Weekly Update: 12.16.23

When looking back over the week, it's hard to reflect without seeing everything through the lens of what happened Tuesday. Our dad was sent home from work after a positive Covid-19 test. Not again.

We just recovered from a several-week illness, which we think was the flu. Some family members had only recently felt back to normal. And now we have Covid. Our whole family had Covid back in August of 2022. It felt like a bad flu, and none of us wants to go through that again -- while camping, during the holidays.

So far though, our dad's case seems to be very mild. He has cold symptoms, but that's it. Levi started having similar symptoms on Wednesday, but so far no one else is sick.

Between having sick people, and dealing with a migraine myself for the first part of the week, we didn't accomplish much on the bunkhouse. We fixed a wall that had ended up with some issues. We unboxed and set up our new miter saw. We made crockpot meals most nights, which helped keep things simple.

The rest of our free time was directed toward bookwork and holiday organization. On Friday, a few of us picked up a big grocery order for the next couple weeks. When we got home, we did a little holiday cooking -- mixing up a no-bake fruitcake for our Sunday dessert. Instead of our usual recipe, we decided to use our grandma's -- the PET No-Bake Festive Fruitcake, circa 1961. This is the fruitcake my mom grew up with, and she spoke about how her mother would grind all the dry ingredients up in a kitchen grinder before adding the wet ingredients. As she spoke, I could vaguely remember watching the process as a small child. Not having an oven was the perfect excuse to recreate this family favorite.

We also whipped up a recipe of rum balls.

As we prepare for the Third Sunday of Advent, I think we are all holding our breaths to see who else gets sick. We are disappointed we won't be going to church this week -- we plan to stay home while the sick people recuperate and to make sure we aren't contagious. I'm trusting God about it. We have all talked about how, for some reason, we have a much more relaxed attitude about the holidays than we used to have. For generations on both sides of our family, we have been Christmas people. Both my grandma's tended to go "all out" for the holiday, and we have always carried on that tradition. Some years, this led to a level of stress, as we tried to fit-in all the must-have traditions.

This year -- it's different. Maybe part of it is going through some truly difficult experiences in 2023. And part of it could be the reality that we can't have all the traditions, so we are free to choose those we care most about. But a large part of our less-stress holiday, I believe, is that we feel so blessed already. We are so content with where we are in life that we don't feel the need to try so hard to create joy. Our family went through some really rough times in the last few years, and there were times that the holidays felt like one of few bright spots in life. In that sense, the holidays were a special blessing -- but there was also a lot of pressure to enjoy them.

This year, bright spots abound, and Christmas feels more like, as my mom said this week, "icing on the cake". If we are sick during Christmas, oh well -- it will only mean a few less tasty holiday treats and a few more Christmas movies. Ultimately, Christ came and is coming again -- and the joy of that reality doesn't depend on our circumstances. There are times when suffering has made it hard to experience that joy. This year, I'm thankful that God has nourished us to the extent that, no matter what, I think we will have a merry Christmas.