How a Geneva family turned their nightly dinners at home into a themed occasion

Twenty-one days. Twenty-one themed dinners. Twenty-one sets of coordinating costumes, props and activities.

Stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, the McCall family of Geneva has made the most of their time together by dressing up as a different cast of characters every night, including those from "The Breakfast Club" and "Scooby-Doo" as well as superheroes and iconic rockers. Then, after capturing their ensembles in a family photo, they sit down to a carefully planned meal based on their chosen theme.

The elaborate dinners began March 30 when 6-year-old Lyla asked if she could wear her fancy white dress to dinner. Already in the midst of preparing an Italian meal, Lyla's mom, Lindsey, dug out her mother's old wedding gown while the rest of the family got dressed up for a mock Italian wedding reception, complete with an after-dinner dance party.

The next morning, Lyla and her 4-year-old brother, Sidney, asked what their dinner plans would entail that evening. So the McCalls brought out their animal print, made carnival food and built their night around watching the buzzworthy Netflix documentary "Tiger King."

The ideas snowballed from there, and they soon had a list of themes that were feasible using only clothing and props from around the house: "Star Wars," "Pee-wee's Playhouse," Michael Jackson through the decades.

"We had started these dinners just to kind of keep the kids occupied," Lindsey said. "It was that little bit of structure that the kids really liked."

But it also became a welcome distraction for Lindsey and her husband, Ryan, who have been trying to navigate the effects of the global health crisis on their family dentistry in Geneva. Lindsey's sister, Marissa Jenniches, who recently moved to the area, also participated in the nightly dinners; she and Ryan were the creative eyes behind the family photo shoots.

"In the midst of all this chaos that's been going on ... it was just (a few) hours of the night where we could forget about all that stuff and spend time as a family," Lindsey said.

The McCalls would start getting ready at 5 p.m. each night, picking out clothing, styling their hair, painting their faces. They certainly had their creative differences from time to time, Lindsey said, laughing. But they always found the perfect details to complete their collective look.

The dinners required some imagination, too. When they dressed as characters from "Grease," they transformed their kitchen into the "McCall Frosty Palace," serving Rydell Beyond Burgers, Sandy's sweet potato fries and Frenchy's strawberry milkshakes. On '80s aerobics night, the meal consisted of some of the decade's most defining foods: sloppy joes, Ore-Ida fries and Cheez Whiz.

It wasn't long before the family's photos started gaining social media attention from friends, relatives and complete strangers who followed every post, Lindsey said. Some started themed dinners with their own families.

Wanting to end on a high note, the McCalls held their last major theme night Sunday based on "The Wizard of Oz" - a bittersweet ending, Lindsey said. But they've continued to organize nightly activities on a smaller scale, such as a campfire on Monday and a streamed concert with a Ravinia-style picnic on Wednesday.

"It's just something fun that we did as a family," Lindsey said, "and it's brought a lot of inspiration to other people."