I got sick right after Thanksgiving with what definitely felt like Covid. I was eventually tested (after being sick for eight days) and while my test came back negative, I still think I had Covid. The main reason I got tested was because we wanted to keep our tradition of going to Utah for Christmas with Sam’s mom and there was no way that was going to happen if I tested positive. Luckily, I got better and no one else in my house got sick – Christmas in Utah was still a GO! However, due to Covid, Christmas looked different for our family this year. We typically get together for a BIG family dinner and gift exchange Christmas Day; that didn’t happen this year. There are family game nights with many people in attendance, lots of family dropping by and I usually catch up with two to three friends after the holidays. NONE of that happened. BUT…it was actually really nice. We only spent time with Lorna and visited at a distance and with masks on with one of Sam’s sisters and her husband. That was IT. There was no rushing around, no jammed packed schedules. It was just us and Lorna and it was perfect in every way. For Christmas dinner we decided as a family to go in a completely different direction and got takeout Chinese and Thai food. BOOM, new tradition alert! We may never go back to what we were doing before because it was so tasty and fun!

I told Sam today that our Christmas vacation was the most relaxing one I can ever remember. I went to bed late every night because I was reading or watching a movie or weaving, waking up at 10 each morning and leisurely making my way out of bed. I took several fantastic naps, finished one book and started another, knocked out three seasons of Schitts Creek, watched LOTS of movies (“Wonder Woman” in the theater, “Greenland”, “I Am Legend”, “World War Z” (we were on an apocalyptic movie kick), and “Field of Dreams”), shopped for treasures, ate at all of my favorite Utah places (Cubbys, Kneaders, Wingers, Seven Brothers and of course a few trips to Swig). We had family game nights that were mostly fun, I worked on two large Moroccan latch hooking pieces and Marco Polo’d with friends. It was seriously so blissfully relaxing. Sam and I went on a long date to walk around BYU for the first time in many years, ate lunch at CPK and then hit the nicklecade like we were kids. It was THE BEST. It even snowed a few times, just enough to give us the dusting we wanted without all of the headache of a large snowstorm.

We visited Sam’s dad’s grave for the first time since the funeral in July.

I did a little pre-Christmas shopping at City Creek and of course, Anthropologie. I saw this sweater on the rack (there was only one) and my heart leapt. Like, I became instantly obsessed. I’m not sure what is going on in my life this year but I am really into sweaters now? Why? I do not know but this sweater was my favorite of the whole year.

Sophie got her long awaited permit towards the end of 2020 so we practiced a bit of driving while in Utah.

Christmas dinner Covid style was yummy Chinese and Thai food. We may never go back to what we were doing before, this was so easy and fun. Zero prep for the adults for dinner (and the bulk of that always fell to Sams mom and sisters), little to no clean up and a very relaxing meal all around.

I worked on a bunch of latch hook weaving projects each night of our trip, generally making a giant mess the dining room table.