Pre-Christmas odds & ends

• Jody Day has a(nother) brilliant, bang-on new post at Gateway Women about being childless at Christmas.  Jody is always worth reading, but this one is definitely a classic! 
• It was Older Nephew's 32nd (!) birthday this week. We hadn't seen him -- or any of the family -- since Little Great-Nephew's birthday a month ago -- and we have never missed one of his birthdays (although we've sometimes been away for Younger Nephew's birthday, in August). We took over his birthday card/present & bags filled with Christmas baking for the entire family (with plenty still leftover for dh & me in the freezer, lol). 
• Under the current lockdown restrictions, indoor social gatherings with others from outside your household are not allowed... but it was -7C outside (about 20F). Brrrrr. We only intended to stay a few minutes, but we wound up staying about 40. (Oops.) We did wear our masks and tried to maintain our distance, as did Younger Nephew & his wife, who came by for a few minutes as well. 
• Little Great-Nephew made strange at first and wouldn't come near us, clinging to his mom or grandpa (whoever was closest) :(  -- but he started warming up to us -- just as we were leaving (of course!).  He doesn't get to see or interact with many people outside of his immediate household (maybe his other grandmother...) -- and I'm sure the masks didn't help... 
• The dog, at least, was ecstatic to see us, lol.  ;)  
• It sucks SO much that it has to be this way, but I'm glad we went, even just for a while (and even if we did kind of break a few rules just by being there). 
• Older Nephew's talented artist wife presented us with a set of homemade rustic tree ornaments, including stars lettered with "Great Aunt" and "Great Uncle." They were supposed to be favours from Little Great-Nephew's first birthday last month, but they weren't ready in time. See photo below! 
• We will be back, with their Christmas presents, for another brief visit on Christmas Eve. 
• In my home province of Manitoba, the COVID lockdown restrictions that were introduced on Nov. 12th have been extended into January -- including a ban on visitors from outside the immediate household -- i.e., no visitors for Christmas. :( 
• This means my aging parents (almost 80 & 81) will be alone for Christmas, without either of their daughters there -- which makes me incredibly sad. I've known for months that the likelihood of me making it home for Christmas was dim to non-existent, but it didn't occur to me until just a few weeks ago that my sister might not make it there either (even though she lives a whole lot closer!). 
• My mother insisted that there had to be an exception made in their case -- until my sister patiently explained that if she spent Christmas with them, not only might they be liable to a hefty fine if a neighbour ratted them out, but she'd be obligated to quarantine for 14 days before she could go back to work, at a time when her office is swamped with work and juggling others' holiday absences too. I think it finally sank in...
• Under the current rules, they're not even allowed to have a yard visit. :(  My sister figures that -- weather permitting -- she'll drive out there on Christmas Eve day or Christmas Day (about an hour, one-way), and Mom & Dad can stay on the driveway and she can stand in the street and they can at least have a bit of a socially distanced visit.  It's kind of ridiculous, but we do what we can...! 
• We're also going to try to do a Zoom call, or rig up a multi-party Skype call on Christmas Eve. My parents are more experienced with Skype than Zoom (albeit "experienced" is a relative term, lol...!). This is when it pays to have a techie (sister's longtime boyfriend/partner) in the family...!
• Dh & I will be taking presents over to BIL's on Christmas Eve... and some of my cousins are also organizing a Zoom call for 8 p.m. Christmas Eve my time. So it looks like we will have things to do, even if we're by ourselves... 
• Since the turkey breast roll turned out so well at Thanksgiving, we decided to do it again for Christmas Day dinner. Dh already bought one at the supermarket this week -- it's in the freezer compartment. We're trying one with stuffing inside this time. (He also started stocking up on some wine, lol.) 
• Now to figure out what to have for Christmas Eve dinner...!  Normally at Mom & Dad's we'd have pan-fried pickerel (walleye pike), but that is harder to come by here. Our other Christmas Eve go-to is ham, but to have ham one night and turkey the next would be a LOT of leftovers for two people to eat up!  
• I have been blogging up a storm lately -- but not doing so well on the reading & commenting front.  My apologies. :(  I hope to do better in the new year (if not before)...! 

Ornaments from Little Great-Nephew (via his mom),
hanging on our Christmas tree. :)