WOW! Christmas- New Year’s week was a whirlwind!! As I sit in front of the fireplace, in a house partially decorated, Christmas half up and half down, you might say, I have such a sense of gratitude for so many things. 

Like most families (I’m one of six kids), our biggest fear was for my mom and uncle to get Covid-19. My mom is 89 and is great health, but still she’s 89. My uncle, her brother, is 87 and not in good health. He underwent open heart surgery in November, a year ago, and spent all of 2020 trying to recover. is still recovering. But, what we feared happened. Both got Covid in December. Not only did they get it, my aunt got it as well, and my sister and brother, who live with my mom, got it. I am so grateful and happy to report, after a scary few days, everyone recovered. 

During their illnesses, our family did what all amazing families do and rallied around them to be sure they had plenty of food and medicine and vitamins and anything else they needed. Fortunately, there were several in our family who had recently recovered from covid so they were able to go in the house and get up close to check on them. I am not one of those. My husband and I have not had covid, so I was one of the ones dropping things off by the door and texting for them to come out and get it. 

Of course, like most of the world, covid upset our Christmas traditions, but we found plenty to do. My mom typically hosts this amazing brunch on Christmas Eve morning where she feeds the entire family (remember I am one of six kids) and I don’t mean she makes a muffin mix and calls it a day. No way! She makes everything homemade from sweet rolls to casseroles to coffee punch to Bananas Foster (if you don’t know what that is, look it up—yum). This year we weren’t able to have the brunch. Mom was disappointed, but we regrouped and used that time to decorate cookies and one very fancy gingerbread man. (See pics)

Christmas Eve was also altered as we usually have the entire extended family, plus a few guests, at our house for a huge party. But, no huge party this year. We limited the crowd to just my family of kids and grandkids, plus my mom and aunt, who had just recovered from covid. In keeping with our tradition, we ate, played games, had a talent show, welcomed Santa who brought gifts for the little ones, and had an adult gift exchange. The surprise for the night was my husband, who plays Santa every year, decided to add a mask to his costume, without telling me or anyone. I’ll just let you look at the picture to see how freakishly scary that mask was, yet our babies were not scared a bit! The rest of us were terrified! LOL. We’ve already told him to retire that mask before next year. Our guess is our littles were too little to notice, but next year they will! Also, we went ahead and put on matching pajamas for the night since we weren’t expecting any company. (See pic of the green, silk PJ’ss the girls loved.)

On Christmas morning, all my kids and grandkids come back to my house to open their presents from us, but once again it was altered. We typically eat breakfast, then open presents. But, this year, since we were not going to be with the extended family later for lunch, we decided to open presents first, then have a brunch which would double as our Christmas lunch. So, the kids arrived and lined up at the game room door, while the parents got ready inside the game room with cameras. We opened the door and the kids came in for Christmas morning fun. Here’s my Christmas hack for our big family. This year I put each person’s gifts in a large bicycle bag with their name on it. After we passed out the bags, we waited until everyone got one gift out, then the unwrapping began. It was lots of fun and the large gift bags allowed the kids to help with the cleanup. They used their bags for their trash! My plan worked perfectly! 

While my mom didn’t get to have her big brunch, she came to my house and helped me with the smaller one. She made her famous coffee punch, a few quiches, and cheese grits. YUM! After we ate, we all experienced one of the grandkids virtual games. The kind where you put on a mask or headset and experience all kinds of weirdness in virtual worlds. Just a little crazy, but fun. The rest of the day was relaxing and fun. Some took naps, others went to the other side of their family events, a few played games, but everyone declared Christmas 2020 was perfect, in spite of the changes. 

That’s the great thing about being with family. Traditions are important and you’ll hear me talk about their importance, but if something has to change due to illness or whatever, a positive attitude and quick regrouping will save the day. 

I hope you had a good holiday season and are ready to start the New Year with a renewed spirit, eager to see where God leads you and those you love. I definitely ended 2020 with a heart full of thankfulness and begin 2021 the same way.