Dear Friends and Family,
It was a crazy but fun Christmas. We had a blast attending Claire's Christmas Concert, a few holiday parties, and watching Will play in his first basketball game. Unfortunately, it was the basketball game that got us. A teammate tested positive for COVID and a few days later, Will complained of fatigue, a snotty nose and a sore throat. He seemed to improve after a day of rest and with no fever, I was ready to get him back on the school bus the following day. Will dragged his feet and begged for another "sick day." I relented and told him to come run an errand with me to prepare for our Christmas travels. Instead, I surprised him by pulling up to a drive through COVID testing site. He was not pleased! I told him that if we are missing school, we should at least get a COVID test. Minutes later we were finished with our test and resumed our errands to prepare for the trip. After filling the tires with air and the tank with gas, I got a call on my phone from a nurse alerting us that we tested positive for COVID! Darn!
Will and I quickly turned the car for home and made the calls to get Claire from school. Claire had just gotten a mood necklace at a birthday party at Claire's Boutique in the mall. She said when the phone rang in her classroom and the teacher said her name, she was sure the colors on that thing changed through every mood and then settled on sad. We went home and stared at each other in shock at what this meant. No trip to Rochester, no seeing family, no food in the fridge...
We started our sad text alerts to friends who might have been exposed and to family who we looked forward to seeing. Once our neighbors learned of our situation, I was so touched by their encouragement. Some brought medicine for Will, others brought food, Chick-Fil-A, beer, or sent Door Dash gift cards.
I have to say that being supported like that was incredible. It was nice to have friends offer help and then for me to just accept it with gratitude. Sometimes it's hard for me to accept help, but being quarantined required me to just say, "Thanks so much!" I've decided that when someone wants to help me in the future, I'm going to respond in the same way. People WANT to help! I will forever gratefully let them!
We had a quiet Christmas, but it was still wonderful. The kids' elf on the shelf left them a note telling them that they were such wonderful children that Santa needed her to scout elf for smaller children. She said her spirit has returned to the north pole but that they could keep the toy she lived in and maybe she would return one day to watch their children. (I totally, secretly cried over that. Realizing that this is Claire's last year as an elementary student is HARD.)
At our Christmas Mass last year, our Priest's homily stuck with me. He had a wrapped gift and bag of groceries that he asked a parishioner to come hold. He talked about how Christmas is definitely about the gifts and the food, but he said it's also about Jesus. He took the baby Jesus from the manger and held it out to the parishioner. The parishioner put down the packages to hold the baby. Father asked us to remember on Christmas to take time to put down the gifts and groceries and to hold Jesus in our hearts.
With that in mind, I added an event to our calendar. Another local Catholic church hosted The Miracles of the Eucharist exhibit during Advent. A boy by the name of Carlo Acutis was so enamored by the eucharist that he collected all miraculous reports relating to the eucharist and made a website of the collected accounts. http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/Liste/list.html Carlo died at a young age from Leukemia and was beatified on October 10, 2020. He is considered the saint of the internet.
The kids and I went to the exhibit and were amazed by all the recorded miracles that were presented. One report was about a five year old little girl who during the Mass exclaimed over the beautiful baby the Priest help up during Mass. See the record of this event here: http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/Liste/scheda.html?nat=spagna&wh=moncada&ct=Moncada,%201392
Afterwards, we went to adoration and felt so at peace. Initially the kids were a little annoyed by this added activity/field trip, but afterwards they agreed that it was a wonderful experience. We already love receiving the eucharist but our faith was buoyed by these miraculous accounts. I also took the kids to confession telling them that this would ensure their place on Santa's good list! They invited other catholic friends to make the sacrament too and all the kids left feeling, "light as a feather," said Will. Our friend Maggie took us to ice cream afterwards and the kids liked this new tradition of ice cream after confession.
So here we are in quarantine, enjoying a forced relaxation. I think we were due a few days of rest. Other than my watch yelling at me for not hitting fitness goals, it's pretty peaceful!
Praying for everyone's peace and prosperity in 2022! We will certainly be counting down to an end of 2021 and to the end of our quarantine!
Happy New Year!
Love, Bethie
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