With the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, and as more and more people become eligible to receive them, holiday gatherings are finally starting to get back to normal.

Easter Sunday was the first opportunity for many people to gather with their families since the beginning of the pandemic.

For the past year, social gatherings have been widely discouraged, forcing many to ditch their usual holiday traditions and stay home alone. 

On Easter last year, Massachusetts was under a stay at home order, so my family did not have a big dinner like we normally do and we had to FaceTime our loved ones instead. But even once the stay at home order was lifted in May, not much changed.

I have not seen my grandparents unmasked since last March. As a family, we made the tough decision not to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together last year, not wanting to risk the chance of catching COVID.

This Easter Sunday, that all changed, as my parents and grandparents are all fully vaccinated. My sisters and I are not considered high risk for COVID, and two of us are regularly tested at school. After reviewing the updated CDC guidelines and having a conversation as a family, we decided it would be safe to finally get together.

After a long, hard year of infrequent masked visits, celebrating Easter together was very emotional. We know we did the right thing by following the rules this past year and not getting together with each other, but it was hard, especially as we watched many other families ignore the guidance and get together anyways.

It felt so good to hug my grandparents after a year of not being within six feet of them, and I am so thankful that my whole family has made it through the past year without getting sick. Not being able to hug each other and get together has put life into perspective for me, and I will never take these family celebrations for granted again.

This first holiday where my family was finally able to celebrate together again gives me so much hope for the future. There is still a ways to go before we can return to normal, but this is one of the first steps. I feel so lucky that my parents and grandparents — and soon myself — have been vaccinated and that we can start spending time together like we used to.