It's been longer than usual since my last post. Covid hit here and everything was a little different than expected. Kelly brought the omicron variant home from a business trip to Miami the week prior to Christmas. He started to feel sick the very next day and started to quarantine, but it was too late for me. I tested positive a few days later. The kids never tested positive, but every one other than Benjamin (I assume because he self isolates in his room so much) got sick. I had sore throat, congestion, and chest tightness for days and hoped that would be all, but one morning I woke up with a headache so severe I couldn't focus my vision. That led to nausea and vomiting and pretty soon I was in bed, unable to function. I spent 24 hours in bed vomiting and sleeping and then woke up the next day feeling remarkably better. Kelly and I still haven't really been able to get over the congestion - cough, stuffy head, mild sore throat, but otherwise we're good and the kids have all recovered except Peter who continues to cough. I guess although the vaccine didn't protect us entirely, it helped us recover quickly.
Had the sickness been the only issue, though, it would have been fine. The bigger issue was the timing. We had three dinner parties planned plus guests for Christmas and multiple play dates for the kids. Everything had to be canceled. It was so incredibly sad. Luckily my mom chose to risk it and still come, but we sure missed getting together with everyone else.
Leading up to Christmas and before covid we continued to do various fun little things.
I got the older three kids tickets to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for their annual Christmas concert. Benjamin refused to come last minute so it was one wasted ticket, but the rest of us loved it. So wonderful - Nutcracker, Handel's Messiah, and tons of common Christmas songs all together. So well done!
Then Kelly tested positive, so we canceled all other plans and tried to make the best at home.
Fun little shenanigans - toilet paper stacks with karate kicks, colored water and paper towels, sliding on frozen trampolines, etc. The trampoline was hilarious. Ice caked on the bottom of our shoes and standing up was literally impossible. We were slipping and sliding so much we couldn't make it to the exit. It was a riot!
Then we decorated gingerbread houses. We'd planned to have friends over to join us but Kelly had already tested positive by this point so we couldn't. We had way too many supplies, but otherwise we had a good time.
Christmas Eve looked different this year. We had our quarantine table for me and Peter and our "healthy" table for everyone else. Several at the healthy table weren't all that healthy either but at least they hadn't just spent the day prior vomiting everything they ate.
We all tried to wear masks as much as possible to protect my mom and those who hadn't tested positive yet. That was so hard. I hate masks! Peter was willing to wear one for about 10 minutes one time and otherwise refused. He learned how to cover his mouth pretty well when he coughed, though.
Doing the nativity play with cranky Benjamin who refused to participate properly and misspoke all his parts on purpose, not enough guests to fill the roles, Peter who refused to play the baby Jesus but couldn't really properly do anything else, and me in a mask kind of made the whole thing a bust. We've had some really fun nativity plays over the years, but this wasn't one of them. We made it through for the sake of tradition, though and tried to make the best of it.
Luckily by Christmas morning, most of us felt better. Before we opened gifts:
I didn't get any more pictures after that. I love watching my kids open their presents. Peter was the best this year - every present was old toys from the attic, but he loved them. It was so fun to see him get so excited about opening the gifts. The single most popular thing was hoodies. Between the kids, I gave 9 hoodies. They were thrilled and have worn them all in rotation ever since.
Since Christmas, we've tried to keep from going crazy Benjamin is taking driver's ed and takes his test on Friday.
It snowed, so we've been playing in the little bit that fell. Otherwise, this is just that lost week where it's so hard to be motivated, especially when you're still getting over an illness. We'll see what the rest of it brings. Looking forward to 2022!
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