Christmas 2021 did not go as planned. The day before Christmas Eve I decided to take an at-home COVID test because I woke up with a congested nose. Paul and I had plans to go to my parent’s house and bake our traditional Christmas cookies with my mom, dad, sister and grandma, who was in town visiting. With all the COVID-news swirling, I was paranoid about being sick and potentially exposing my family so thinking I’ll just take a test to have peace of mind, we headed to my parent’s house and parked in their driveway. My mom brought out a two pack of at home tests that my sister got from work and we swabbed our noses. Paul did his first and it came back negative. I thought for sure we were in the clear, but we waited another 2 minutes for my test to sit. After 15 minutes, we grabbed my test from the car dashboard and both looked at it… positive. I texted my mom right away and she brought out the final pack of at-home tests and had me do another one just in case. We actually watched the test progress this time and the two lines for a positive showed up almost immediately. I started crying and we drove home, which is where we have been since.
Paul actually woke up with a slight tickle in his throat the morning of the tests, which was another reason I wanted us to get tested. Throughout the day he ended up feeling progressively worse, so he went to get a PCR test with the assumption his results earlier in the day were a false negative. Because of the lack of rapid PCR tests available in the Denver area, he had to opt for the 3-day turnaround test. As of now, he is still waiting for his results due to the Christmas holiday. I wanted to get an official negative test (should I need proof down the road), so I made an appointment at a pop-up urgent care on Christmas Eve. These places must make a killing off of COVID, because it took 3 minutes and cost $185. Luckily, I have insurance so I submitted a claim to get reimbursed, but it got me thinking that maybe I should go into the COVID-testing business. Needless to say, I got my official positive test and we are assuming Paul is as well due to his symptoms and exposure to me.
Luckily, our symptoms haven’t been terrible. Both of us are congested and have a slight cough. Paul experienced a sore throat and some chills, but other than that the mental aspect for me has been worse. We had friends over Wednesday night and I felt so guilty and ashamed once we found out I was positive. We texted every one right away and thankfully they were understanding and a majority of them got tested in the recent days. On top of that, all of our Christmas plans were ruined. We are fortunate to have both of our families in the Denver area so this year we were supposed to spend Christmas Eve with my parents, sister, and grandparents who are visiting from our hometown. On Christmas, we had plans to spend the day at Paul’s parents house with his siblings. Instead, we Facetimed everyone for presents, watched a lot of movies, and ate pizza.
When I was younger, Christmas was all about the presents. This year after buying for 14+ individuals, I was telling friends and family how I felt all the gifts took away from the point of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love gift giving, but Christmas is more about spending time with the people you love, especially as you get older. It was ironic that after having multiple of these conversations leading up to Christmas, we ended up not spending it with anyone but each other and Rex. But at the same time, looking at the silver lining, I am glad I have Paul and Rex to be bored in the house with. And next Christmas, we’ll appreciate family time that much more.
Any way, that is my little Christmas update. I hope I can come up with some good blog post ideas in the coming days while I have all this free time, but time will tell:)
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xoxo Olivia
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