How was your Christmas this year? What changed from normal?
Ours was about six hours of Zoom across three households, California, Connecticut and Indiana. Two one-year olds, one 4 1/2 year old, who bounced around a lot, and 6 adults. We took turns watching people open presents, with time out for naps.
It would have been nice to be in one place, but it was a lot easier to clean up after 2 people than 9.
How was yours?
Three and a half Zoomhours among four households, with lots of chatting and people opening up presents. It worked out pretty well, I would say.
Christmas day was little different from the past. I’ve always reserved it for family and refused to travel (or have guests) so there were only small changes. Since my kids are adults there’s no racing downstairs anymore. One lives out of state, and was stuck on a month-long travel itinerary for work and won’t be home until mid-January. So we’re unlikely to see him until next year, but that’s not unusual. The other made an early trip to BF’s house to exchange gifts, which delayed us a few hours. But since everyone’s grown (and likes sleeping in) it’s not unusual to delay opening presents until noon anyway. My parents are too far down the technology scale to Zoom, or even use phone cameras, so it was voice calls as usual.
If younger me (say in 2018) had been presented with a movie of this year’s Christmas, I wouldn’t have noticed anything significantly different about 2020.
Zoomed with our three kids and four grandkids living in three other states. Also with my mother - the great grandmother, my sons in law and one daughter’s in-laws.
I suspect, given school and work schedules we will never have the entire family together in one place for Christmas, so this was pretty good.
I’ve spent Christmas alone for several years now, and 2020 was no exception. For me it’s an opportunity to relax and not have to think about things.
Zoom Hanukkah was okay but not very satisfying.
Every year we do the big “pack up the car with goodies and junk and presents at noon and drive to Grandma’s house for Christmas dinner” routine. Well, this year my FIL is getting cancer treatments (for the same type of cancer that killed our JC unfortunately) at a hospital an hour and half south of us. Even if he were healthy Covid would’ve put the kibosh on the usual get-together.
So I cooked a turkey on Wednesday, we had an ersatz Christmas dinner just the 4 of us in my household that night, then I simmered down the carcass for soup on Thursday. That night night I put together a soup with some exceedingly finely chopped onions, celery, carrots, short grain rice, and of course turkey. Friday me, my wife, and my kids did the gift exchange at home and then drove a crock pot full of soup down to where my in-laws are staying for FIL’s treatments. He hasn’t been able to eat much but he did put away a full bowl of the soup, so I guess I did something right.
My paternal grandfather is also battling cancer and my parents and brother drove to Portland to spend Christmas with him. He’s aware this will be his last Christmas most likely and so wanted to have my folks up for it, Covidbe damned.
I didn’t do a Zoom Christmas, but I did get a phone call from a friend and her fiancé, which was nice.
We had about a 45 minute Zoom call at 6 PM on Christmas day with everybody who could make it. It included me, my four brothers and one sister, spouses, five nieces and nephews, and a couple of grand-nieces. We had up to 10 windows open, in the Bronx, Schenectady, Levittown, Monroe NY, Scranton PA, Nashville TN, South Carolina, Panama, and the Netherlands.
It was less chaotic than the first one we tried on Thanksgiving, where people talked over one another or didn’t talk at all. This time my brother who organized it served as master of ceremonies, going around to everybody and asked how they celebrated.
It was fun. This is the first time in 36 years I haven’t been in New York to see family for Christmas. While of course it wasn’t like being there, it helped.
Thanks for moving the thread, whichever mod moved it.
Never mind. I thought I was in Quarantine.
Zoomed with family Sunday. All my siblings (5 of them) plus some nieces and nephews.
Some “what did you do for Christmas” and some “remember the Christmas when…”
About an hour and a half.
Brian