The family that Zooms together...

 Irrepressible Nephew turned TWENTY recently.

Twenty? OMG. 

RantWoman already delivered the customary dating from childhood Nephew birthday present, a pomegranate which Bad Auntie happened to have on hand, when nephew delivered surprise Thanksgiving feast.

As is the fashion in these days of COVID quarantines, the family celebration occurred over Zoom. Since RantWoman recently upgraded to a paid account, RantWoman was glad to be able to offer to host.

So, just for good measure, the RantSisters had to have a small email fight over a miscommunication about what was needed in Zoom land. Luckily peace and calm settled in fairly quickly and invitations were sent.

Come the day of the celebration. RantWoman opened the meeting a tad early.  RantWoman was hoping to find a Happy Birthday Zoom background. Not in the time available! Instead RantWoman found an image of a sunny beach with some palm trees waving in the wind, just the perfect thing to enjoy the Zoom body parts coming and going effect in front of backgrounds.

RantMom signs on. RantMom gets congratulated for now , after six months of coaching, making it to Zoom church unassisted. Turns out also, RantMom needed to learn how to do gallery view. This time it was RantWoman who screwed up, mixing up right and left while advising RantMom where to look. But Lo, RantMom mastered it! Go RantMom!

Then, one by one, Nephew and his parents showed up. The conversation went this way and that for awhile. We got to watch big number candles be placed on two pieces of  pastel from the family's fave Salvadoran bakery in White Center. RantWoman persuaded Nephew to leave his phone in the bedroom so we could all skip the feedback. The candles got lit and Happy Birthday was duly rendered. Even without the default Zoom effects on group singing, there are parts of the RantFamily who should not attempt to sing together unless there is, say, a pipe organ to hold the tune. Mercifully, Happy Birthday is short and no one thought to attempt the Spanish version.

The Christmas Cactuses that
show up about Thanksgiving 

Next more conversation about Zoom backgrounds. Nephew and Little Sister recently got new iPhones and Nephew decided to check out background options on his phone. FUN to view a photo of a birthday present bouquet of orchids, Nephew's biggest aquarium, and a picture of Nephew and car and snowy surroundings on Snoqualmie pass. Making Zoom backgrounds nephew could move out of the way of was SO much nicer than attempting screen share and potentially having to figure out what passes for gallery view when screen share was happening. 

All in all, a lovely simple celebration.

Now Christmas is coming. Will RantMom be able to send a photo of the most beloved family Santa Claus, stitched for the RantChildren by our grandmother, RantMom's mother. Staytuned....