’t go to the parade as usual this year, Notty and Little (that’s Ray and I) would drive by their house in a “parade” and throw candy!
As it turned out, we did get to go to the parade (Ray and I sat safely in the car), but the kids still wanted their Notty and Little parade. On Tuesday night, I plugged a string of colored lights into our car adaptor and strung them back and forth across the inside of our car. I hung a wreath on the grill in the front. We grabbed our dancing Christmas tree and drove to their house. We let our daughter know we were coming, but the kids didn’t have a clue. We drove into their driveway honking our horn loud and long. By the time they realized what what was happening and came outside, they were very excited. The oldest ones were jumping up and down. The kids were saying, “This is wonderful!” We drove slowly by with Brenda Lee’s voice blaring “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” from the dancing Christmas tree with its blinking lights. We threw candy and packages of gummies out the window. We drove past the children, turned around, and went by again. Our substitute parade was a huge success.
I rarely have buttermilk in my refrigerator, so I have often substituted plain milk with a bit of vinegar for the buttermilk in a recipe. Finding substitutes for other things can create special memories for our families.
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Be cheerful and sing for joy and sing praises.
Psalm 98:4
We’ve had to find several substitutes here in California. I’m so glad we have some really create fellow Americans. Our small city canceled our annual Christmas Parade, so a group of creative citizens put together a “We the People…” Christmas Parade (no, they didn’t call it that, but it sounds right). The parade went through sections of just about every city neighborhood, with it lasting well over an hour. We heard about it the morning of, made arrangements to be at a friend’s house on the route, and enjoyed a bit of normalcy.