Quarantine Christmas

Poor sick baby

It's been a rough couple of weeks around here, I have to admit. Though really, it started around two months ago, when I got what I thought was a thrush infection--which I've had many times before--in my nipple.

After trying everything in my home arsenal & having it keep popping back up, I finally went to the doctor. I should have gone sooner, but instead waited until it was excruciatingly painful to deal with it.

It was a bacterial infection in my nipple piercing. No idea why this happened now because I got the piercing at least 15 years ago, haven't worn jewellery in it since before Linnaeus was born & it never gave me any trouble through nearly four years of breastfeeding. Anyway, thanks to five days of amoxycillin--yay for modern medicine!--breastfeeding is no longer wince-worthy.

Deck the bike with LEDs, fa la la la la

Right in the midst of the worst of that infection, I also got a gastro bug that I can only assume was Norovirus. I tried hard to keep my germs to myself, but about a week later Bronte got it too.

She & Linnaeus were already both dealing with a nasty chest cold, so the poor mite was pretty miserable. She got over the barfiness as quickly as I did, thankfully, but wouldn't sleep except on me for the entire day. That was the 23rd.

On the 24th, Bronte was more or less back to normal, except for the chest cold. Unfortunately, because Norovirus is contagious for up to three days after you have it, we had to cancel our plans to go to our big Christmas dinner at my sister's place. 

Market carousel

I admit I cried when I realized that we wouldn't be able to go. I love getting together with my big extended family at Christmas & I think I've only missed a big family dinner once in my entire life before this when we travelled to Oli's parents' place.

I was determined not to wallow in my disappointment however, so I biked over to the store to brave the last-minute shopping hordes & grab supplies for our own little Christmas dinner.

I got a whole turkey breast, cranberry sauce, ingredients for making pumpkin pie & some Christmas crackers. I'm not big on the crappy toys & waste that crackers produce, but I just wanted something to make the dinner more special.

That afternoon was beautiful & sunny, so we biked downtown to the Vancouver Christmas Market, in the last couple of hours that it was open for the year. We grabbed a couple of mugs of Feuerzangenbowle (mulled wine with brandy) & got in line to ride the carousel. On our way there, someone gave us four ride tickets that he wasn't going to use, so all of us rode for free.

My two Christmas hams

Christmas morning we all got to sleep until at least 8am & then we had a relaxing round of opening gifts, followed by a late breakfast of French toast.

I made some pumpkin pie, then a few dozen sugar cookies while Oli took the kids to burn off some energy at the park. Linnaeus helped me decorate them with icing & sprinkles when he came back.

Our little turkey dinner was fairly simple but delicious. I suspect any chunk of meat wrapped in bacon & then roasted would be awesome--glad I tried that.

Gotta have the paper crowns

All in all it was a nice, quiet little Christmas. I'm thankful that we had some lead time to adjust to the change of plans. The paper crowns didn't quite make up for the fact that we couldn't be with all my family on the holiday, but the four of us were together & feeling fairly well. We'll see most of the family at another gathering in the next week, hopefully.

Someone else even booked the Modo car that we cancelled, so we won't be on the hook for late cancellation charges.

I hope your holidays were full of fun & food & a little less sickness than ours have been!

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