Instead of the week leading up to Christmas being filled with school Christmas parties and baking and wrapping and delivering goodies to neighbors and family get-togethers, ours was filled with Covid tests and masks and stress and anxiety and time at home. In the midst of the stress and anxiety, however, we still tried to make time for special family memories for the kids.
Briggs was a trooper all week about wearing a mask and trying to keep his distance from the rest of the family. He spent all his meal times at his own little table in the dining room.
We watched Christmas movies every evening...with Briggs on his end of the couch and the rest of us on the other end.
Adelie and Briggs spent one morning playing 'covid'. Their stuffed animals got covid vaccines and covid tests.
Who knew that 2021 Christmas break games would include masks and shots and band aids instead of Santa and presents and festive fun?
Because the kids missed their Christmas parties at school, we did a virtual party with the girls' friends Stella and Olivia, who were also in quarantine. We had games and trivia and a scavenger hunt. And Adelie and Briggs' teachers both dropped off some treats and crafts from the parties they missed so they got to participate in their own way. (This was the only picture I have of the "party" from Stella and Oliva's mom. My kids are the ones on the tablet.)
Every year the kids ask Zach to do outdoor lights and decorations for Christmas. Every year he says 'no'. As a special treat, Zach went to Menards a few days before Christmas and bought some outdoor decorations to surprise the kids.
Although highly picked over, Zach was able to find some icicle lights, a few small inflatables, and the highlight...a Christmas train!
As they were putting up the lights, Briggs told Zach, "This is the best day of my life!"
The kids were very excited about the outcome. They named the little Christmas tree 'Barley' and the Mickey Mouse Santa inflatable 'Peppy.' The amount of Christmas tacky was well worth it!
The kids also wanted to make Christmas cookies. Because I didn't feel like we could share treats made in our house of contagion, we just made one batch of frosted sugar cookies.
The kids had lots of fun cutting out the cookies and then frosting and decorating them.
And because we couldn't share our treats, we all have enjoyed eating them up.
The weather was beautiful on Christmas Eve, so we took the opportunity to get out of the house and go fly kites while Zach was spending his time at the ER. A new Christmas Eve tradition perhaps?
Because we were unable to get together for family Christmas time with either side of the family, we did a Zoom Christmas gathering with my family where all the kids opened some gifts from Grammie, Grandpa, and Uncle Ethan.
Although it wasn't the same as being together, the kids enjoyed opening their gifts and seeing their cousins open some gifts as well. Hopefully we can get together to "finish" our Christmas soon.
Our week leading up to Christmas wasn't typical. It wasn't ideal. But we found some ways to make it fun. We were thankful for nice weather so we could play outside and go on family walks. There was plenty of time for playing and crafts and reading and movie nights. The circumstances were not ideal and the parents were struggling, but we did what we could to make the best of it. Hopefully the kids have some fun memories of our covid Christmas week.
