Dd's dorm room and hallways are carpeted. Mine was too. I think the building would be very noisy without it. That said, dd says there is at least one (maybe more) wing of one dorm that is carpet free for people with allergies.

Dd's university, where I also work, is going back full in person on Monday. There has never been a vaccine mandate and there still isn't. No surveillance testing or testing requirement to return. Testing in our local area is very scarce anyway. The university has its own very limited testing capabilities for symptomatic students and staff only. The only thing that will look different from 2019 is the university will continue its waste water monitoring and masking will remain required indoors, even in the dorms, unless actively eating a meal or inside their rooms with the door closed. The students have been very good about this so far but many are using ineffective masks or wearing them incorrectly. Dd reports that everyone she knows is vaccinated and most got boosted over break. But she also reports that some of her friends still got Covid over break so I suspect there will be a lot of active cases coming to campus. The majority of the local population comprises of Covid deniers. All schools are already back in session with no masking or other measures in place. It is very rare to see anyone masked in stores or other indoor spaces other than the university. Because there is almost no testing available our local cases are "going down! yay us!" However, suspiciously, the hospital is well past capacity and has been since delta hit. Th vaccination rate of adults is less than 40% and very few children have been vaccinated. I think coming back to school is far more of a risk to the students than anyone else.

We just did this last year. We had big plans for a very large indoor event (it can still be snowing here in May) but Covid changed all of that. So we ended up with a (very) cold outdoor event and a much smaller crowd. It turned out great but it was not what we had wanted really. Aside from the Covid complications, some things we did that might be useful: 1. We did open house style but as others warned, we did put a timeline on the invites so people knew when to come (or not) with regards to the "ceremony." 2. We did have a ceremony that lasted less than 20 minutes. I spoke for about 10 with a history of dd's education. Then dd spoke which was mostly thank you to her mentors. There was not a dry eye to be seen. Some of dd's musician friends surprised her with a bluegrass rendition of Pomp and Circumstance. They were serious troopers considering how cold it was. We did take a video.....which is my next suggestion. If you are outdoors, consider wind in recording and/or amplification. You can hear everything in our video if you try really hard but the wind really messed up the sound quality. 3. Egg salad sliders. No idea why but they seem to be a ridiculous hit. We had 75 with an additional 75 of two other types of sandwich. The egg salad ones were gone within 20 minutes. It was frightening. 4. Dd was not huge on tradition but did want a cap and gown. Rather than buy her own we just borrowed one from her best friend that was graduating from a local high school the following week. They thought it was kind of cool that the hat and gown graduated them both. I just thought it was kind of cool that dd did not get egg salad on any of it! And that we saved the money and waste. 5. If you are still grappling with Covid, add a half hour open zoom for before or after the party to have time with people that cannot attend due to quarantine and/or caution. We had ours after with the ceremony so we could play the recording. That way dd was not on the hook to "entertain" participants the entire time. 6. Our homeschool did not have a formal name or colors. We struggled to decide on decoration colors. We settled on using the colors of the college dd would be attending. The bonus is that we saved it all to use again if dd graduates from the school she is currently attending. And if she doesn't, it is local and we can pass it on to someone else. We did have a lot of hurt feelings as our original guest list would have been about 250 and we settled for 100 after cutting out anyone from out of town (most of our extended families) and less close local people in an attempt to keep it Covid safe. I don't know how else we could have done it. The family was understandably upset (and still is) but it was not just mixing people from all over the place in a single party but also trying to come up with safe lodging for everyone who normally would have stacked up on people's floors, campers, and guest rooms. Not to mention many are not well suited to an outdoor event in cold weather and there are deep divides within our families about Covid safety measures. I was not going to have some kind of war over masking at an already stressful time. It was also a very last minute event as the local Covid mandates were in constant flux. We had about two weeks to go from zero to party that was going to have to be in our small city yard which was not going to work with a very large event. So out of town people would not have had time to get off work or get plane tickets. So it was what it was.

I'd like an invite!

We are all low risk, boosted, and have very modest holiday plans with a small number of also boosted people. In your case, I would cancel. I have about had it with people that will do nothing to protect others. We have now drawn the line with anyone that will not vaccinate and/or mask/test. this includes a much-loved branch of the family. I am sad about it but it is what it is. I am not for forcing people to vaccinate but if they won't and also will not mask (or allow others to mask in thier presence) and rapid test, we cannot spend time with them.

I bought a handful of rapid tests online from Walgreens late last week. They arrived the next day. I just checked and they still have them in stock for shipping and in our local store.

I think we will just go and hope for the best. Dd is a college student so rescheduling will be hard and if we are going to get sick, I guess better during break than later..... To be honest though, I am certain there are people who work in that office that are not vaccinated. We are only at 50% of adults. And as I said before, the masks they were wearing the last time we visited were not well-fitted. The building is from the 1960s and you feel like you are in the 1960s when inside it so I doubt they went to any additional effort to improve ventilation. Fingers crossed!

We have hardwood and started with an area rug or two but I found it too big of a pain to clean the rug and the wood, so we eventually got rid of them. Plus we live in a 130+ yo house and the floors have a lot of birdseye maple that is too pretty to cover up. Oddly, it was considered a "flaw" back then so is mostly on the edges but still cool to look at. We do not wear shoes in the house and we do keep small rag rugs in front of doors....which the cats enjoy rearranging.

My whole fully-boosted family has regular dentist appointments scheduled for next week. We have a shortage of dentists in the area. This means that if I cancel, we are going to be scheduled out 6+ more months. We ran into this during the initial months of Covid and we ended up going 16 months with no check up. I have some dental issues that really need a look during routine cleanings, so I don't want to cancel unless I really really should. Thoughts? When we last went, the dentist and hygienists were all masked but not fitted well. But that was also during the brief early-summer lull when mask mandates were being dropped. We live in an area with very low vaccination rates, low test access, and almost no masks in sight so I suspect Omicron could be running rampant and we would not even know. And obviously, we will not be able to mask during the exam/cleaning.

I have an 18yo that was always homeschooled but only had schooled friends due to an utter lack of high school homeschoolers in our area. She was part of a "friend group" at the local high school even though she did not attend school. She did attend dances, sporting events, and anything else her friends could smuggle her into. She has always had access to social media, with lessening levels of supervision as she got older. From what we talk about, being around when engaging with her friends, and just general observation, I don't find "teen culture" to be much different than it always has been. I think teens are typically more open and informed than we were. We know some teens that are glued to their phones and some who are not. Just like my own peers where some were glued to the TV, video games, etc.... and some that were not. Dd's group did a lot of engaging on social media but rarely was it what I consider to be unhealthy. She has had friends that struggled with mental health (as did I), she knows people that engage in activities or interests that might be harmful/unhealthy (as did I), and she talks about hard things with her friends (as did I). I don't know how old your teens are but I certainly did not help or hinder my dd's integration with other teens. I'm not even sure how I would do either, even if I wanted to. And what would be the point? They turn into adults and will be part of this culture one way or another.

I always have a large percentage of spritz cookies. It is so easy to make many different variations, colors, and decor. We do some chocolate, some almond, and some cream cheese, then vary the decor of all. My cookie shooter is a Hamilton Beach brand from the 1980s that I picked up at Goodwill in the 1990s. It is possessed. It sometimes will not turn off and you have to flip the battery lid to make it stop. Very festive! It makes such a mess! It just would not feel like Christmas if I went a bought a new one for a whopping $20. We also love thumbprint cookies. Easy and tasty.

What is this "ironing" thing you speak of? This will absolutely not be a problem for me! Ha ha!

I am all ears! I have some in a cart but just cannot seem to commit to the steep cost.

I think this is why I never took to using them. After eating too many meals of microwaved ham slabs and salmon patties, not to mention WAY overcooked veggies, I just assumed all microwaved food was terrible.

Mine comes home for the holidays on Friday. I just got off the phone with her. She is already missing her roommate and new music partner. They are the "three musketeers" and she cannot imagine "three whole weeks" without them. Fingers crossed that Omicron does not make that a lot more than three weeks.

Yep. Cat-proof food storage.

I no longer have a microwave because I never used the one that came with our house. After 10 years of it being a fancy bread box, we finally ripped it out to put in a better fan hood. It worked great as a bread box!

I was going to suggest chai (using soy/rice "creamer") or spiced tea (sweetened or not depending on your crowd).

I am so relieved to know it is not just me! Ha ha! Shared national trauma! I love it! At least I know where it is now and we can skip that part when we watch it as a family.

You are not overreacting. If everyone in your house was low risk and the ramifications of someone getting sick were lower, I would probably just take the risk. In fact, that is the situation in my house since dd is coming home and she lives in the dorms. But we are all boosted, including dd, and no one is or is exposed to high risk people. Are gf and ds boosted? If not, I would ask them to not come at all. If so, I would suggest the testing and masking protocol outlined by PP. I would also consider asking them to stay at a hotel during the time they are with your family so that they can have daily breaks from wearing masks and have a place to isolate if a test shows up positive. Or if you have/can borrow an RV or somewhere not in the house to sleep.

Yep. Just relived that. Yikes! It is the cracked face that was scary to me. And still is! But now I want to watch the whole thing.....

I just don't know why it was so scary. My TV watching was never closely supervised and I saw all kinds of things I probably shouldn't have but this one thing sticks out. It was second only to the house fire in Little House on the Prairie (which is a hot mess all around anyway). So. Great show. Skip the pilot/movie.....or at least be on the lookout to fast forward. I brought this all up with dd today during a phone call. She pointed out that like many/most TV shows of that era, there was a nod to being "racially sensitive," which might have been progressive for the time but did not age well. But I think Walton's did this better than most and you will likely find much worse examples in other shows of yore. I thought the show was interestingly ahead of the times when it came to women's rights.

Christmas is the only holiday that my family does any real "traditions." This is our first year as empty-nesters so it seems especially important to do all of the things while dd is home from college. Luckily, almost none are impacted by the pandemic. Some of the things we do: Decorate the house to the gills. Boxes and boxes of decorations, inside and out. Get a real tree from the same lot we go to annually. Every kid gets a candy cane and they remember dd every year. She even came home for the night to go get the tree this year. And they did remember her. And she did get her candy cane! The tree has to be big and sturdy due to the next tradition..... Dh and I have all of our ornaments from our childhood, labeled with the year and who gave us the ornaments. Somehow this was a tradition in both of our families. We have done the same with dd's ornaments. We also have every ornament any of us made over our lifetimes. It is about 60 pounds of ornaments. Every single one MUST go on the tree, no matter what! When dd has established her own home enough to have a tree, we will separate hers out to continue the tradition (if she wants). We have a list of about 10 movies we watch some time over the course of the season. We watch the 1994 "Little Women" while making treats for the birds. We hang the treats on the trees outside our windows, both for the enjoyment of the birds and our cats. Dd has an elaborate collection of Playmobile Christmas scenes and has a special place in our home. Overnight, every night, somehow "baby badger" ends up hiding or doing something naughty. Dd's first thing to do each morning is find out what he has been up to and correct the situation. We don't do a whole lot of presents, but Santa does come with a single gift for dd and all of our stockings. Pulling this off in a tiny house is half the fun. We do a day of Christmas cookie baking. Then we wrap them up and deliver to friends and neighbors, usually by foot. We do a progressive with four other families, usually starting with coffee, then moving to brunch snacks, mid-day cocktails, afternoon snacks, and cocoa with cookies in the evening. We did this all outdoors at fires in yards last year and will likely do that again this year. We added breaks between each so everyone could go back to their homes to warm up and/or prepare to be the next hosts. We all live within walking distance. These are our "found family" so we also exchange small gifts during this day. We always keep a large puzzle going to do while watching movies or just to sit and chat. We deliver meals on Christmas morning for our local organization that support the elderly. Midnight walk/ski/snowshoe on Christmas Eve.

I am dealing with this on a small level. Most of our family is fine, but one part that we care deeply about and used to be very close to has taken the Qanon (and stolen election) route. We can avoid the political and conspiracy topics and still have a relationship, but the line gets drawn with their irresponsible Covid protocols, specifically not vaccinating, not masking, and not quarantining, even when they all HAD Covid. They knowingly went out and engaged, unmasked, with the general public. That is our line. We absolutely will not be with them in person and it is something we have all just agreed not to discuss. They assume it is a schedule thing and we cannot bring ourselves to explain the real reasons. There are a whole lot of complicating factors that I won't go into as to why we cannot explain why we will not visit in person. But the fact remains that we have not seen them in person for two years, including have not met their newest child. We are starting to fear that this relationship cannot be saved. I am sad about it but there is a line of what I can accept and cannot.

I see a couple of people suggested Waltons. I am not at all a fan of older TV shows, but Waltons is an exception. We dragged this one out when dd was little and we were trying to find something the whole family could watch. 15 years later, dd still reminisces on how much she enjoyed that show. The only warning I would give is that I believe the series spun off from a movie called The Homecoming. Or that might have been the pilot? I don't know. But there is a scene in which Elizabeth gets a gift from the church Christmas toy drive (against her parents' rules) and is gifted a damaged doll. For some reason this was traumatizing to my dd and I actually remember it being traumatizing for me as a kid. Not so much than anyone needs therapy, but just a heads up that skipping that one might be a good idea if you have sensitive viewers.