04.11.20 Easter Message Marianna

The County of Santa Clara
April 11, 2020
Live Stream - Live with the County of Santa Clara
10am PT

Oh hi! My name is Mariana and I work in the Emergency Operations Center for the County of Santa Clara.

And just like every year, I am looking forward to celebrating Easter with my family. We have a 40 year long tradition of baking Portuguese sweet bread together all in one kitchen but this year we're doing things virtually because we know that the best way to stay safe and healthy is to stay home. Traditions are really important, in fact I'd argue that they're more important now than ever because we need to stay connected to each other but apart.

Usually, when we do this we cram as many people as we can into the tiniest kitchen you can find. It's really hot and loud because so many people are in there and we're arguing about how much cinnamon, how much vanilla, how much sugar, goes into the dough even though we've been doing this for 40 years it's hilarious. After we make the bread my dad and I let it rise and then we bake it throughout the wee hours of the morning and then we all go to church for Sunday on Easter and then afterward we enjoy the bread together.

This year will be different because we'll be in our own individual kitchens, probably critiquing each other's baking skills especially when it comes to one ingredient in particular - yeast.

[Multi-chatter] The critical part as you know is the yeast and not cook, okay, Keeping it alive. Don't kill your yeast y'all!  I'm so nervous! You can't kill yeast, especially during COVID19.

[Indisctinct Chatter]

But there are silver linings to this new twist on an old tradition. For instance, my cousins who live out of state can now join us virtually over video chat and of course if people get too loud we can always mute them, easy. So like the yeast in sweet bread, I guess you could say our family is rising to the occasion and staying home this Easter.  Will your family rise to the occasion?

Let us know how you're celebrating this Easter by tagging us in your videos and photos.  Happy Easter everybody!

Please stay safe, stay home.

Oh my gosh okay good there's hopefully some good things in there.