Hello everyone! Today, I figured I’d talk about how the current state of the world has changed the holiday season for me, and how it’s stayed the same.

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I don’t shy away from talking about how the pandemic has impacted me, but I don’t really highlight it either. However, it seemed appropriate to share this for Wondrous Weekend.

Also, as you can see, I’m doing Blogmas again this year! That means I’ll be blogging every day until Christmas. I’ve done Blogmas in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 so I am happy to be participating again in 2020.

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The 2020 Holidays

So, for me, the holiday season includes Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. To be honest, all three involve staying home. I do have family that live about two hours away so sometimes we’ll host them or they’ll host us. Even though that’s not the norm, it’s something that was affected by the pandemic anyway.

For Thanksgiving my uncle had invited my parents and I to go over for Thanksgiving dinner. My sister usually comes up from Chicago so I’m guessing in normal times she might have joined us and then we’d all drive down to my uncle’s. But with the pandemic, my sister stayed in Chicago and we stayed home. My aunt and uncle said they were isolating but seeing as we haven’t been able to 100% then we didn’t. Plus, my sister had just stopped by to drop off her dog, so there was contact there. Even though the risk wasn’t huge (I think) we thought it best to stay home. (Also, the dog hates car rides so I did tell my parents that they could decide to go and I’d be okay with that but they chose not to.)

Now, for Christmas, we’re still staying home! I have gone out to shops a bit more because of gift shopping, but even then, that’s usually one trip every two or three weeks. Same thing for New Year’s without the gifts. My sister did say she was considering staying over for a few days since she’s been isolating as much as she can too so I’m hopeful she can. That is a bit of a risk, of course, but so far we’ve managed to stay healthy.

So is anything really that different for me? Well, no not really. I’m mostly relieved that I don’t have to attend the mandatory work party but I never really attended any parties voluntarily either. I do feel more stress this season as I worry about job hunting and the pandemic in general but I feel like even if it was a “normal” year, there would still be holiday stress anyway!

What isn’t different is that it’s nice to spend some time wrapping gifts, giving them to my family, cuddling my puppy niece, and spending time around the tree I beautifully decorated (humble brag! LOL). I’m still going to bake some treats, watch cheesy Christmas films, and complete Blogmas! Also, my Christmas wish is pretty much the same. I hope that everyone is able to able to find some holiday cheer this season and stay healthy!

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Let me know how your holidays are different or the same this year!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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