Quarantine Accomplished!

 I last left off with our Covid-19 test kits as having been tagged as received by the testing laboratory and wondering whether they would get the analysis done before before Christmas Eve.  I had little doubt that we were going to test negative but taking the test and getting results back were crucial to our kids allowing us to come to their house and being with them and the grandchildren.

Christmas Eve was the 14th day of quarantine but that alone was not enough to satisfy our kids, getting negative test results were part and parcel of the deal.  To our relief the tests were completed on time and the expected negative results were confirmed in writing.  We were on for a Christmas family gathering.  Well, sort of.  It would just be Cyndee and I and our daughter's family of four.  Our son, an essential worker in telecommunications, could not quarantine at all.  So he took his truck camper and pointed it south for a holiday long weekend in the Everglades and south Miami.

Our son, Miami bound for Christmas since he won't be able 
to join us because of not being able to quarantine.

But after nearly 10 months of not being in physical contact with our grandkids it finally happened Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and a two night sleepover with the soon to be six-year-old and the day we took her home and then a couple days later for her birthday.  The six year old was beside herself in anticipation of our arrival and she just about tackled us as we came in the door the first time.  The two year old we expected would be a slow process of getting to know us as he had a tendency to be clingy to his mom the last time we saw him.  But instead of the couple of days we expected it to take it was barely two hours before he was asking me to pick him up and hold him.  Heaven.

Now we will have one last day together on New Years Day and then break quarantine.  We'll share a meal of black-eyed peas and cornbread, play with the grandkids and then head out to get back to fulfilling our volunteer duties.  Next gathering will be when vaccinations have been obtained.  I guess that means several more months of daily snapshots and facetime calls.

All of our planning to do the quarantine paid off.  We had adequate supplies of household goods and our meal plans worked out as good as we could have hoped for.  Some of our fresh fruit such as strawberries and blueberries ran out but that was expected.  We no longer have stacks of food in every nook in the camper, as well as all counter tops.  With the exception of a few cans of soup in the broom/coat closet everything is down to just what is in the panty and refrigerator.  It looks way less cluttered in the camper and that is a good thing.  Seeing clean counter tops and not having food fall out at you with every cabinet door you open is a welcomed relief.

We are going to make the best of New Years Day and then get back to the routine of living in a pandemic.  See you next year.

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