Just one day......

Could not make this up! So DGS2 has had 2 COVID tests age 2 ½ for childminder for a runny nose then a few months later a cough - he coughed once when she came for him then no cough for the 35 minute journey to Edinburgh Airport for the test (won't take them back till a negative test - already posted about this as he remembered the first test and right royal paddy ensued). That day I had to cancel my long awaited hairdresser appointment as had to drive to airport. Today I had the re-arranged appointment. Was at hairdresser with DGS2 on Tuesday for his haircut. This morning message from hairdresser - sorry will have to cancel your appointment. 2nd message - hairdresser who cut DGS2 hair has tested positive for COVID and you both have to self isolate till 18/12 and we are closed! So me and him are self isolating! Was meant to see DM to check a sore and her power readings and her fridge. She is 85, frail, blind and has SHORT term memory loss. 2pm message from my brother in Northumberland - he has just had message to self isolate till 18/12 (teacher) as a pupil in one of his classes has tested positive for COVID. Could I tell DM at same time as my news. Phoned her just before tea. Uproarious laughter -"I don't think you are meant to get your haircut as you are not having much luck with hairdresser!" I feel short term memory loss is selective!

I heard some important fool on the radio this morning saying, Christmas is not that important we could just move it to a weekend in May! And I wondered why such an idiot could be let loose in public.

Christmas comes as a beacon of light at the darkest point of the year, and my goodness, this has been a dark year. My family have been unaffected by COVID but both DH and DD have been to deaths door and back with other medical problems and DH is still in hospital, making a steady, but slow recovery.

Christmas matters more than ever. I am decorating the house as normal. Christmas day may be just DD and me, if DH has not been discharged by then and part of the day will consist of one of us making the 1 person, for 1 hour visit to DH, permitted by the hospital - and we are, oh so grateful for even that, when stories of blanket bans on visitors in care homes and other hospitals become known.

If DH is home he wants to see DS and family, so I face the dilemma others face. I am now considering whether it would be safe if the all four of them had one of the reliable COVID tests and quarantined for the short period between test and result and then travelled to us (by car) the moment they had the result.

The tree is up and decorated and I have just gathered armfuls of holly and ivy to decorate the house. I will have my beacon of light although nothing ekse can be seen other than the dark and storm-tossed seas.

Like many of you - I don’t mind not seeing all of my family on Christmas Day - as they say it’s just one day - what I do mind and have shed a tear over, is not being able to see them at all and share their joy in Christmas via concerts, making Christmas things etc. My grandsons who live a few hundred miles from us have said how much they’d love to see me on Christmas Day just for an hour! Obviously not possible this year due to our vulnerability. Hoping I can see them this time next year!????

Yes greyknitter it is all the little things that get to you.

Put the decorations up , put a smile on our faces......
It really hit home though when I packed up the Christmas gifts and sent them by courier to DD and the grandchildren, it’s the first year that we havent been together in the last week of December for over 45 years.
Thanks be for the iPad and face time.

Christmas comes as a beacon of light at the darkest point of the year, and my goodness, this has been a dark year.

I think that is the reason it was chosen as the date in the first place - the Pagan festival of Yuletide was probably chosen for that reason and appropriated by the Constantine in 336 AD, to cheer everyone in the dark days of winter.

It's a good idea.

Jesus may have been born in May. Certainly shepherds would have been more likely to have been tending their flocks in the fields in May.

We may celebrate a Thanksgiving in our family, after we've been vaccinated.

not being able to see them at all and share their joy in Christmas via concerts, making Christmas things etc

I agree
I will miss the school Christmas Fair, the Carol service, the Christingle service (always magical), carols around the tree.

Oh Callistemon, I felt choked reading your last sentence. Yes all those things are absent this year, and I will miss them so much. And hearing the grandchildren singing the songs they've spent all the September term practising ready for the nativity play ?

I think it is the Christingle service that always reduces me to tears Bathsheba, such memories of when my own children were young too
(and DD2 singed her fringe!)