Pandemic Week 141-143: Holiday Season is Here

 The 2022 holiday season is here, with all of its festivities....and germs.  Our goal for the holidays is to make it through without anyone getting sick with them many viruses going around (COVID, the flu, RSV, pneumonia).  This is an ambitious goal, especially given that Theresa just came off a week of holiday parties at work and is about to travel and Anna's friends are getting sick.  We are bringing back the masks!  The hospitals are nearing capacity in the greater DC area, especially for young children.  

We made some changes to the holiday traditions this year to mix things up (or just save some work because let's face it, the year has been tough).  You won't be seeing holiday cards this year (we see most of you on social media anyway).  We changed up our tree and went with a red, white, and silver theme with WAY less ornaments (this may be the fastest decorating ever).  Theresa has pledged to scale back the baking, but with two weeks left, we will see how that goes.  In the meantime, here are some happenings from the past couple of weeks:

  • Anna and Theresa took advantage of the 60-degree weather on December 3 to put up the outside holiday lights along with the fireplace decorations.  There are always some surprising light outages, despite Theresa's best efforts, but the house is now illuminated.
  • Anna participated in the annual Snowman Concert at her high school on December 10.  This is a great community event in which the cartoon "The Snowman" is shown on the screen while the orchestra plays the musical score, and the choir sings the vocal portion.  There are crafts for the kids and Santa & Mrs.  Clause (played by the theater teacher and his wife).  Anna spent a good portion of Friday decorating the schools.  It is great event and sold more than 500 tickets!
  • Theresa attended the holiday party for her ESL program on Tuesday and a series of work holiday parties on Wednesday.  This included at last meeting Secretary Pete in person.  Theresa also discovered that the Federal Transit Administration is quite the festive group, including staff showing up at the big party with instruments to play transit holidays tunes, such as "The Twelve Days of Transit" and "Silver Line."  It was a fun day with lots of folks in attendance.
  • Anna is prepping for the choir holiday concert on December 15.

This is the last week of school for Anna before break, which means lots of tests and projects to complete.  Meanwhile, Theresa is headed to Ohio and Joe is left to coordinate completion of the tests and projects.  It is the most wonderful time of the year!



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