I am preparing for a Christmas like no other due to COVID-19 pandemic

This certainly is a different kind of Christmas column than I have ever written.

Mostly locked away without much interaction with the world except over the internet, it is easy to lose track of how well I have it. I’m not worried about losing my house or my business and my family is healthy.

I don’t have that much to complain about. About the worst thing to happen to me lately was to get semi-sweet chocolate chips when I wanted pure chocolate chips on my last online grocery order. They still made good cookies.

Also I got coconut shrimp when I wanted regular breaded shrimp. I dislike coconut. Who in their right minds would put coconut in anything, never mind shrimp?

But as I said, small potatoes in the worry category when some people are struggling for life. I know the grocery shoppers who gather our order are trying their best and we and we appreciate it. We will survive a few product shortages.

It’s just that it is natural to worry. I think it is what humans do best. So we all need to ramp up for the holiday season. As I saw on the internet, it is time to put aside our regular pandemic anxiety and shift into our fancier Christmas pandemic anxiety.

I know this pandemic has ruined my usual Christmas shopping strategy which is to wander around in stores at the last minute and buy whatever strikes my fancy. I really am proud of my lack of planning skills and my inability to concentrate. I’m not sure my family appreciates it though.

I remember a time in college long ago when I went to K-mart and bought presents for my entire family. It wasn’t even Dollar Days. But out in the sticks where my family lived, they didn’t have fancy things like K-mart. So it went over big. Or at least everyone was too polite to tell me otherwise.

Still, though, I won’t be able to wander around in stores, businesses are ready for me with all sorts of offers.

Holiday dinners will be different, though not as awkward as some in the past. Even with masking and social distancing and the absence of many relatives, nothing will match some years with obnoxiously drunk relatives.

Getting lost, asking for peace and goodwill

And there was the time I tried to go to my brother’s house and only realized when I got to his fairly large sized town that I didn’t know where he lived because he had moved. I also discovered there was spotty cell phone service in the hilly town. I finally managed to pull up a map and figure out where I should be and a good time was had by all, except maybe the people who had driven out to look for me.

As usual, I will ask for peace and goodwill. And as usual, I probably won’t get them. Doesn’t seem like that kind of year.

But at least we can hold onto the good holiday memories to tide us over until we can make more.