How Covid Stole Christmas

 Let me start off by saying that we did have a lovely Christmas. It just wasn't at all the Christmas we were intending to have. 

The original plan made back during the summer was that all of the Bloods were going to come to Arizona for Christmas. ALL of them. Like 40 people. It was going to be the first time that everyone has been together for maybe a decade what with people going on missions and having babies. Not wanting to miss out on a good time, my parents and Breezy were going to come out too. Covid was trending down when we made these plans, and we were hopeful that things would be pretty safe here during the winter. Spreadsheets were made figuring out where everyone was going to sleep, and Claudia and I had a whole list of mostly outdoor fun activities we could do. I was secretly hoping to convince Mom & Dad Blood to move out to a nice one story house out here now that they don't have any kids in West Virginia.   

Right after Thanksgiving, Stephen tested positive for Covid. This was 3 days after he had been in our house for me to give him a haircut, so we assumed we were all exposed. Stephen quarantined himself in his room for 10 days and the rest of his family and my family went to get tested. To our relief, we all got negative results. Stephen's quarantine ended and Jonny's family flew out.  Happy times were here again... until Claudia got sick. She went and got tested a second time only a few days after her first test, and that one came back negative. Now Claudia's house (where Mom & Dad Blood and Daniel's families were supposed to stay) was a red zone, and my family and Jonny's were exposed too. Everyone else cancelled their flights (Except for Jacob and Joanna who couldn't), and we got to do another delightful round of Covid testing. 

For posterity... Covid tests are NOT FUN. They stick a swab WAY too far up your nose. I have now had 4 of these fun little tests. 

Round 2 of testing was on December 21. Apparently there was a massive backlog of tests that week because only 3 of the kids got back their results. Megan had some cold symptoms, so we really wanted to get her results. Unfortunately, they didn't end up coming until they had already flown back to Maryland. This was extra unfortunate because they were hoping to spend a lot of time with her parents who live in Oro Valley. Her Mom is going through radiation for cancer, so they wanted to be extra careful. We ended up having Megan's parents hang out in our backyard on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and we met them outside at Honeybee Canyon and Madera Canyon a few times. It was far from ideal, and I felt awful not being able to be a good host to them but didn't want to be the facilitator of an outbreak. 

The constant decision making was just excruciating. When can we start doing stuff with Stephen and Claudia's family again? Do we need to wear masks if we are outside? Do we make Megan wear a mask 24/7 inside our house since we never got those darn test results, and she might have Covid? Which day should the 10 day quarantine start on? It was also hard seeing how disappointed my mom was that she couldn't be out here. It was the smallest Christmas she has ever had and the first one with no kids. 

That said, there were definitely things I loved about this Christmas. I loved that we had Jonny's family and the twins with us. It was enough people to feel like a party with much less chaos than the full Blood crew. Not that I don't like that too, but it was nice having it be a little smaller. I liked that I had better conversations with the twins. They tend to get overpowered when everyone is together. I got to go on a run with Joanna that just felt great (even if I was exhausted for the rest of the day- all the Bloods are freaking gazelles!) 

I was able to spend more time thinking about how I am so grateful to have a family that I so genuinely enjoy being around. Having all the usual ward and community events cancelled this year made me more grateful with what I usually have in that department and has me motivated to try to re-establish connections with friends that I haven't seen since the pandemic started.