COVID-19 and the Christmas Conundrum

It’s Sunday morning on Thanksgiving weekend and I keep volleying between the calendar on my PC and the car rental website.

The question before me: Can I make Christmas work with my family in the midst of COVID-19?

The car rental options for Christmas week are scarce, but may be possible if I’m open to different dates and willing to drop a pretty penny. Much more doable is an early December weekday visit where perhaps I help Mom with some decorating and bake some cookies, as we do every year.

I dial the phone to Leisure Village and my father answers, which typically only happens if my mother can’t come to the phone. It seems they have company — a beloved cousin and his equally beloved wife. I tell Dad that Mom can call me later.

I end the call and sigh.

I’m not going to say the name of the lame duck that has come to mind yet again when all I’m trying to do is make a holiday plan, but here we are. Our completely alternate universes strike again. I’m flummoxed.

Because here’s my inner dialogue when I hang up that phone: Oh, God, my cousins attended a gathering on Thanksgiving with more people than I’m comfortable with. So now, there’s no way I’m going to see my parents until two weeks have elapsed.