Yes, we are all caught up. Our local library has them available so we'll stock up again after the holiday.

Continuing our Covid Christmas Saga, so we rescheduled to the 30th for our family Christmas then I got sick on Tuesday so we decided to have it on New Year's Day and then the last of us - my 16yods tested positive tonight. So we will celebrate next weekend. My dear 84 year old Aunt just laughed and said we should maybe schedule it for Halloween 🤣. You have to laugh or you'll cry. My dh probably had it the worst and is still exhausted and headachy once in a while a full two weeks after getting sick. He tends to get sicker than others with everything. The rest of us had one or two miserable days and then ok. The current sick one seems ok for now. We can't figure out if he's at the beginning or at the end. He's had a cough for a while but today said he felt worse so that's why I tested him and he had a strong, dark positive so it must be new. We're very thankful that we've been able to keep it inside the house and not spread it especially to the elderly generation. Used my last test tonight . . .

My son is traveling internationally right now and had to get his first passport. He had made an appointment at the post office but I happened to be in there a few days before his "appointment". A family had pulled their son (probably early teen) out of school and came in while I was standing in line for postage. The man behind the counter looked at them like they were crazy when they said they had a passport appointment and told them they didn't have anyone to do those any more! The crazy part is that they had a sign stuck in the grass near the front door exclaiming that this is where you get your passport and they were still taking appointments online. My son ended up being able to get an appointment at the courthouse very quickly to take care of it but it's definitely a mess!

Not glamorous but my son got an internship at 18 with a trucking company. He had to start on the loading/unloading docks. The company has trained him, he has his CDL and is now driving a regular route for them. He's making decent money. Wants to buy a house next year. He did research and picked the company very carefully -he's always wanted to drive but wasn't interested in overland routes. He's home every night.

We've cancelled tomorrow except for those of us who live here and are hoping we can all get together sometime over next weekend. I think everyone has somewhere else to go so that's nice. It was already a weird Christmas as my eldest and his family are out of the country this year and my 20 yods left last week to spend Christmas with them (first Christmas he'll be gone). I stuffed the stockings by myself (dh is in bed early); kids are watching a Spiderman movie and we will have a very different holiday. Last year we had 20 people here (8 kids under 7). This year only 5 of us and youngest is 14!

My 14 yodd just tested positive. She's in tears

Sorry but what he has is way more than a cold. It has been more than five days but yesterday he felt worse than he had all week. I cannot allow others in the family - especially the elders to be purposefully exposed just for a family gathering. If he wakes up still sick this morning we will cancel everything until Saturday which makes me sad but that's the way it is

Newer cars do but we have five cars in our driveway and only one has the blind spot lights.

Interesting. I accidently committed a grave faux pax the first Christmas at my in- laws house. The day after Christmas, I showed up to breakfast dressed in clothes So had received the day before as was my family's tradition. My dh has neglected to tell me that in their family there was a rule that you weren't allowed to wear new Christmas clothes until the New Year. I'm rebellious so that tradition fell by the wayside quickly 🙂

Right.

So glad you have the decision made. I'll be fine once I know for sure what's going on. Suspecting all will be postponed until next Saturday.

My dh has been sick since Monday. Tested negative on Tuesday morning, tested positive yesterday afternoon. Plans were to have our traditional Christmas Eve ravioli tomorrow and then family Christmas (13 people total) on Monday. I sent a text out to adult kids. One couple responds "oh, we'll come anyway" - which I don't get because both were extremely sick the last time they had Covid. My oldest dd calls and won't come unless he tests negative tomorrow - which I totally understand. She has a 4 year son in daycare, work for herself and her son's dad just started a new job. One son didn't respond - lol! I haven't even included elderly relatives in the equation. So they will have to entertain each other I guess? Plan right now is that he will test tomorrow morning. If negative we will go ahead on Monday. If positive put everything on hold until next weekend Trying to decide what to do about meal prep. Grrr . . .

I've been baking cookies and was just going to do that but decided today to make an Italian Cream Cake which is a family favorite.

Thankfully she is not super-sensitive so not celiac just avoids gluten. I am thankful because it makes everything so much easier for her

@kbutton you have read the situation very accurately, I think. She is or was a very picky eater as a child - partly because of unidentified sensitivities and partly just personality. She and my son joke that their kids are going to be picky because both of them were picky as kids. Thank you for your input and the reminder - that was one of the reasons I have not done a lot special recipes for her.

Thank you for all the ideas! Now I'm back to being excited about my finger food Christmas (despite my father-in-law who thinks Christmas must be a sit-down formal dining event - he's going to have to adjust this year - lol!)

Thank you for reminding me of hummus!

My dil is gluten-free, dairy-free and mostly sugar free (honey or coconut sugar is ok in small quantities). I'm not going to do a big meal for Christmas Day but am going to do spiral ham in my roaster and then just finger foods is the goal. You all helped me out immensely when I needed gluten free cookies for her rehearsal dinner so I have dessert under control but do you have any favorite dips/ finger foods that will fit the bill. I have the veggie tray and fruit tray of course but was trying to make something special that she could have. Are the dairy free cream cheeses good? I mean, if I make a hot sausage dip with dairy free cream cheese are we all going to disappointed or will no one notice the difference? I'll have a sausage tray with gluten free crackers and tortilla chips available with salsa - is there a good taco dip type recipe that I can make with the restrictions or is that a no-go. I never realized how gluten and dairy heavy (never mind the sugar) our diets are until my dear dil joined the family! I want her to feel included so my goal is to just move to naturally cooking that way at least when she is here. I"m doing well for regular meals - she and I both love potatoes so it's a treat for me when she's here to buy the tiny potatoes and roast up a panful and the meat is, of course, no trouble. Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner is Ravioli and she already told me not to worry about fixing anything for her - that she would bring Chipotle for herself 🙂 She really doesn't want a fuss made but I'd like to at least have one dish/dip that's special for her and us to enjoy on Christmas day.

I'm watching the reboot series with my now teens again so I'm trying my hardest not to watch it ahead of them. We are on the second season of Matt Smith now so we should be caught up to current sometime in January. I try to limit them to only two episodes a day. This is my third time through with my different generations of teens - kind of a family ritual by now - these are my youngest so the last time to introduce Dr. Who.

I try to engage with the person as little as possible and try to keep it pleasant when I do have no other choice. In the case of a text, I would have probably just replied in a short way, thumbs up or something similar and a "catch up with you later, I'm a bit busy at the moment" type of thing. At family gatherings I try to be pleasant for my dad's sake but I try to stay in a different room or be busy with the food as much as possible. Confronting my person wouldn't do any good (I know from experience) and just raises the stress level of myself and many in the family.

Could it be a chipmunk? I'm pretty sure they make squeaking noises

Coaches have a ton of stuff to keep track of and I would not burden them with this. That said, I would keep a close eye on the situation and be especially careful when you know the other daughter/mother is around. I might even have a discussion with your daughter about it being fine to just stay away from this kid as much as possible.

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of having ravioli and egg nog which sounds like a terrible combination. Not sure how it's going to work this year because one of my dil's is gluten and dairy free and my son just discovered that he's better off without dairy so that tradition may be changing. I'll have to put on my thinking cap. At the very least I need to add something to the menu that they can eat. Oh, and my dc also expect The Pioneer Woman's seven layer Christmas finger jello. I made it one year and accidently started a tradition. Christmas morning is homemade cinnamon rolls and probably an egg/sausage or ham casserole to get some protein into people. Christmas noon: My dear fil expects turkey or ham with all the fixings but I am so tired of working so hard on Christmas for that meal with everything else I need to do that he may just have to get over himself. I don't mind ham - that's easy but I'm thinking ham in my roaster and then just finger food for the rest. Veggie Tray, Fruit Tray, Cheese Ball, crackers, sausages, Stuff I can just pull out of the fridge and be done. I hate to disappoint him but I don't enjoy cooking that much and really hate having to fuss when presents are being opened and missing time with the family. Plus all the cleanup! He also always wants pie for dessert which is just so time consuming - we may just change all our traditions this year 🙂

I would get them for him and see how it goes. My shy, quiet son started playing on a server with some acquaintances and it has been really good for his social development. When they see each other now, they have something to talk about immediately which helps spur the conversation into other areas. I do keep a close watch (or I did - he's 16 now and I'm giving him more freedom). It's really hard to be social in online gaming without the headset/microphone combo because typing in a chat room is time consuming and not as spontaneous. My son doesn't play with strangers at all - well, I think he does have some friends of friends on there now but some of his friends are older young adults whom I really trust and I know that they would kick anyone out who is being inappropriate. We had one instance where it was my child who was reprimanded and kicked off the server for a while for inappropriate behavior which is one reason why I do trust his group. I would definitely keep a close eye on it for a while - our computers our in our main living room and I do make a habit of walking up behind him often so he can show me what is going on but it has been really good for him socially (even when he got kicked out for a while - he deserved it and it helped him know where some social lines are). This is probably different than your situation - I don't know how old your kids are but I love hearing my now teens playing with their siblings who are out of the house. Quite often all of my kids are playing the same online game together even though they are scattered around the state.

I remember that we were very careful of who had access to our suitcases and the keys to the car. The car was decorated but no one got into the suitcases. It is still a thing around here that only very trusted people have access to those things on the wedding day. It is always a secret, too, where the couple is spending their first night. I'm assuming so that no one can follow and cause a ruckus. When my oldest son got married, I knew they were staying at the same hotel where the reception was and it was my job to distract everyone from the fact that they were "leaving" only to drive around the parking lot 🤣