For the second year in a row, Covid has put a hard stop on our Christmas plans. This time, it was a bolt out of the blue- we were cruising along through a December that felt almost "back to normal" and then within the space of a week, the Omicron variant hit northeast Ohio and everything changed. First came the cancellation of my final day of COC concerts, due to a Covid case in the wind section. I bundled up my disappointment in gratitude for the 8 concerts I was able to sing, and relief at having a "bonus day" at home to get ready for the holiday. Then Jack spiked a fever on Sunday afternoon, and that was all she wrote for Christmas. He tested negative for Covid on Sunday and on Monday, and we carried on with wrapping and baking and prepping for gatherings and travel, hoping he just had another little bug. But he'd had two known exposures since Thursday (thanks, swim team!) and there were 30 reported cases at the High School on Monday and Tuesday alone that week (before it went remote for the rest of week due to a second lockdown from a social media threat), and he was running a fever and feeling pretty crummy, so we really already knew even before his PCR results at the doctor on Tuesday. After succumbing to sadness that day, we got back to work on planning for a "Porch Christmas" so that we could be together safely with Gram and Aunt Becca at least, even if a trip to NY was no longer in the cards. We bought and decorated a small battery-powered tree, hung curtains to keep things warmer and hung more lights to keep things festive. Ivy and I went ice skating and to the Botanical gardens with Bec and Francisco on the 23rd, and it felt almost like Christmastime. On Christmas eve we delivered cookie plates to neighbors and then had a nice gift exchange with family on the porch. Jack was fever free and feeling well enough to join in from the patio. The weather was so warm we never needed the extra blankets and cooler-full of pre-warmed cornbags that we had at the ready. Cookies and cocoa and thoughtful gifts were shared, then Nat and I donned festive garb and worked up a sweat tromping about the neighborhood as Santa and elf. We ordered a tremendous amount of Chinese food for dinner (Ivy, Nat and I ate together, with poor Jack in his room...) and lit all the candles for Zoom church. We watched "8-Bit Christmas" with Ivy and then watched "A Christmas Story" after the kids went to bed, while we arranged the gifts. A quiet and lonely sort of Christmas Eve, but it checked all the boxes.
A very excited 11 year old got us up at 5:30 and then at 6 and then at 7.... We turned Youtube back on her phone for her and she was able to make it til 8:30 when we got Jack up for presents. We are doing better these days at stretching out the morning, doing stockings then breakfast (together on the porch) and then tree presents. We finished up around 11:30, which was about the time we got a text from Aunt Becca-- who had woken up with a fever and was wondering if we had any Covid tests we could bring her....
Spent the afternoon driving out to North Olmsted and back, and after Bec tested positive we tested Nat and Ivy and I again... and it was finally my turn for the second pink line. One more family member on the quarantine list. I had been (and continue to be) symptom free, so no way of knowing how long I had it and was unknowlingly spreading it to others, which I feel terrrible about. At least we were being pretty careful due to Jack's case, masking in public and being outdoors to eat and be with others. But were we careful enough?? Gram got tested on Christmas and we are still waiting to hear her results, and hoping we at least did not pass it to her. Nat and Ivy continue to test negative so we are hoping they are in the clear, but wow have these days stretched long, as we wait and watch for symptoms and worry and wonder if we did the right things.
These past few days have been as dreary a time as I can remember, with grey skies and drizzle echoing our general mood in the house, as we mask around one another and eat together only outside, and cast about in the absence of any structured activities. We have allowed the children to go completely feral, and they wander the house, snacking and playing on the new Oculus but mostly styaing in their rooms. I am sleeping in the old nursery and keeping busy by cleaning the basement and reglazing the tub. I have never been great at dealing with this liminal time between holidays, and without distractions of shopping or travel or outings or gathering with friends, I feel rootless and unmotivated... but not sick and therefore just terrible at sitting around doing nothing. I am hoping for a negative test by the weekend so that we can have a couple of days of "normal life" during this break, and I can start work on the 3rd and won't have to write sub plans. Its crazy to be looking forward to the structure of returning to work! This seems to be the year where all of my breaks aren't really breaks at all...
Here are some photos from the holiday, from those times when we rallied and got into the Christmas spirit for a brief moment before Covid repeatedly took it away.
I got in the habit of posting a pre-concert selfie before my COC concerts. Thought this one was my second to last- it ended up being the last one. At least my festive berry spray and eye makeup looked nice. And the two concerts that day went well. I had fun singing all of the music from memory and taking it all in. Would've enjoyed the last two, too-- but what a privilege to be a part of the holiday joy at Severance eight times.
Things will look up, I know they will. Jack is on the mend, even if he's still tired and taking naps every day. And provided I continue to be symptom free, new CDC guidance says I'm free to resume daily life in 2 more days. But this most recent wave of the pandemic has knocked us off balance. The rules have changed again and we don't know how the new-est version of normal is supposed to look. New Year's Eve is just a few days away, and I've no clue how to go about celebrating, with just our glum little family trapped in the house once again. No clue what to expect as we head into year three of life in a global pandemic. Last New Year's I was full of hope that our old lives would return. And they did, for a moment! Yet here we are once more. Sigh.
