Animals hunt for Easter eggs 1:29 (CNN) — The White House will become something this Monday that it had not yet been while Joe and Jill Biden resided in it: a party house. At 6:45 a.m. ET, the first of an anticipated 30,000 guests, who won tickets through a public lottery, will walk through the south gates and onto the lawn for the 142nd annual Easter Egg Festival (originally known as in English as “Easter Egg Roll”) from the White House. “Joe and I are looking forward to welcoming the thousands of families who will be joining us at this year’s White House Easter Egg Bash,” the first lady tweeted Friday. “The Bidens are excited to open the People’s House back to the American people, after having been closed to the general public due to the pandemic,” Jill Biden’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, told CNN, adding that the Preparation for the Easter Egg Festival has been months in the planning. The first lady chose the theme of “EGGucation,” a nod to her decades as a teacher. “The President and the First Lady will deliver a speech and kick off the egg drive for the kids,” Alexander said, adding that Jill Biden will also read to children at the Easter Egg outdoor reading corner. Roll. The day’s festivities are further evidence that life in the White House is slowly returning to a pre-pandemic version of normal, something the Bidens have yet to experience. This Friday, a limited program of tours of the White House for the public resumed, with tickets arranged through the congressional representative for visitors, and spring tours of the White House gardens resumed last weekend. , which was attended by nearly 30,000 ticketed members of the public over the two-day period. A White House official told CNN that unless there is a significant change in Covid-19 outbreaks or regional or national cases increase, it is expected that visits will be rescheduled to the pre-Issuance norm. pandemic several days a week. A Calmer White House At this point in the administration, the White House would have already held two Easter Egg Rolls; a great trick-or-treating Halloween party; several major dinners or luncheons for dignitaries, members of Congress, or other VIP leaders, as well as at least one state dinner. Due to covid-19, the Biden White House has been quiet. “We have worked hard over the past year to bring the White House closer to the American public through a variety of interactive and creative ways, on as many digital platforms as possible,” says Wayne Skinner, director of the White House Visitors Bureau. . “But nothing can replace experiencing the history and magic of the White House in person.” It is Skinner’s team that oversaw and carried out the planning for the Easter Egg Roll, a regular at the Visitors Bureau. The basement floral workshop, led by White House chief floral designer Hedieh “Roshan” Ghaffarian, who was hired by Michelle Obama in 2015, has generally focused on day-to-day needs, like keeping arrangements in many of the White House’s public and private rooms are on a fresh rotation, says a person familiar with operations. The White House kitchen team has also had a relative break from the crazy hustle and bustle of preparing and serving hundreds of hot dinners for some of the world’s most important guests. The Chocolate Shop, one of several White House kitchens, is responsible for crafting and preparing the main centerpieces used when the President and First Lady receive their guests. “There’s never any ‘slow’ with nothing to do,” said a former White House official who worked closely with White House staff and the chief usher for several years to plan and oversee social events. “These are professionals who every day make food and desserts and appetizers and buffets, everything that is needed. But there is a profound loss in the use of their skills, that there have not yet been entertainment needs that are up to par.” their talents,” the person says. Plans for a state dinner are underway CNN is aware that plans for the first state dinner of the Biden administration are underway, although it is not clear which world leader the dinner will be held for. The former official familiar with White House social activities adds that a second state dinner is likely to quickly follow in the footsteps of the first. Alexander would not confirm the details of any upcoming state dinners or his specific planning situation, but he did say the Easter Egg Roll likely marks a starting point for a resumption of such events. “The first family is looking forward to continuing to share the White House, with state dinners, celebrations, commemorating parts of history that are coming up, events that they haven’t been able to host due to the severity of the pandemic,” he said. Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association — the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created in 1961 by Jacqueline Kennedy to help preserve and preserve the White House legacy — told CNN that state dinners are much more than fancy dinners attended by celebrities and industry titans. “State dinners are often the scene of much of the diplomatic work that a government tries to carry out; they are strategic for the host country, even to know who sits next to whom in order to advance the dialogue on a certain topic,” McLaurin said. As the global balance of power becomes more fragile, Biden’s lack of state dinners, while not a crisis, has hampered the social and diplomatic dance that has been done for decades behind the scenes at the White House. ‘A sense of joy’ Still, McLaurin sees the Easter Egg Roll, funded entirely by the White House Historical Association, as a return to normalcy for the holidays. “As in years past, the ceremonial wooden eggs — in colors selected by the first lady — are ready to go,” he said of the annual eggs, which are handcrafted each year by a Maine company. The White House Historical Association sells hundreds of boxes of commemorative eggs in advance of the Easter Egg Festival, with that money going towards the Easter Egg Festival itself, as well as the many educational programs, books and other activities the White House Conservation and Public Interest Organization. Last year, although the Easter Egg Roll was cancelled, wooden eggs were made, but the bunny drawn on the side was wearing a surgical mask to commemorate the ongoing pandemic. This year’s eggs feature the Bidens’ new pets: Willow the cat and Commander the German shepherd puppy. There’s also a new egg color, “Biden Blue,” a deep, royal blue chosen by the first lady. 50,000 real hard-boiled eggs were also prepared and ready for the inevitable egg activity: the race of children holding an egg in a wooden spoon, hoping that they can run fast and not drop and break the eggs. The former White House official, familiar with the social activities, notes that cleaning the royal eggs after the egg race is thorough and imperative, otherwise the pungent odor of fetid eggs fills the air in the South Lawn. Like Biden, McLaurin says what excites her most is watching the children attend the Easter Egg Roll, and seeing their faces fill with fascination as they stand in the backyard of the President’s home. “A member of our board of directors, who is a native Washingtonian, said that when he was a child, his father used to come and sit in front of the north door of the White House on the morning of the Easter Egg Roll, because the Washington adults wanted to go, but you had to have a kid to get in,” McLaurin said, recounting one of his favorite Easter Egg Roll fun facts. “These kids were being rented out to childless adults to get into the Egg Roll.” There remains a good deal of doubt about whether the country is entirely free of the ravages of Covid-19, and the White House Visitors Bureau continues to monitor the latest guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. and health authorities, as well as regional case figures. But carrying on a tradition that’s only been interrupted a handful of times since its inception in 1878 is worth spilling a few eggs and having a chance to sip lemonade and snack in the shadow of history. Only one mystery remains: Alexander did not want to reveal the identity of which staffer will don the bunny suit and play the role of the White House’s official Easter Bunny, a tradition that began with a staffer from Patricia’s East Wing. Nixon. “There is a sense of joy to be able to share the White House again,” Alexander said.