A very covid Christmas

Okay, to clarify, no one actually had Covid on Christmas, praise the Lord! But unfortunately, our household saw more quarantine than not in the month of December. On December 8, Mary complained about having "fire swallows ALL DAY" when we picked her up from school. I thought surely it was the beginning of a cold or maybe even strep, but nope - when we gave her a rapid test at home just to be on the safe side and to keep the boys in school - surprise! It was covid. 

After nearly two years of worrying and wondering and avoiding, our five-year-old came home with covid. There was definitely a sense of, "wow, this is happening" when I saw that positive test. We went into a flurry of testing everyone else (all negative), figuring out how to isolate her as much as possible, calling the school nurse, and negotiating work schedules for the next couple of days.

Eddie tested positive two days later, and DJ three days after that. Thankfully, their symptoms were manageable. DJ did lose his sense of smell and discovered it in a rather hilarious way. After petting Chief, he asked me to smell his hand. "Mom, I just petted Chief for like two minutes. I should smell like stinky dog, but I don't!" His hand did indeed smell like stinky dog. So DJ ran around smelling candles and garlic and couldn't. It was much more of a curiosity to him than anything worrisome, and he was relieved to be able to smell again to eat Chick-Fil-A yesterday in honor of MSU at the Peach Bowl.

Grandma Linda sent over some of my dolls for Mary!

Mary's "PCR face"

The quarantine period was a little intense, though. When Nellie and Annie were home everyone wore masks in the house and the covid kids had to stay in the family room. I slept with Mary on the couch for ten nights so she wasn't sharing a room (and germs) with Annie. In all, DJ was quarantined for 15 days and all three kids missed their Christmas parties and chapels and performances. They were very disappointed for a little while, but for the most part they settled in and enjoyed the very extended break. Annie was pretty disappointed that vaccinated siblings didn't have to do remote learning. They did get tired of each other, and may have hit their limit on screen time. 

Watching the kindergarten program on Zoom

Thanks Grandma for the Flour Child decorate-at-home cookies!

For Kevin and me, the logistics were complicated, of course. I tried to minimize my time at school, which meant a lot of driving back and forth and teaching remotely. I found that teaching remotely to high schoolers in school while the three youngest kids are learning remotely and the rest of their classes are at school right before Christmas is the most challenging combination I've experienced yet! Oh yeah, and I fell and tore my meniscus the second week and had to try to take care of that. BUT - it was also nice to spend more time at home. We listened to a lot of Christmas music, watched a lot of Christmas movies, and generally enjoyed lots of quiet Christmas break days leading up to Christmas. We owe a debt of gratitude to our gracious coworkers, especially my amazing office-mate Katherine who managed my class while I taught from home.

And by some Christmas and Pfizer/Moderna miracle, the rest of us stayed covid-free! DJ was out of quarantine on Christmas Eve and we were able to host visitors and go to family parties! So the timing, while difficult, was also graciously perfect for celebrating Christmas.