A different kind of Christmas in 2020 – Mummascribbles

Christmas 2020. It was always going to be different wasn’t it?

We had decided quite early on that we wouldn’t be forming any Christmas bubbles, so already knew that it would be a very different year. The other half’s Mum has spent most of the year shielding, there are a bunch of kids who are all in different bubbles at school so the mix of people there in the background would be huge, and on my side, my Sister is a teacher in one school, my Brother in Law works in another school, and my Nephew is at Sixth Form – again, a lot of contacts. The only person who we were thinking about seeing was my Mum because we have been her support bubble throughout the whole pandemic, and once we entered tier 4 a few days before Christmas, she was the only person we would be allowed to see anyway!

Usually we alternate families, so we might see my family on Christmas Day and the other half’s family on Boxing Day, and then vice versa the following year. So not seeing anybody was going to be very, very different. We had managed to get presents to each other before Christmas though, so nobody would be missing out on those, and we knew we had plenty of technology available to be able to keep in touch on the big day.

We had left it completely up to my Mum as to whether she came round or not. Obviously Zach had been at school until a week before, but Oscar had already broken up from nursery as he had been home isolating after Covid cases within his setting. It got to Christmas Eve and nobody had had to isolate and there was only one report of a case at school among another year group, and at that point, my Mum decided that her and her doggy would be joining us. We had already discussed that for her own mental health, being with us was the best thing, but obviously, we left the final decision to her so were very pleased that she wanted to come over! I even got dressed up for the occasion!

So what was our quiet pandemic Christmas like? Well, it wasn’t very quiet if I am honest! And it wasn’t too dissimilar to a usual Christmas Day! There was the usual chaos, the fighting over presents, the time spent slaving over a turkey (albeit slightly less time since it was a much smaller turkey), and feeling utterly stuffed at the end of the day but still finding room for a bunch of party food! The only thing missing was having to bundle into the car with everything but the kitchen sink – and obviously the in person communication with family. We managed to catch up with everyone though – his parents on Whatsapp video, his brother and famo also on Whatsapp, and my Sister and co on Zoom. Some of those things accidentally happened at the same time which added to the chaos, but it was lovely none the less!

The kids were very lucky with their gifts this year. We got them a new Lego electric train set to go with their current one and make it bigger and better, and we also got them some Warhammer stuff which they are both well into now thanks to Daddy! And then they were also thoroughly spoilt by the family – my Mum got Oscar a new bike and Zach a skateboard, along with a computer game for them to share. Dean’s parents bought them a shark Monster Truck each (they had seen these on adverts and thought they looked great so asked for them), and my Sister gave Zach a guitar. He has been wanting one for ages and when I asked her advice (she used to play and owned several), she said she had a brand new one that she had bought my Nephew but he had never used it, and instead of sell it on, she would happily give it to Zach for Christmas. So he was over the flipping moon about that!

Oscar got Uno Extreme and two sets of Top Trumps, Snakes & Ladders/Ludo, and then between them, they also got the Harry Potter Dobble game and Junior Scrabble. Like I say, these were their presents from us and the rest of the family so there was quite a bit.

I was also very lucky. I got the RingFit for the Switch, along with Just Dance 2021, a set of Sara Miller dinner plates that I have been lusting after, some photo albums, a book, the Hot Chocolate Velvetiser (from my Mum), a calendar (fingers crossed that features more exciting stuff than this year’s one did!), and a bunch of other stuff that I had asked for as well. I felt very fortunate indeed!

It was absolutely lovely having my Mum over. We were very thankful that support bubbles were still allowed in Tier 4, because otherwise she would have been at home completely by herself and that would have totally sucked for her. We did our best to be as safe as we could in the run up to the day and made sure the decision was completely down to her. She had a wonderful day with us which is all we wanted.

It was a very different Christmas this year but we had a really wonderful day and went to bed two very happy and tired parents! I do hope that next year it will be back to the crazy Christmases we are used to though!