Is it time to panic?
I think it’s time to panic.
To be fair, my family’s been hit pretty hard with some challenges this year. My husband just tested positive for COVID, despite all efforts toward being safe. Three years he dodged it. Only to be hit with it five days before Christmas. What terrible luck! The good news is that it seems to be a mild case, and he’s already feeling a bit better, so we may have a chance of having our holiday celebration on Sunday. However — and here’s the tough part — we’re worried about anyone else coming down with it in between.
We are quarantining, distancing, masking, and doing everything we can to avoid catching it, but you know how that works — sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw.
If anyone does get it, then it’s game over. We are already having a second celebration the Wednesday afterward to accomodate my sister, who can’t be with us for Christmas due to having to work, so we could, theoretically, have the whole thing that day — if everyone’s okay. But prep-wise, which my mom and I are doing (as usual, and in some considerable pain as we both have a genetic hip/back issue that’s acting up), we don’t know what to do yet. Do we make the food as if we’re having it Sunday? Or do we wait a bit?
I already cleaned the bathroom (my usual job) because regardless, that needed doing. But…having everything up in the air like this is a new kind of stress. And not being able to even hug my husband is seriously freaking me out. But I am hoping that will be over soon.
There’s also a snowstorm forecasted in our area that’s supposed to be really bad — high winds, extremely cold, and power outages — to hit Christmas Eve! I know it’s all guesswork, but still…we don’t need this on top of everything else! (It brings to mind the Christmas Eve I spent with my ex when our furnace went out and it was a very chilly 51 degrees. And we were due to leave for New Orleans the next day. Fun times).
We’ll get through it. We’ve been through worse. But it just seems like this has been 2022 giving us one last kick in the teeth before sending us off into 2023. And I do hope 2023 is better!
But whatever happens, I’m sure we’ll get through it, and we’ll find a way to make the best of this situation. The important thing is that we will, at some point, be all together, and we weren’t even able to do that three years ago. That’s really what Christmas is all about — not the gifts, not the food, not the lights, not the stress — it’s the family, the memories, the time you spend that is absolutely priceless.
But…if you can…send up a prayer for me? Or some positive thoughts? I could use them.