Even though we did just experience a very unusual Christmas holiday due to COVID-19, I hope you were able to enjoy the holiday and remain safe! I have found Christmas different for a while now because growing up in the north, I always had a white Christmas. I have lived in the south for over 20 years now and since then, I have only had one white Christmas. You would think I would have adjusted to this change given it has been SO many years, but it still does not feel like Christmas without the snow covering the ground. In a sense, it is a good thing we do not get snow in the south often because there is not the necessary equipment to handle the snow, which makes basically everything shut down.

This Christmas was abnormal for people for various reasons, but mainly because of the safety issues due to COVID-19. It was recommended from the experts with the CDC to ONLY celebrate with those in your household. This made it so families were not able to have their “normal” Christmas celebrations. We all were forced to miss family members that do not live within our same four walls, which if you think about it is incredibly sad. Even with that said, many others had to get through the holidays either sick with COVID in an empty hospital room alone or after losing someone they care about who had been with them for years around the holidays.

Now that the Christmas of 2020 is in the past, how was your Christmas? I did work on Christmas Eve until 2:00 PM, which was not too bad. My husband works nights and did have to work Christmas Eve as well. The good thing is, we both work from home and even though I work during the day, I was able to spend most of Christmas Eve awake and with my husband! In previous years we spent Christmas Eve with my mother and stepfather, but that was not going to happen this year for other reasons besides COVID.

For the past 16 years, my husband and I would spend Christmas day with his side of the family. I know and understand how hard this Christmas was for my husband because he had spent all holidays for the last 42 years with his family and sadly was not able to see anyone this year. Despite having worked 10 long hours on Christmas Eve, I know without a doubt that my husband would have loved to spend even a few hours with his family, but unfortunately, COVID really put a damper on this as it did for so many others.

I am not trying to be negative, but with the number of cases and deaths that are continuing to escalate in every state and county, this year we needed to make some adjustments for the holidays. I do believe that if everyone followed the sensible and logical advice from the experts, there would be a much better chance the numbers would not increase due to a holiday, as they did after Thanksgiving. In all honesty, I do fear that after Christmas and New Year’s we are going to see a massive increase in both new cases and deaths. We have a few friends that are planning to bring in the New Year in the mountain where we all go snowboarding. This is something we have wanted to do for many years but have not been able to yet and this year we do not think it is safe. Unfortunately, my husband’s birthday is in early January and of course, he wanted to be in the mountains for his birthday.

Regrettably, due to COVID-19, we were not able to do the things we normally do in 2020. We did not get to celebrate my birthday and our anniversary at the beach as we have done for the past 9 years. We were not able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family. We did not see either of our families at Christmas. We have not ever really gone anywhere for New Year’s because of how unsafe it is with the mass amounts of people driving intoxicated. My husband will not be able to do what he loves on his birthday, which is snowboarding. Y’all know how much I have urged masks and social distancing, but for reasons beyond my understanding, people in the United States will not do what they need to. My initial guess is people are listening to the misinformation they are hearing from the government and ignoring what the CDC is saying about this awful and very deadly virus. I cannot even strictly blame the government for this but can blame the sheer ignorance of many American people.

What country or state do you live in? How is your country or state handling this virus? I do know some countries that have been on lockdown and or have rules in place to keep their citizens safe. Even though the number of new cases and deaths is among the highest in the United States, the government has not and does not seem like they are going to do anything with regards to lockdowns OR mask mandates. Many people want to say that requiring masks is taking away their freedom, but I do not think that is the case at all. In fact, I think that either implementing a mask mandate or a lockdown for a few weeks would save many lives but doing nothing is NOT an option anymore! We need leadership in the United States so this virus will stop killing innocent people!

Thank you for stopping by my site today! I appreciate the time you have taken to read and hopefully leave a common with your thoughts. I always value what you have to say and will respond as quickly as I can! I know some of this post ended up being a little of a rant, but there is a lot of heart, and emotions in the mix as well. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa