Parenthood: Week 456 - Winter Break 2021

It has been years since we’ve had a “normal” winter break. Two years ago, our special little one Lucas was born. He was born in early December, so it made sense to stay close to home and not travel. My other two sons, Ollie and Ethan, were also sick with some minor illnesses that made us concerned about doing large family gatherings.

Last year was the first holiday season of the pandemic. We didn’t do extended family gatherings on my wife’s side, and we didn’t travel to Seattle to visit my parents during New Year’s, which we had done for close to a decade until the previous year. I have good memories of Winter Break last year. Yes, there were no vaccinations, and there were concerns about COVID-19, but the choices seemed easy. Of course, we wouldn’t gather indoors with a group of around thirty people. Flying home, getting on a plane with three kids made no sense. While the result of these decisions was sad and disappointing, they weren’t hard decisions to make.

Another thing that made winter break feel different was that school was predictable. We were all remote from Thanksgiving break until Winter Break. Also, we knew that we would be remote for the first week back after Winter Break. So transitioning to remote learning felt like a smooth transition into Winter Break. Contrast that with the week before the break this year, which was one of the most challenging weeks I’ve had as a teacher during this pandemic, and it’s no wonder why this break felt so different.

This was a Winter Break filled with laughter and giggles. My three sons played together every day, and while there were minor disagreements and meltdowns, more often than not, they shared in joy and happiness. Sometimes I would get frustrated as they insisted on running around the house screaming in joy and laughing loudly as I tried to get them to wind down for bedtime. Other times, I just gave up and let them run in circles around the living room. It’s not like we had to school to get up for in the morning.

This was a Winter Break that was also filled with consequences. We took reasonable risks, saw family extended family, and were exposed to COVID-19. We kept to ourselves while waiting for the right time to test, and then we tested. I wish that this was as easy as this sounds. I spent one-morning driving around eight different stores trying to find COVID-19 rapid tests and failing. We also spent one morning with all of us in the car, driving from testing site to testing site, attempting to find testing. Unfortunately, that morning did not prove successful. Fortunately, we eventually did find tests for our family.

We were hoping to do more things outside of the house and see more people, but it ended up being far more good than bad. And it was precisely what I needed.

More than ever, I felt very aware that I needed this to be a break for me, and it was in the time I spent with my family, I felt the release of stress that I needed. It was playing Pokemon cards with Ollie, reading with Ethan, and smiling and talking to Lucas. It was standing back and watching all three of them dance to the soundtrack from Encanto, and checking in on them at night, and hearing them softly breathe as they sleep.

There were moments of this break that were tough and stressful, but I wish I had more of it right now. With all that is going on in the world, there is a sense of peace and comfort when we are all under one roof, and to feel that for an extended period brought me back to myself for a moment in time, I will not soon forget.