Our Christmas In January 2023

The pandemic has impacted our life in several ways. This is just one of the ways. We have not had a family Christmas at our home now since the pandemic started.

We had a family Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving at my daughter's house. Then the hubby and I had tuna sandwiches on Thanksgiving, with plenty of goodies. We had a quiet Christmas at home alone, with plans for our family Christmas in January.

My daughter and seven of her eight children met on December 23, briefly before leaving on a family trip. Since the pandemic, my daughter and her husband have taken the four children that are still at home on a Christmas trip.

My youngest son has in-laws and they spend most of the holidays with his partner's family. This is his second long-term relationship where this has been the case.

They have a 3-year-old daughter, who was just 3 at the end of December, and we didn't attend her birthday party, so they thought it would be fun to have a family Christmas/birthday in Duluth which is an hour from us and two hours from them.

The birthday girl has lots of cousins her age on her mom's side of the family, and only one on her dad's side.

The plan was to go to Adventure Zone. Who can pass that up? Well, it wasn't too bad. Noisy, but fun watching the kids having a good time. Our hotel was a Christmas present by the youngest son and his partner as she is an ambassador for that hotel from travel for work.

We had our gathering in a room that was set up with non-alcoholic beverages and snack foods. All complimentary. There were two large-screen televisions with sports showing on them.

As an ambassador, she gets a discount and added benefits due to her status. Like early check-in, and late checkout until 4:00 p.m.

My oldest son and daughter-in-law, have four grown children and four grandchildren. They spend the holidays at their home with family and friends since we moved up north. We have always found time to get together over the holidays until the pandemic.

This year, my three came for an early Thanksgiving at my daughters, who lives just down the road from us. We all looked at our calendars and set the date for a January Christmas. It was so nice spending time with them all. A few family members were missing but the ones that could make it had fun.

On January 14, 2023, we left Adventure Zone and proceeded to the hotel, where we ordered food for our meal. It was ribs, brisket, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, baked beans, potato salad, cornbread, and Little Debbies for dessert! My oldest son has a sense of humor.

Only hubby and other little Debbie fans were pleased with the dessert. So then the oldest son pulled out a large box of fancy shortbread cookies with high-end chocolate and he gave a box to everyone. They were enjoyed by all!

There was a benefit to not finishing my shopping by Christmas. Sales and my daughter helped me to shop for her children. We exchanged gifts and played cards after our meal together until it was past my bedtime. The rooms were great! I slept well. We all had fun.

The next day we had breakfast with everyone and got on the road as our car was having trouble and we wanted to get it to the son-in-law's automotive shop by our house. So we missed seeing a granddaughter.

Once we got home, hubby ate an entire box of shortbread in two days, minus the few the son-in-law, a sister friend, and I ate. He kept talking about how the chocolate was the best he had eaten.

After eating all of the cookies, hubby wondered why he gained weight. He is like that with fudge too and this year I didn't make any. He will eat fudge until he is sick.

I had plans to get family photos and didn't get them. I will have to ask for photos from others. Or just let it go until next year! I did get a few photos, but they were already in frames and were not from our family Christmas.

We are not done yet with Christmas as we still have the hubby's four children to get around to. We had plans in December that didn't work out. They all have children and it has been a busy life for all of them. And they celebrate with their mother, who lives closer to them.

Then there was covid. It went around to a few of our family members in December. The hubby and I still haven't contracted covid and hope not to. It becomes more difficult to avoid when others are not staying home when sick or masking when coughing, and some don't have any symptoms, so how would they know?

Wishing everyone a great 2023 where ever you are!