Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, were bubble members only because Bonnie Henry said so. Merry Covid Christmas! Things weren't looking too bad going into October and my work had even asked that people leaders return to work for one day a week starting in mid November. By the time mid November came around however we were into the hundreds for daily Covid numbers and that continued into December. By the second week of December Bonnie Henry was starting to drop hints that Christmas would be different this year. We had considered having Kerry's parents come down with the intention of both households quarantining in advance but with a travel ban and only one family per house hold rules in place it was decided that our Christmas would be much smaller. No family visits, no big Christmas Dinner and no fondue. Having said all that, we did still go through the motions of Christmas with a fresh tree and lights on the house though admittedly I had a few strings that needed work and I decided it was easier to just not put those ones up.
My grand mother passed away before a few years ago and one of the the things she always did was a lot of Christmas baking. Since she was in a home for the past few years of her life we hadn't had her short bread for several years. When she was still alive I had her tell me the recipe with the goal of one day trying to replicate it. Shortbread is a simple recipe but there are many variations so I was glad I got both the proper ratios of ingredients and the steps she took. This year seemed like a good year to give it a go. There were a few steps like how long to beat the butter and sugar that I didn't have so I borrowed some steps from Anna Olsen. The end result was better than I expected and pretty close to what I remember. The only step I didn't do that I think she did was to use a fork to flatten the shortbread before cooking. I know she did that for some of her recipes but not sure about this one. I've carefully documented all the steps and am glad I can replicate this piece of her.
The next Christmas event was exchanging gifts with Kerry's brother and his family. They only live a few blocks away and they would typically come over on Christmas day and we made this happen despite Covid. We had a gift exchange in the drive-way. We even had a bit of snow. The six foot rule was adhered to at all times with the help of a gift exchange piece of cardboard on the front planter and we all made sure to wash our hands as soon as we got inside. I think this exchange would have been Bonnie Henry approved.
The next tradition that was ruined by Covid was the Christmas day dinner. We would typically have Kerry's parents and her brothers over but this year we kept it to just Uncle Ronnie. He lives alone and effectively works alone as well so he was allowed to come to Christmas dinner. Bonnie Henry felt it was important to that single people get together with family. We had a turkey that was the free gift from Superstore and we had a few crackers left over from last year. It was similar to a regular Christmas but not quite the same.
For the past 20 years I've Participated in the Kilden family tradition of a fondue during Christmas break and for the past several years that has included the Duke family. The day shifts around depending on when people are available but once again it was our family only. We decided we would do it on New Years eve. Only one pot and with less people in the pot it went quickly. We started around 5:30 and were done by 6:15. The only good thing is that meant the house didn't smell of oil the next day.
We wrapped up Christmas with a new tradition that hopefully we don't have to repeat next year. We met up with Kerry's parents in the parking lot of Manning Park Lodge to exchange gifts and food. Kerry's parents always bring down lots of treats for Christmas and they had made them hoping they could come. We ended up with enough food to last us weeks. The one nice thing about the visit was we got to see real snow. There was several feet at the lodge and it almost felt like a real Christmas.
Here's to hoping Covid wraps up before next Christmas.
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