The 2020 Christmas Recap Post

I wanted to get my Christmas recap post up before the year ends.  I don’t know about you all, but this has been the strangest and longest year in all of my 46 years on earth.  The Christmas holiday was also very different this year for us.  I’ve been through all of the emotions…I’ve laughed, cried, been disappointed, and utterly exhausted.  I’m still in a sort of holiday haze over here.

Change of Plans

Our holiday started off with a slight disappointment.  My mom has been hosting her side of the family’s Christmas celebration for the last 5 years now and we were looking forward to it.  However, it was abruptly canceled two days before it was to happen because a couple of family members had been exposed to COVID and for all involved, the right and only thing we could do was cancel.  I was a little sad, but then I realized how very behind I was at wrapping gifts and shopping for party food for this until I just accepted it was probably for the best.  We finally did end up having our family Christmas the day after Christmas, and I really enjoyed catching up with my cousins.  We only see each other sporadically because of geography, and the virus had cut even those visits out.  It was a fun time and I’m glad everyone who was exposed earlier ended up ok.

Back on Track

We also always do Christmas Eve with my aunt on my dad’s side of the family.  This went as planned and again, it was so good to catch up with everyone.  We enjoyed party food and the kids always have to “sing for their presents”.  I had to do it growing up, too.  Haha!  But it always ends up with everyone joining in to sing our favorite Christmas carols.  We went to my mom’s house afterward and exchanged gifts with her and my grandmother.  My mom always loved playing around with my Amazon Echo Show when she is at my house and is so impressed with Alexa, so we got her one for her kitchen.  She was thrilled!

Our Christmas Tree- 2020

Christmas morning is always just our little family of three.  We open gifts and have a good breakfast.  The kid was happy with his new Oculus Virtual Reality headset.  It is all he wanted for Christmas.  We also got him some gift cards for games he plays online.  Hubby made a wonderful breakfast and afterward, I decided to go back to bed and be lazy.  And that’s when the excitement started.

Christmas Morning Excitement

I guess I had slept a couple of hours, but all of a sudden I heard our smoke detector going off downstairs.  The house was kind of quiet, so I jumped up and started running for the stairs…and that’s when the smell of something burning became so very strong.  I screamed for hubby and he was downstairs attempting to start a fire in our fireplace, but something was going wrong.  Smoke started filling the living room and kitchen and I tore through the house opening doors and windows.  He got the fire out in the fireplace, but there was a thin cover of ash over just about every hard surface in the living room and kitchen.  Surfaces I had just cleaned a few days ago.

I spent the rest of Christmas day dusting and vacuuming and trying to get the smell of smoke out of our house.  Then the tears started…I was exhausted from cleaning and from Christmas in general….from this very strange and tough year….from being in sciatic nerve pain.  The tears just flowed and they wouldn’t stop.  It’s now two days later and I’m just feeling somewhat human again.  I think I have just pushed through and smiled through everything this year and it just finally came to a head.  I’m feeling a little better now, and I honestly feel a little silly about it.  Throughout it all, we have been so blessed and I don’t really have a reason to be upset.  I just couldn’t help the way I was feeling.

So that was Christmas 2020.  Whooo boy!  I’m glad I have another week off from work to recover from it.