Christmas at a Distance

 It was a different Christmas for sure. While some parts were hard, we found beauty in other hours.

Of course, we didn't see much of our families. We opened presents via Zoom on December 23 with my sister and her family. And, like I previously wrote, we met my own parents the weekend before Christmas to put each other's presents in each other's car. The kids each got to unwrap one present in person in front of Grandma and Grandpa, and the rest were done via Facetime on Christmas Eve. Earlier on Christmas Eve we drove to Paul's sister's house, where we opened presents outside, brrrr!

On Christmas itself we scrapped some traditions while maintaining others. Santa still visited overnight (although Edith asked her first questions about whether Mommy and Daddy were behind it all!) and the kids eagerly opened their gifts first thing. The rule: No waking parents up until 7 a.m. They got up about an hour earlier, but managed to wait until the appointment hour.

We still ate biscuits and gravy for brunch, but we had lasagna for supper. In between the meals, we played with our new stuff, watched "March of the Penguins" and, if you were Mommy, took a nap. Not exactly Christmas as we've known it, but not half bad.

Edith got upset at suppertime, partly from the holiday being almost over, partly from all of the changes over the last year. She spoke of her anger about wearing masks almost as much as her sadness that the next Christmas was a whole year away.

Christmas Blues

The closer it gets to Christmas, the worse my mood gets.

I'm trying to put a good face on it all, but the closer it gets to the holiday the harder it is. We're basically keeping all of the annoying parts of the holiday while scrapping everything that makes it fun.

Presents have always been my least favorite part of Christmas, both giving and receiving. It's certainly the most stressful. I don't particularly like to shop, and I don't know what anyone wants aside from my own kids. I'd be perfectly happy if no gifts were exchanged and perfectly content to celebrate Christmas with just family and food.

Except there's none of that this year either. We met my parents in a parking lot halfway between our houses this past weekend to put wrapped presents in each others trunks. We talked outside for a bit before it got too cold and we all drove home. We'll open up presents via FaceTime. I think we're going to open presents with Paul's family outside some evening this week -- not exactly warm and cozy. Sad, actually.

As for food -- with no traditions to hang us up, we ordered a large meal of lasagna, meatballs, soup, green beans, rolls and an apple pie from a local restaurant. Actually, the order keeps up with our 2020 tradition of scrapping all holiday meal traditions since we had chicken tikka masala for both Easter and Thanksgiving.

It'll all be OK of course. We'll open presents, play with gifts, watch a movie. And look toward next year when hopefully everything will be back to normal.

2020 in 20 photos

 What a year. Here are 20 photos that tell its story.

February 24: Atticus gets comfy cozy. COVID was something we knew was going on overseas.

March 4: Atticus at COSI. I heard on the way home that the governor had cancelled a large sports festival in Columbus because of COVID concerns. COSI closed shortly after and hasn't yet reopened.

March 13: Loading up on books before the library shut down. Curbside pickups started many weeks later.

March 17: Time marches on, and Edith lost her two front teeth (one at a time)!

March 27: Buying three weeks of groceries at a time.

April 2: Atticus's 5th birthday. His party was canceled, but our block had a parade for him!

April 8: The best time to learn to ride a bike is when you have to social distance! They both learned on this day.

May 23: Atticus graduated from a toddler bed to a twin, and boy was he happy!

July 19: And not long after, the kids got bunk beds!

August 6: We spent a lot of time outdoors this summer, and both kids started skating. They graduated from these beginner skates to rollerblades!

August 30: Our cruise to Alaska was canceled. Instead, we spent a day outside in Cincinnati and walked to Newport, Kentucky.

September 8: First day of school. No classes inside a school building even to this day.

September 20: Our outdoor time included a visit with Grandma to Prairie Oaks.

September 22: An outdoor-only visit to the conservatory, with masks of course!

October 19: Voting was early and socially distant.

October 21: No classes at school, but we managed a trip to the empty playground!

October 23: Walks in the neighborhood.

October 31: Halloween, with masks incorporated into the costumes.

November 8: We're lucky that our sister-in-law can take our family photo each year!

November 21: Edith's 8th birthday in quarantine and isolation. I tested positive for COVID a few days later.

How to Be in Quarantine

Today is the first day in weeks that all of us are free to go about — no more Covid quarantine!

It’s been rough but could have been worse. Hopefully you won’t ever have to isolate or quarantine, but here are my tips on what you can do to prepare both now and if it happens:

* Don’t run low on the essentials. It was a relief not to worry about our stock of toilet paper and paper towels.

* Do something special (every day, if you can). We had a lot of movie nights with the kids and played more board games than usual.

* Find other ways to socialize. The kids were excited to talk to their friends via Zoom and FaceTime!

* Get some treats. We splurged on one grocery delivery and made sure to order a few things to look forward to (hello, cranberry white cheddar cheese).

* Ask for help. I’m not good at this one, but quarantining made it inevitable. That grocery delivery? I forgot to order milk, but some neighbors dropped off a couple of gallons. One neighbor even picked up the library books we had on reserve.

* Give yourself grace. I didn’t realize how stressed I had been until I realized I forgot to order milk and burst into tears. It’s hard to feel helpless, but it least I knew we weren’t friendless. 

Covid Positive

I had a headache.

I wasn't happy about it, but I wasn't surprised. The nerves connected to one of my front teeth had been bothering me, plus the weather was changing. Sinuses were certainly to blame for the latter, if not for the former too, I thought.

I was tired.

Also not surprising. When I get a headache, I'm definitely sleepier. When I wake up in the morning, everything is fine.

But then a week later I lost my sense of smell.

That worried me, and I had little doubt: I had Covid-19. A test on November 24 confirmed it.

I'm lucky and know it well -- the lack of smell was by far the worst of my symptoms. It's hard to explain. It was there, and then all of a sudden it wasn't. Soap, toothpaste, shampoo, food: no smells. Sometimes a faint whiff, but mostly nada. It was like my nose was "hearing" a melody without the harmony. And then something weird would happen, like when I asked Paul if he had been cutting onions. I couldn't smell them, but my nose was almost tingling. Sure enough, he had. Are phantom smells a things?

As of yesterday, my headache was barely there, I'm not too sleepy and I think my smell is almost completely back (and certainly better than it was a few days ago). I got a cough around Thanksgiving, but nothing worse than any other winter.

Thank goodness the kids have had no symptoms, although we're in quarantine for another week to make sure. Paul had what we assume now were very mild symptoms a day or two before me, so he is planning to get an antibody test. Overall, we've come out of this healthier than I had hoped, although we're not out of the woods yet.

More about our quarantine next week!