This was probably our favorite of the year!

Yes! Earlier this year, my sister hurt me (probably intentionally) and I finally called her out on it. She immediately tried to flip it around on me and my family and now there is zero relationship. She is still playing the victim and I realized I just don’t care anymore. It’s sad but I know it’s nothing I actually did.

IDK, I think if 2020 was Tiger King, then 2021 is Squid Game.

I’m sorry! I tested twice this week because I felt crummy (both were negative) and fortunately today I woke up feeling completely fine. Now, my mom woke up today feeling sick, so I won’t be seeing her tomorrow unless that changes. I didn’t spend last Christmas with her either so it stinks.

My mind also went to something other than food allergies since my dc have both (and oldest also has asthma). I also second the shower and changing clothes just to cover your bases. When the hives are bad mine take both Benadryl and Zyrtec as suggested by the doctors. They usually will take Zyrtec in the morning and the Benadryl at night. They pretty much stay on the Zyrtec daily to try to ward off the hives and add Benadryl when needed. Probably doesn’t help you much now but that’s what we do.

Thanks! I also found this article discussing the study which I found helpful. https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/covid-linked-to-loss-of-brain-tissue-but-correlation-doesnt-prove-causation-163183

Where are you reading this? Losing taste and smell, even permanently, with any virus is actually not that uncommon. I lost mine about eight years ago with the flu and it’s never returned to normal but there is not any brain damage (and I’ve had more than one scan to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong). I’m curious about this so would like to read it myself.

I made these pecan pie bars this week and they were amazing. I really wanted pecan pie but also find it too sweet and these ended up being just enough. They were a big hit here. I also realized I was out of vanilla while making them and substituted honey and they still turned out great. https://newsouthcharm.com/easy-pecan-pie-bars/

We’ll be 10 weeks out from our boosters on NYE but we have no plans on getting another one for several months, at least, unless something drastically changes. We’ve decided we’re fine with getting it if our vaccines so far will keep us from getting seriously ill (which I do believe is the case).

The only thing we’ve stopped doing is eating inside restaurants. We still go out, but we mask. We’re still seeing family for the holidays. We do have a Chicago trip scheduled for after Christmas, and as long as what we’re doing isn’t shutting down we will still be going. We’ve all had our boosters and are hopeful that will keep us from getting seriously ill.

Yes, I get a flu vaccine every year and it’s only because I feel it will protect me from getting seriously ill. I don’t actually expect it to keep me from getting ill at all. It’s definitely looking like a Covid vaccine should be thought of in the same way. I’m no longer expecting not to get Covid but am hoping the vaccines I did get will keep me from getting too sick.

I hope so. Dh and I have already discussed it and we’re not just going to keep getting this vaccine every three to six months. We’ve had our boosters and we are fine with an annual vaccine but what they’re talking about now just seems like too much.

Yes, I homeschooled for five of the years we lived in FL and we always started our school year in June because it was too miserable to do anything outside. Our “summer break” was always November and December because the weather was so nice and we wanted to be outdoors.

We’re not changing anything. Like some others, we’re just kind of done. My mom is 70, works in a hospital, and quit masking except for work months ago. She goes out all the time but we will be seeing her tomorrow and then she will come here Christmas Day for a few hours. Oldest just finished in person classes and his fiancé is working crazy holiday hours at Target right now. I’ll honestly be a bit surprised if we don’t get it considering how contagious everyone is saying it is but we’re all boosted so hopefully it will be fine.

This thread shouldn’t have ended up being about trans issues. There is definitely a lack of recognition of pain that parents go through but it’s equally distributed among both sides. It’s not just me that has been called names on this very board, but also my dc. I do think there is much work to be done but if we start from a place of othering an entire group of people I don’t get how we’re supposed to communicate effectively. I’m not going to stop responding to these threads because I think they’re important but I’m also not going to respond as much as I used to because it’s not worth the craziness anymore. None of us truly involved here are innocent from hurting others and hurling insults, myself included unfortunately, so I’m not going to pretend otherwise. It’s all just sad.

Yes, I don’t quite understand the “not allowed to” responses. My Ds has actually been booed in college classes (more than once) for his chosen topic of discussion. The first time was when discussing players kneeling during the anthem and why he also doesn’t stand. The most recent was about trans issues. Students who feel differently than him have had no issue speaking up and discussing how they feel. Ds also has no problem standing up for himself or his beliefs (and doesn’t feel a need to boo someone to do it) so he hasn’t been too bothered by it. It was unnerving the first time he was booed but now he laughs about it all.

Yes, Ds is at a big state uni and vaccines and masks are mandated. They’ve done a good job thus far and we’ve been told it is highly unlikely they will go back to online.

I’m doing baked ziti Christmas Eve and we’ll have leftovers Christmas Day. We will also have sausage balls for breakfast all weekend, lots of sweets (mini cheesecakes, mini pecan pies, and cookies), cheese and crackers, and a veggie tray.

My dc don’t do social media. Tried it once when teens, found it crazy toxic and really never went back. Occasionally they make a fake profile to see something, pass it around to all of us, then delete because they’re quickly reminded how awful it is. One is transgender and the other is non binary anyway. Oldest was the only transgender kid in his huge high school when he came out so it wasn’t some contagion or cool thing to do. They’re both at a big state uni and definitely see more people like themselves there but it isn’t something taking over, at least around us, like some say here. I know of furries but we’ve never ever seen one except at comic con and neither dc know anyone who is one. We also don’t have anyone in our world with multiple identities or new tics. IDK, I read here and it’s made to seem so gloom and doom but in my real world that’s just not happening (and this isn’t just one geographical area I’ve been in this whole time either, it’s just not been my reality anywhere).

To be fair, I think it’s awesome but we’ve always done road trips. Dh and his dad even did a six week, around the country, road trip when Dh was an older teen. We much prefer driving to flying and are comfortable with long days of driving. It’s one of the things we found out about each other early on and something we’ve enjoyed since our dating days. If one of us was really uncomfortable with the idea, I would want to start with a smaller trip probably (unless you feel fine doing most of the driving). It was an extremely fun trip but there were times it was still frustrating and stressful so if one of you is going to start out stressed it might not be too much fun for the rest of you.

We let ours pick two shows/movies to watch at times. They picked Sailor Moon and Liberty Kids. Mine were 12 and 14 at the time. 😁 They had so much fun watching Liberty Kids as bigger kids. We’ve always done lots of road trips since the kids were very little. What worked for us was games, audio books, regular books, lots of drawing stuff, and snacks we save for car trips. Cracker Barrel restaurants used to have neat little things (often from my own childhood) they could do in the car that weren’t regular games they see everywhere so I would often go there before a trip. Haven’t been in one in quite a while so have no idea if that’s still a thing. I usually kept a stash of things and would dole them out as we went along so they weren’t getting everything all at once.

We drove from San Francisco to St. Augustine and it was awesome! Long, but awesome. We did the Grand Canyon and visited some family on the way (spread throughout Texas). I’m so glad we did it and it’s something we’ll always remember.

Dh’s office tried a return earlier this year and the first week his VP was diagnosed with Covid. So, they never moved to step two and it’s just the first handful of people showing up to work in office (and they only are doing so a few days a week). Every employee they’ve hired the past two years is a remote worker from all over the country. Dh’s company talks as if they will never force employees to return to the office full time at this point because remote working is going smoothly.

This virus is just weird. My dc’s state uni has almost double the student population of Cornell, 91% are vaxxed and masking is strictly enforced, and they are currently reporting just over 200 cases. OP, I’m glad you’ve figured it out for now and hope it all goes smoothly! My dc are finished with the semester tomorrow and I’m so ready. I hope things aren’t too awful after the break.

We all usually get a mild cold in the spring and fall and we still had those during Covid. Nothing big though. For some reason, we’ve never been a family that gets stomach bugs. Like two or three times when the kids were little but none in at least 15 years.