For us, there are two major components of our Christmas celebrations. We like to participate in a church worship service and we like to be with family. This year we have needed to adjust to changes with both of these.
Actually, the church service component has been the easier change. Although our church has mostly been open for services with limited capacity, since the beginning of the pandemic, Lyle and I have chosen to participate in online worship only. Initially, this felt a little strange, but over the months our attitude has shifted. It has been very nice to sleep in on Sunday, grab a coffee and turn on the computer for the beginning of the worship service. We are fortunate in that Patrick, our minister, has a good on line presence and his wife, Penelope, is fantastic at managing the technology aspects. Various parishioners participate in the service and afterwards we all join in a zoom chat over coffee in our separate living rooms. This year, although we will miss the physical contact hugs from fellow believers, I think that the transition to an on line service will be manageable.
The more difficult adjustment will be being alone in our house over the Christmas season. We have known for several months that our Winnipeg family would not be travelling this year, and now that Alberta has finally taken a stand, our Calgary family will also be staying at home. We will miss seeing and hugging our children and grandchildren but Lyle and I totally understand their adherence to health and safety precautions. It will be a different year for many people.
As we depart from usual traditions, our families have made some preparations to fill the gaps. For the past few weeks, we have joined together for zoom visits. Each visit has had a Christmas theme. We take it in turns to read Christmas stories to each other. In our house, needs be that Lyle is the reader and I am the page turner but it all works out. For Christmas Eve, we will zoom over our traditional meal – not sure how that will go both with timing and with conversation with our mouths full of good food! Then on Christmas Day there will be another call as the little ones show us their presents from Santa. Our church service is also set for Christmas morning using zoom. We are just hoping that the system doesn’t crash with so many other folk also connecting this way.
So, that is our plan. I do hope that you are able to celebrate Christmas in some way. Certainly our celebrations won’t be the traditional ways of the past and my thoughts and prayers go out to so many who will be seeing the season through eyes of grief, sadness and loneliness. Hopefully, with the promise of Christmas and also a vaccine on the horizon, 2021 will be a better year for us all.
The picture with this post is of the Christmas tree in our living room. The tree is nearly thirty-years-old and many of the ornaments are older than that. Putting up our tree is another of our Christmas traditions.
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| Sue and Lyle's Christmas tree |
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