Only Nearing the End

 Sure, we may be past the new year, but the holidays aren't quite done yet, like every year for me.  

This year got an extra bonus though, with so many people acting like the pandemic is over, I felt like multiple times a day the week before Christmas I saw friends announcing they were covid positive.  Two days before Christmas, my sister told us she was exposed, and we had to tell her multiple times that she wasn't to come over on Christmas day, and we would deliver her food and gifts.  On the same day, the gnome's family tested positive, and so he couldn't take her for her break.  I had already made plans with Puppy, so last minute I needed to shift things around and ask my parents to spend the time with her.  Honestly, this wound up making everyone happy, so somehow it worked out for the better.

Christmas wound up quiet, and about like normal.  Puppy showed up a little early, and that let us wind up back in Philly that evening, to have the longest window of time we'd ever had together.  He had wanted to adventure the city, but with the plague behaving the way it was, we opted to stay in as much as possible.  On the few times that we needed to go out (grocery shopping and the like) we made sure it was when other people wouldn't be out.

It was a good quiet visit though.  We just existed, and tried to keep up with our own lives together.  I still worry about how is attaching himself to me given the past few years he's had, but I'm keeping boundaries clear, and giving important reminders in order to make sure he at least has the seeds of logic in an incredibly compromised setting.  In the end, we both got a lot out of the visit, and helped set me up for the new year.

And when it came to the new year, Lux and I did the same thing we've done almost every year we can't be together.  We played games, and giggled, and had some necessary time together.  While I would have loved to have seen him one more time before the end of the year, especially with wanting to be safe, and keep him safe, this was the best option.

I spent the end of the year doing what was best for others, so I can continue to celebrate with them all in the future.