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2020-01-09
Imagine a hurricane approaches your beachfront community, a beautiful place of both cottages and mansions on heavenly stretching strands of sand and coconut trees. The storm started far out in the ocean as a tropical storm, an abstraction a week or more away. Then it developed into a category 2 as it approached the continent and crossed Cuba, still days away but becoming a concern.
Before long, forecasts by experts confidently showed exactly where landfall would occur, the strength of the winds, the height of the surge, the flooding that would accompany it, the millions it would impact, the estimates of the extent of damage and disruption (and death tolls) predictable.
You do the right thing and with your family and neighbors evacuate and move inland and find safe shelter. It’s inconvenient and uncomfortable at times, sharing and aiding your fellow refugees. They don’t have the brand of cereal and chocolate milk your kids like. They run out of Coke. But pitching in until it’s safe to go home seems the best and only course.
And soon you’re glad you did because by the time the hurricane makes landfall the news come in that it is a Cat 5, indeed, “the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States.” Imagine as you watch the pummeling rain and listen to the ominous wind and wait, you already know this story:
“In 1969, Hurricane Camille claimed 259 victims along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Most were guilty of only being on the wrong place at the wrong time, unlike twenty who perished while attending a beachfront “hurricane party” beer bash and barbecue. Despite evacuation warnings delivered by vehement emergency teams [experts], their festivities continued unabated. The partygoers definitely declared that the concrete foundations and the second floor location of their party provided plenty of protection from the impending hurricane. Their confidence proved to be tragically misplaced when a twenty-four-foot wave slammed into the apartment, destroying the building and subjecting the partiers to gale-force winds and violent ocean surges. Most of these hurricane worshippers were killed. A few survivors were swept miles away, ….” (The Darwin Awards, 1999)
Imagine you know there are old folks in your very own town who chose to stay. Folks who just couldn’t imagine leaving the idyllic homes in their idyllic locations where they have lived in for decades, and who have weathered previous storms and thinking this one too “isn’t that bad,” or thinking. “Unless it has my name on it, it won’t get me.” You pray for them.
But you also know some who stayed defiantly, the young and strong, and the middle-aged but “free” who resented being told by anyone what to do--especially by “experts.” And some of those protestors (an alarming number of whom you know) raised the bar, rebelled blithely, partying practically on the beach, posting selfies and videos on Facebook as the storm intensifies--to prove it was safe.
As final proof, a video is posted of an engorging wave, a wave as large as any building you could hide in, a dark seething mountain of water. The video records shrill, exhilarating, victorious whoops of glee of the partiers it approaches. Then nothing.
Now imagine, immediately you are asked by experts to stay in your shelter a little while longer, not forever, but much longer than you had ever expected to stay. Why? you ask. We’ve been so good. We did everything we were asked. We deserve to go home. We’ve run out of Lucky Charms and Quick and Coke.
Despite your pleas and imploring, the experts are firm. Because, they say, a second hurricane is already coming, practically on top of the first. It’s not a Cat 5, yet, but….
This is unimaginable. This wasn’t forecast before.
But, it’s here now, the experts nod somberly.
Enough is enough. Enough is enough. Enough is enough, you hear yourself say, but….
Finally, imagine, dozens and dozens of your neighbors, even members of your own family, saying, I can’t take it anymore. This is not my life. I haven’t had a beer or a Buffalo Wings in days. You watch them, so impatient and tired of waiting and angry for the fun they miss.
You watch them rush back to the beach.
W. K. Sheldrake (Wayne) is the author of Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum, #1 on Outside Magazine Online’s list of “6 Adventure Books We’d
Read Again and Again,” and Foreword Magazine’s ‘Gold Medal’ Adventure Book of the Year (2007). He is recording his pandemic experience of Pandemic Disability in a memoir The19: Confessions of a Mad (American) COVIDodger. He lives in Southern Colorado with his “high risk” wife where there is plenty of wide open space. They do not currently have a dog.
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2020
My christmas this year is same as those before, probably because I’m not a native american, my family don’t care much about christmas, but covid still made this year a lot harder for me personally, because of covid I Couldn’t get back to china during break, my dad and my grandmother were in china, I used to go back every year, but not this year.
My daily life is also very inconvenient, because my family lives on the hill and we rarely go out. Covid restricts many opportunities for me to get out and have fun.
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2021-01-08
Over Winter Break my family and I drove in our Black SUV Ford Explorer Sedan 1200 miles or 18 hours to Cheyenne, Wyoming to visit my Grandparents. Along the way we stopped at the local Starbucks' to pick up a coffee for my coffee obsessed mother and we were on our way. When driving through Los Angeles, California you should always expect to be caught in traffic which was a minor setback, but we still made it through. The rest of California is very ugly being that its just Desert for 200 miles. During this time my sister spends her time spreading her nasty feet across the seat onto my body and refuses to move them for at least an hour. When I attempt to do this I am immediately yelled at and pushed off within 3 minutes. My dog which is completely lazy lays his little butt down between my sister and I and sleeps 3 quarters of the trip. My dad drives the whole time because my mom throughs a fit and refuses to drive even a single mile. And I sit down under my sister's legs under her super hot grey blanket in a cramped SUV in the desert and despite all that the car ride was pretty nice. When we finely arrived at our hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado we went out to Applebee's which I got to say is pretty good. I got the rib plate and a kiwi lemonade which I got to say is really good. At around 7:00 we arrived back at our hotel where we all collapsed and went to bed. At 5:00 we got back up, got dressed, brushed our teeth, and walked out of our hotel in to 20 degrees ferenheit. I made a mistake and decided to do it in sweat pants and a T-shirt. The rest of the drive was much shorter and a lot more scenic with the beautiful Colorado mountains and snow on the ground. we stopped at a local Maverick Gas Station to fill up and we all got out and used the facilities, even the dog. and the rest of the trip was nice. When we finally arrived we hugged our Grandparents and went inside. They have a enormous beefy Black Labrador named Hatti that for some reason liked to lick my dogs ears. Around 5:00 my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over and once again we hugged and visited for the rest of the night. over the next few days we went over to our cousins house to hang out and have a ping pong tournament, I lost badly. Over that time we went to my cousin's friend house to look through a telescope and witness something that only happens once every 400 years. Jupiter and Saturn join together in the sky and and create a bright light known as the Christmas Star. After that we went back to our Grandparents house to spend the night. the next day we went ice scating at the local arena and I swear I spent more time hitting and bruising my body parts on the ice then on my scates. The next day we spent most of the time playing pingpong with our cousin's. The next day we went to an escape room which we successfully completed and the next day it was Christmas Eve. That day was absolutely amazing. It started with launching a potato with a potato cannon across the ranch my grandparents own. After that we went to the shop and we did our own scavenger hunt which is our tradition. And then we went back to our Grandparents house to have our Christmas dinner with our great Grandma who is 92 and had our annual lemon cake. We went to bed and woke up and it was christmas. I got a lot of good stuff. like clothes a new football and a new build your own remote control rock crawler jeep. and then it was time to leave and go to our other Grandparents in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There we had a second Christmas Where I got New Airpods and a lego set. we hung around the house for mostof the days but we went to our other aunt and uncle's house and visited them for 2 days. And then it was time to leave to go back home the way we came marking the end of our trip.
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2020-12-25
How COVID impacted a family's traditional Christmas celebration
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2021-01-07
My first memory of Covid-19 was in late December of 2019. I was sitting on my couch watching TV when I heard my dad in the other room talking to my mom about how the new "coronavirus" desiese was getting worse in China. I was shocked at first about what he was talking about, so I went into the next room to ask him what was going on. He explained to me how there was an epidemic going on in China, and how some people have died. It all seemed very new and since it was all the way in China I wasn't very concerned with it other than thinking that it must be scary for residents of China. Fast forward a few weeks when we get back to school, lots of kids in the hallways were making jokes about the disease that was spreading, and were saying things like, "Don't forget to use hand sanitizer cuz of corona." Up until mid march the jokes kept on running, and the epidemic in China became more and more of a big deal. Until the night before march 14, 2020 everything was still a joke, and the rumor of us doing online school from home was still a running joke. But on the night of march 13 we all got an email telling us that we'd be doing virtual school from home for the next two weeks. The following Monday we started online school, and we all thought it would just be for two weeks. I was up in my room all day, and we only got short breaks in between classes. The first week everyone seemed to enjoy it was we had to use zoom calls for our class periods. The second week of school everyone including myself started not liking the idea of virtual school as much. Even though we got to sleep in later, people were sick of sitting at a desk almost all day long. Soon enough they extended our time we would be doing school from home because of a pandemic for longer. The coronavirus had spread to the U.S. and most people rarely left the house except to go to the grocery store because everything was closed. Whenever my mom or dad would go to the store they would wear a mask and gloves to make sure they didn't catch any germs. Lots of other people did the same. By this time almost the entire country was in lockdown. It had grown into a full-blown pandemic; other countries like Italy we also bombarded with the panic of Covid-19. Everything was a complete disaster just by mid-april. I had no idea when we would be going back to school, or when things would return to normal. I still don't as a matter of fact. by this time I thought we'd go back in may, but we didn't. In the first couple weeks of may, just a few days before my 13th birthday, everyone at this point hated online school, it was dreaded by children across the country. This gradually got worse and worse, teenagers' mental heath was tanking by a landslide. Quarantine was now taking over my life completely. Most days I would sit in my room the entire day even on weekends since we couldn't go anywhere. Throughout June was probably the worst moth for my metal heath, and I think many others would agree. Saying we were bored would be an understatement; I wasn't depressed much like a quite a few of my other friends ,as far as I'm concerned, but it felt like all of our happiness and livelihood had been taken from us since what we started lockdown. Soon after, in July things started to open up again, the cases for covid-19 were getting lower(which was good), and people basically assumed quarantine was over. The nest month since things were opening up previously we all thought we would go back to school, but a few days before school was supposed to start we were informed that we wouldn't be going back, and we had to continue with online school. I was extremely disappointed, and I thought hopefully we'd go back by at least October. The following months through Christmas break we stayed in online school, and almost nothing happened. I spent my days the exact same as the day before I would sit in my room do school and then look on my phone or listen to music(mostly One Direction, The Beatles, and 80's music). My life became dark, boring, and quiet. By this time everyone was so fed up with quarantine, since we had been in lockdown for the past 9 months. Even Christmas felt different this year; usually I'm super excited and this year I almost didn't even care about the holiday's and I can't explain why. I'm currently writing this on January 7, 2021 at 9:05 pm. We've luckily gone back to school yesterday for the first time in ten months. There are plenty of safety precautions to make sure none of us get sick like: wearing a mask, social distancing( staying 6 feet away from people), and there are even certain ways to we have to walk around hallways and the campus to keep us in order. I can already feel a change in myself since we went back yesterday. It already feels like things are getting better now that we don't have to do virtual school with zoom calls for classes. I'm also really glad I get to see my friends, and hopefully make some new ones. If there's anything I've learned from being a part of the current pandemic it's that you can't give up or give in to other things going on with the world or even within your own life. No matter how tuff things you have to remember who you are and what you want to be. If anyone in the distant future is reading this I want them to know that, and how lucky they are to be apart of something as wonderful as life can be. I found myself more often than never longing for the past hoping for answers, only to find out the past is inside all of us, and even when the hardships of reality kick in you have to remember how amazing it is to get to experience something as rare and beautiful as life is. So don't take things for granted and appreciate every moment because you'll never know when something as mind-boggling as a world-wide pandemic will happen to you. Long story short never give up on your hopes and fantasies; it might just be the thing you'll need the most.
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2021-01-01
This Christmas was very different for me due to the pandemic, it started out normal, I was with my friends and family exchanging gifts and having a good time, but the next day, I had learned that people at my house were exposed to someone with Covid-19, this led to us quarantining and being scared that we caught it, but everyone was negative for the virus in the end thankfully. It doesn't stop there though, my trip to Mammoth Mountain got cancelled so instead I took my Can-Am out to the desert, the reason this is so strange is because it has been a yearly tradition of my family's to go to Mammoth for Christmas for over 10 years, and this was shocking to me. Now that it's the new year, things are already going downhill, I've had to postpone my birthday because there are no places to go, this is a summary of all the things different about my Christmas, I'm just thankful my families okay.
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2021-01-07
Before Covid, this is how I spent my holiday. On Christmas Eve, my cousins, my aunts, and my uncles come to my house to celebrate. In the late morning, we have brunch and in the evening, we would play board games and card games while waiting for our dinner to cook. When the food is ready, we eat and do a White Elephant gift exchange with everyone. On Christmas morning, we open our presents and we eat breakfast. After we go to my best friend's house and exchange presents and have lunch, once we leave my friend’s house, we go home and mess around with our gifts until dinner, and then we would eat and be done.
Since Covid, we didn’t have anyone come over on Christmas Eve and did not do a white elephant gift exchange. We tried to keep some of the tradition by playing cards and other games with my mom and sister. Instead of doing a gift exchange on Christmas with my best friend, we dropped off their Christmas gifts a couple of days early. The one thing that stayed the same was that I spent the holidays with my mom, sister, and grandpa.
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2020-01-07
This year with Covid-19 going on my Christmas was a little different. Every year on Christmas day we go to my grandparent's house and all of my cousins that live in town go to my grandparent's house but my other cousins that live in Virginia cannot come down to spend Christmas with us this year because of Covid-19. We all go over and exchange gifts and eat dinner as a family. I feel if covid-19 wasn't around I fell like all holidays would be extra good just because we get to see our close family members.
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0007-01-21
Unlike other Christmases, this year was different. I'm Avi Sobel, and I am an 8th-grade student sharing my Christmas expire during the COVID 19 pandemic. What greatly made this different was the amount of family and friends. For example, it was only the people I lived with. But, even though it was different it didn't lack meaning. We still celebrated our father Jesus birth and gave thanks for one another. We also did a tradition of giving presents.
by, Avi sobel
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2020-12-25
For christmas my sisters and I normally sleep downstairs by the tree then we wake up. After a while we wake up our parents and they get their coffee. We open our stockings first then we open our presents. At around lunch time we get dressed in nice clothes and go to my aunt's and uncle's house. This year was way different. On christmas my sisters and I woke up by the tree and then we woke up my parents after. We opened our stocking mine had pistachios, trail mix, chocolate, earbuds, earrings, an amazon gift card, and cashews. Then we all opened our cards from my grandma. Then we opened our presents. I am not a huge present person but I am so grateful for what I got. I got a comfy Nutella sweatshirt and 2 super cool cookbooks. Then we watched A Christmas Story and Elf. The whole day we read our books that we got and we watched Hallmark movies. For dinner we had tamales and apple cider.
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2021-01-07T14:30
This year was way different than normal. I normally love Christmas/winter and I tried to enjoy it but it was very difficult. After Christmas day my Aunt, Uncle and grandparents (on my mom's side) would come stay at our house or we would go to my grandparents. This year we did not see then. On Christmas Eve my Aunt, Uncle and two younger cousins (on my dads side) would come over all evening/night. They decided not to come over this year so we briefly exchanged gifts and talked. 8:00am on Christmas morning my mom woke me up. My parents and grandparents (on my dads side live with us) where already up. My older brother woke up shortly after. We opened our stockings at the fire place then went to the living room with the Christmas tree. We opened the other present there and talked for a few after. We all went to our rooms to use the new stuff we got. I was kind of sad that Christmas was over because it barley felt like Christmas. Later that night we had Christmas dinner. As much as I tried to enjoy Christmas and the long break from school the vibe wasn't the same and was slighting disappointing.
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2020-12-24
This says that as time has went on, people have made more inventions and adaptations to help secure the safety, convenience, and success of as many people as possible. The photo shows a doctor during a plague in the 1700’s with the type of masks that most doctors wore at the time. The survival rate of the epidemic then was much lower than it is now. Now we wear masks that are easy to use in our every day life and are generally very convenient. This is important to me because it displays how our society has learned to adapt to new challenged and that if we can get through this pandemic we can get through anything.
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2020-12-25
This picture of a mask is one I wore throughout the holiday season. I wore it seeing family, going in public, and going to establishments. While I have been wearing them throughout the pandemic I wore them a lot more during the holiday season. This made my christmas different because I had to distance and wear a mask the entire time around the people I’ve known the longest for the first time ever.
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2021-01-07
Every year at Christmas time we have family over to celebrate. We would have skied at Mammoth Mountain California this year. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions my family was neither able to ski at Mammoth nor have family over. This made the holidays very different. We did not travel over the Christmas break, rather we spent the holidays, hiking and going to the beach. On Christmas Day my family hiked the Sandstone Peak trail. The peak is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains this made for a great view, especially of the ocean. Another hike that my family went on was a hike up a mountain called Mt. Boney. We went to various beaches during the break, where I surfed a little. Overall, it was a different Christmas due to Covid-19 and we could not do some of the things we usually do in order to protect ourselves and our family members.
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2021-01-07
This year's Christmas was a bit different, but it was pretty much the same as normal. We never travel over Christmas break so staying home wasn't too unusual. My uncle and grandfather ended up coming over for dinner because we see them pretty often, but we still stayed socially distanced. We were extremely blessed this Christmas with an amazing meal and lots of presents to open, but it was really nice to just sit down and catch up with everyone. I realized that even though we were all in the same place at the same time we hardly knew what was going on in each other's lives, in detail I mean. It was also probably the longest I had gone without looking at my phone or computer in the last year or so. Despite not being able to see all of my friends like I normally would, I think this has been one of the best Christmas' ever.
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2020-12-25
This Christmas we had to change some of our traditions. Although it could not all be the same we ended up still having a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas eve we wanted to do something special but everything is closed so we just hang out with each other and then at night we went to a church service. Christmas morning, we really didn't have much planned for Christmas so we decided to head to Mammoth. In the morning we opened up all of our presents and packed our bags and got in the car to go off to Mammoth. Once we got to Mammoth we had a lot of fun skiing. The second night we were there our family friends came up to so we got to have dinner with them and play games. A few days later we went home and that's were our break ended. In all we had a wonderful break but I was also very excited to come back to school.
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2020-12-22
The coronavirus or covid-19 is what I had to live with and continue to live with. During the Christmas season covid hit hard and it prevented me from seeing family and friends. It was quite devastating that I was unable to visit my grandmother because it may be one of my last Christmas's with her. By the time covid is solved we will have arteficial hearts.
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2021-01-07
On March 13, 2020, America went into lockdown because of the virus of Covid-19. People lost jobs, and people in they're family, things became a lot different. Eight months later, it's Christmas time yet again. This year, it was a lot different for a lot of families, including mine. Lots of people weren't in the Christmas spirit since it was such a rough year, but even more people decided to embrace being at home and go all out with decorations, and anything 'Christmas' they could get their hands on. If I'm being honest here, kids all over the world look forward to gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. This year, since people where unemployed, and struggled to get things for their children. A lot of kids didn't get many or even anything this year. My family was very fortunate this year to even be able to celebrate Christmas since they both lost they're jobs back in March. Every Christmas, we do the same thing, stay at home so this year wasn't much different from the rest. This year really impacted a lot of people, but we all got through!
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2020-12-24
This Christmas, everything was normal we all meet up and had our normal feast. I'm happy to say that there's nothing wrong with having a small Christmas party, but we just have a huge family. I also made our made Christmas card.
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2021-01-07
This Christmas was kinda different than any other christmas for me. Covid did not really effect my family but what happened was that my cousins got covid on Christmas Eve Eve. So that effected a lot of our Christmas plans. We were supposed to go to my Nana and Papas but we could not because of our cousins and we did not want to risk giving covid to my papa. Then Christmas morning was normal because my Nana came over and we opened up gifts and i got a new gaming microphone. They my sister had her friend over at night and we played What Do you Meme and watched Christmas Vacation. That is what my Christmas looked like.
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2021-01-07
Christmas wasn’t much different this year. We aren’t big believers in shutting down for COVID. So, we didn’t change anything. Christmas Eve we had our family dinner only one relative didn’t come because his wife is a believer in shutting down if it was up to him he would have come. Other than that we woke up in the morning and had a great Christmas
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2021-01-07
During Christmas time with corona it was hard and defiiently annoying, I couldn't see my exterior family I could only see my family that I live with, it was also hard to see my friends which I didn't get to see because of the state lockdown. But I tried to make the best of it as I could because there's nothing you can do to completely stop it, we just have to follow the instructed orders by the state and do the best we can to stay safe and not be irresponsible in this time.
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2021-01-07
Christmas was little different for me this year. Normally, on Christmas Eve, my family and I go to my Aunt's house to celebrate. All of dad's side of the family is there. This year we wanted to do Christmas Eve at our house outside so we could be social distance. But that didn't happen because the weather was very bad. It would have been cold and not an enjoyable Christmas Eve. Instead we moved it to Christmas Day, so we could have some nicer weather. It was perfect. We played lots of games and enjoy delicious food.
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2020-12-25
Me and my family open our presents in the morning. Then we go over do my dads side for breakfast. Our cousins come over to my grandparents house and we open presents. We stay there for a couple hours. Then in the afternoon we go over to my moms side and all my family goes over there. We eat dinner and we open presents. However because of covid this year we weren't able to go to mammoth to ski. My christmas wasn't different at all. We did the same thing that we normally do.
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2020-12-25
My 2020 Christmas was different but some things stayed the same. I started out my Christmas break finishing online school for the semester. After I took my finals I started packing my suitcase to go to Colorado. I was born there and I have my whole family there. My mom and I go every year to visit my grandparents on their farm. My sister is in college in Arizona so she meets us in Colorado for Christmas. This year was different because she couldn't come to our grandparents house. She had to work. So on Christmas day we face-timed her to open presents and it was very fun. Another thing that changed this year was was the plane. We flew on United airlines and the plane was only half full. My mom and I wore masks and got our temperature taken before we entered the plane. We stayed in Colorado for a week and it was super cold, but there was no snow. After we flew home to California I spent the rest of my break playing volleyball at the beach and binge watching TV shows.
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2021-01-07
Christmas this year was different for everybody. Well, usually for christmas we go and visit family. but this year, we couldnt. For this christmas i was with my mom because my parents are divorced. we decorated the house all nice, and had a christmas eve dinner. it was mashed potatoes, steak, green beans, and cranberries. Usually on christmas morning, we would all get up around 7 am,
But this year, we got up at 10 am. the day went by normally, but the vibe was still off in a way i couldnt figure out. that concludes my christmas
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2021-01-07
Christmas this year was different because of multiple different reasons; the most obvious change due to the pandemic was that we didn't travel with friends and family like we usually do. Cancelling a huge tradition is obviously going to affect people, the holidays just didn't feel right. They went by quicker than usual and felt like it had never happened by the next day. My family tried to get as festive as possible but nothing was working to get in the holiday spirit. The holidays were definitely different but could've been way worse.
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2021-01-07
Every year, all of my relatives that live in Europe fly to California and celebrate Christmas with us. We make our traditional lamb on Christmas morning along with our favorite Armenian food. I look forward to Christmas every year but this year was different. The airports were all shut down and they weren't letting people who don't live in the U.S fly in. Because of this, all of my relatives stayed in Europe for this Christmas and we missed them greatly. I woke up my family at 8:00 am dragging them out of bed. Still wanting to include our grandparents we called them on Christmas morning once we were all up and opened presents over facetime. We told them how much we missed them and could not wait to see them again. We still enjoyed our Christmas this year, but there were just some things that we needed to fix to have a safe COVID free Christmas.
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2021-01-07
My Christmas this year was different than the years before. What is usually a day full of family, was a day of no people, distancing, and zoom calls. My family usually has a giant Christmas eve party, but this year some of my family wasn’t even able to gather together. We were still able to have my cousins over, but it wasn’t the big party experience I was hoping for. My cousins also usually spend the night and open presents with us, but this year they had to go home. We ended up having a nice dinner and we even held a zoom meeting to try to connect with other family members who weren’t there...but it just wasn’t the same. It was the first year where it truly didn’t feel like Christmas.
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2021-01-07
Ever since I was little I have always done the same thing every Christmas. Although the pandemic was raging everywhere, my family had the opportunity to travel and see relatives in our favorite place on earth Wisconsin. We were seeing older relatives so it was crucial that we got tested for the virus before we left. After getting our negative results back we hopped on a plane and flew to Wisconsin. The airport was empty and everyone was heavily masked and distanced. It was a ghost town. Thankfully, we were able to see everyone and still be safe during these crazy times.
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2021-01-07
For many people Christmas in 2020 was a little different than in the years past. The Carona Virus on Covid 19 struck America and changed everything. In previous years we were able to go Christmas shopping with our friends in crowded malls and with no mask. But this year it was different and we would not know how long this difference would be. Having to stay in the environment of your home with not many family members to celebrate the holiday with. Having to Facetime friends instead of meeting up in person. It was different and we had to get used to it.
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2021-01-07
Don't get me started on Christmas. It was good but... stressful. It's a tradition for my family to go to Mammoth Mountain to ski and snowboard for the week of Christmas. It's always so so so much fun with all the snow but this year there was barely any snow! We thought cause of covid not so many people would be there and with there being little snow but THERE WAS A GOOD PLENTY OF PEOPLE! Since everything was closed we rented a condo from a family friend of ours and we arrive to the place and we find an orange envelope taped on the door! So we get inside, unload everything, and we open the envelope thinking it was from her to us. We find papers of a fines for the owner because they previous people who rented it were too loud and I guess it wasn't the first time it happened. People reported her condo and they ended up getting fined 1,000 dollars! It also said on another sheet of paper that she now can't have anyone renting out the condo because of traveling purposes. So, we had to stay undiscovered. We couldn't be seen by anyone that lived there because we might've gotten kicked out! So, for the rest of the week we had to stay silent. I felt like Anne Frank for Petes sake because we had to whisper. Finally when it came Christmas Day, we opened presents and everyday we went on the slopes so it was worth it in the end.
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2020-12-25
This year, with the pandemic going around Christmas was a little different. There were several new situations that occurred one of them being the fact that my grandparents couldn't stay long. Due to the fact that COVID-19 mainly only affects people with preexisting conditions or old age, my grandparents had to go before we opened presents. Another new thing this year caused by COVID is that with the free time, my sister who would've been in college spent her free time training a puppy that got to be with us at Christmas time. Besides for situations such as those we had a normal Christmas with family, presents, and church. With church however, to keep things outside and moving with groups separated they die a tour where you met volunteers who told stories dressed as people who were present for the birth of Jesus.
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2021-01-07
My covid Christmas was a little different then normal. I did not get to go over to my cousins house for Christmas Eve so I spent Christmas Eve at my house. Usually my brothers come down and open presents with us, but they could not obviously because of Covid-19. My brothers came down later, but they had their mask on the whole time. I watched some NFl and NBA games, but it's not the same watching it without the chords. Me and my family made due with what he had and it was still and good Christmas
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2021-01-07
This year for Christmas we all stayed at my dads house. I got LED lights and a lot of chocolate honeycomb. We usually go out to eat for dinner but this year because of COVID we had to stay home. We also wanted to have friends over but they couldn't make it because they ended up getting COVID. It felt strange not being able to do everything we normally do for Christmas such as watching my little sister see "santa clause".
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2021-01-07
During December of 2020, Covid made shopping and knowing other's interests harder. We couldn't meet up with friends and host a secret santa. Nobody knew what people liked anymore since they couldn't see each other. Online shopping was hard since everything was delayed majorly. If having to figure out what people really wanted for christmas then having to find it or online shop (which could make it come late) this made a lot of people worried including me. Covid affected christmas in many bad ways but some good came out of it too. We got to see family a lot more and get closer with them, I got to see my brother who was in college.
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2021-01-07T12:23:00
Christmas in 2020 was different. Usually we visit relatives in Florida but due to COVID we did not want to risk getting the virus and giving it to our grandparents and great aunts and uncles. We decided we would have a stay at home Christmas and my parents went all out with decorating to make this a great Christmas even though we got to see none of our extended relatives. Christmas Eve came and we went to church, which was outside and very cold. On Christmas morning we began to open presents and it wasn't the same without my grandparents there but we got through it. Once we finished opening our presents we had to go get breakfast and we did not get to have our normal grits casserole that my grandmother makes. We had a French toast casserole instead which was still very good but does not compare to the grits casserole. We played with our gifts all day and that was that, my Christmas in COVID.
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2021-01-07
This Christmas was a lot different than the ones in previous years. Normally, my family would hop on a plane and travel to the midwest or the east coast to visit family. Because of the virus, we couldn't fly and visit our relatives so we wouldn't get infected with the disease. Over our Christmas break, we took smaller ski trips to Mammoth and in northern California. We spent Christmas and New Years as home though, which was actually a nice change from years past. Christmas could definitely gone worse and we just had to adapt our plans as we had all year long.
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2021-01-07
My Christmas this year during covid, has some differences from a typical year but not many. We usually have a Christmas party at my grandparents home in Newport with extended family that is pretty old, but this year it was just my cousins and family that I normally see. On Christmas morning nothing changed from a normal year and it was nice.
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2020-12-25
This year many families were forced into changing traditions due to California lockdowns. My family did not agree with these lockdown orders and instead went on to host a normal Christmas like any other year. We had more decorations than ever, and we gave out presents to everyone. We went to church on Christmas eve, where it started raining while we were outside, and we visited our cousins and grandparents for a Christmas day dinner. Though we were putting ourselves at risk, everyone there agreed to be there and no one got the virus. My prayer goes out to those who had to scrap traditions for Covid, or just through overall fear.
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2021-01-07
Usually for Christmas, my family and I go on a trip out of country. For example in previous years we went to Japan, Spain, Korea, and Italy. This year we didn't wanna risk getting covid so we made the smart decision to stay home. We didn't really know what to do for a stay at home Christmas because we had never done one. On Christmas eve my mom made an amazing break then for dinner my brother had spent 3 hours making us chilli. The chilli was pretty good. The morning of Christmas quickly arrived. I wasn't expecting to get any gifts since there was nothing I wanted but to my surprise i got many. My brother and sister bought me a new PC! My brother said he was gonna help me build it. After that we had an amazing breakfast. In between we made hot coco then had dinner. To wrap the day up we watched a movie together. Christmas was good.
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2020-12-25
Christmas throughout this Pandemic was slightly different from what I would consider normal, mainly because I did not travel to my grandparent's house, which is closer to Sacramento. Otherwise, we got bagels from a local bakery, we opened presents and called our family, so there was no real difference from the normal Christmas that I have come to expect.
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2021-01-07
Christmas in lockdown felt somewhat surreal. Because there was danger outside, in the streets, and a new president, it was very chaotic. The holiday did seemed rushed as well. Everyone felt the same-it was too fast, and felt off. I hope this year we can end off the holidays with a more positive note and spend more time appreciating it.
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2020-12-25
I experienced a very different Christmas than I would usually know. First, my brother and his girlfriend came over in the morning and we all opened presents, but we were social-distanced and wearing masks. After that, we went to my grandmother's house and we had breakfast. We had pancakes, sausages, bacon, and orange juice. After that, we went to my other grandmother's house and we opened all of our gits from them and we stayed there a while, but we were social-distanced, and wearing masks. Then we went back to my grandmother's house and we opened the rest of my presents. It was a very different experience and I will never forget it.
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2020-12-25
This Christmas was definitely different. On Christmas Eve I had to wear a mask the entire time and we had to eat socially distanced. On Christmas morning I could not get close to my mother due to exposure. My grandpa did not attend Christmas Eve's dinner due to too many participants. This year's Christmas was very odd, but it will always be a good story for my children.
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2021-01-07
Over the Winter holidays which are usually filled with laughter and joy from relatives across the state was rather boring compared to that but still the same eventful. With just me, my dad, mom, and dog there was a little commotion but lots of leftovers. Even though Christmas and New Year's were different they were not stopped. We had take out for New Years and a feast for Christmas whith just the three uf us I had brisket for all meals for the next week. Over Christmas, I got a mini-fridge as the big gift and have loved it since. So even though the 2020 holidays were different, they still raised my spirits no the less.
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2020-12-25
It was Christmas Eve. As usual I can't sleep because well you know Christmas. And I remember this was the fist time in 4 years that we had Christmas at our house. Because of covid my grandma come up from where she lived which is in San Diego. So I toss and turn and then all of the sudden my younger brother Milo opens the door and says "Its Christmas! Wake up wake up!" So I got up and realized it was Christmas, yeah it was! I walked down stairs and saw all of the presents. My grandma came over and we started I wanted an iPhone for Christmas and I wasn't sure I would get it. When it was my turn to open my gift I shook it and it made the sound that legos make so I was like ok so a lego not a phone. I opened it and it was a little box that had legos in it. Then I looked deeper in the box and there it was a phone. And that was it.
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2020-03-23
We started hearing about the coronavirus in March 2020 so my family started stalking up on canned foods, toilet paper, and all of the essentials. We stocked up just in time too because as the week went on, everything we had bought started having a limit on the amount you can buy and they were going out of stock in almost every store. We had to stay in our house for about 4.5 months and i couldn't see any friends in person, only through a screen. When i finally saw only one of my friends months later after quarantine started, it didn't feel real. It was almost as if she was a ghost or something. I was happy to see her though and since then my family and I has been very careful about getting the virus.
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2021-01-07
I got out of school for Christmas break. Once I was out of school, I felt like it just was a normal weekend due to being online. Usually, I celebrate with my friends at school but we couldn't do that. I just tried to excite myself for Christmas but I just felt empty because I knew I couldn't see my whole family. Its Christmas. Usually, on Christmas Eve I get home from being with my uncle and grandparents. But we did not go to that so I was really down. I walked downstairs to the presents. I waited for my sister to get up. She got up we were ready to open gifts. My grandma was not scared of covid and still came even we told her not to. We were still happy to see her. It was fun opening gifts. But after I had fun, I realized we weren't going to be able to see my other grandparents after opening gifts. Usually, we go to our other family but not this time. I was sad because usually after opening gifts I am excited to go. I spent time with my one grandparent and also had fun with my parents and sister. But even though we had a fun time, it wasn't the same.
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2020-12-25
My 2020 Christian was just a little different from last year. One main thing that change would be me getting to go to my grandparents and uncles house. For Christmas Day I would usually open my presents at home which my Mom, Dad, and sister got me then go to my Uncles but I wasn't able to because of Covid. Instead My family had called them and had to wish them a merry Christmas. We also weren't able to have friends over or go to friends houses. But everything else was the same.
