Last night, my 11-year-old and I sat down for a solstice meal. It was pretty silly: I made “lanterns” that I put together with four Mason jars, printer paper, a hole punch, and tape. I made winter solstice soup, but I had to substitute all the ingredients I didn’t have for what I did.
Over dinner, we talked about our goals for next year, and I asked him to choose one thing to make happen for himself in 2021. He wants to have the Dungeons and Dragons-themed birthday party he missed out on in 2020, and with our current bubble precautions in place, it’s probably feasible.
We ate our soup and thought about ourselves and one another; we talked about the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and whether or not we could see it. I was a little anxious; his dad is the one who usually finds the various cool space things that fly by in the night. But a lot of my friends were posting photos, so I asked one how to find the planets, and she walked me through it.
We hopped in the car with the dogs, because I thought we’d have to go somewhere dark to see something so rare, and our street has one lonely streetlight that I thought still might be too bright. But it turns out we could see the planets just fine by walking only a few feet down the road, with our own two eyes. It was easier than I thought it’d be.