Well this has been a really fucking weird holiday season.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m used to not spending the holidays with my family. I have a really small family. My parents are divorced, my siblings and I are all unmarried without children and I have one cousin on my mom’s side and two cousins on my dad’s side.
Family holiday celebrations kind of stopped happening on a larger scale once my grandparents (all four) died, and then once my parents got divorced after the 2016 election, holidays really just stopped all together.
I typically spend my Christmas either working or traveling since it’s not a big deal to me.
But, this year, with a new federal job (holidays off) and pandemic (no travels)… I honestly had no clue what to do with myself for Christmas!
I ended up sleeping in and then stuffing my face with cinnamon rolls and boozy coffee for breakfast. Because some traditions are totally possible, even when you’re spending the holiday alone on your couch.
I also got to videochat literally alll my friends and family members. I started with the ones in Ukraine because of the time difference.
Most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas in January due to the Orthodox calendar, but Mama Natasha is Catholic, so my host family celebrates Christmas on December 25. I got to videochat (via Telegram) with Mama Natasha, Vanya and Ira.
My mom visited my sister and Dutch for about an hour on Christmas Day, so I FaceTimed the two of them for a bit.
I haven’t done a lot of gift-giving in recent years (because, yunno, being broke in Peace Corps) so it was kind of cool to compensate with presents this year.
My brother and Kate got me an awesome Leatherman multi-tool to take hiking with me, and my sister surprised me with some books — Halsey’s “I Would Leave Me If I Could” and Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” — and some new Moscow Mule mugs, and my refrigerator is COVERED in holiday cards from friends and family members across the country.
My friends Caitlin and Angela and I went in on group gifts, and it was a lot of fun! We waited until we could FaceTime on Christmas Eve to open them together.
Caitlin and I got Angela a set of founding fathers-themed pint glasses, Angela and I got Caitlin a handcrafted necklace of Jupiter from Etsy and Angela and Caitlin got me a set of macrame planters — and a keychain — with cactus plants, so I could hang them in my window.
I also videochatted my dad — who spent the holiday home alone due to COVID. He’s high-risk, and also — while he usually celebrates with his sister’s family — his nephew works in a nursing home, so they were trying to mitigate risk by not hosting.
Other than that, I had soup for dinner and spent the evening watching festive movies (the lesbian Christmas movie lol), drinking wine and learning Christmas carols on my new ukulele.
I did take the time to decorate my apartment earlier this month, and I’m glad I did because it was really cozy — especially with the Flagstaff mountains outside my window!
I’m hoping I’ll be able to travel next year for the holidays (Ukraine?!), but honestly, I didn’t have the worst quarantine Christmas ever. I’m pretty grateful that I’m used to spending Christmas away from family, actually.
So, happy holidays! And Merry Christmas!
This post was originally published Jan. 23, 2021. Its timestamp has been updated.
