Merry Christmas

As we prepare to bid the year of 2020 a fond farewell, we are celebrating Christmas as best we can during these unprecedented and uncertain times.

I could start with all the normal holiday greetings like Merry Christmas, May your holidays sparkle with joy and laughter, or I hope the magic of Christmas fills every corner of your heart and home with joy — now and always, but this year seems like so much more is needed.

Normally we are celebrating in-person with family and friends, enjoying a cup of eggnog, admiring the Christmas tree and all the decorations, going to church and a long list of what were once "normal" ways to enjoy the season.

This year has been anything but "normal."

The pandemic has taken away our sense of normality with health safety protocols, forced closures, and a list of what we cannot do for the holidays to stop the spread of the virus. This year's COVID Christmas doesn't have to be about what we cannot do, but what we can do.

The pandemic has given us something as well - new ways to come together, ways to enjoy precious moments with loved ones and finding peace within ourselves, the creation of new memories.

It is difficult, I know. Gone is our family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner with friends, sitting with kids as the excitement builds as they open gifts. No group parties and no sitting down with special friends for coffee. This came off a Thanksgiving that was spent only with my daughter, no mixing of households and phone calls. Can we look the current situation and think of what we can do, and what we cannot do?

These activities aren't gone, they're just on a hiatus.

In their place are some new memories, maybe new traditions, more decorated houses to drive by with a cup of hot cocoa, more outpourings of support in the community for those in need through food and fund drives, more ways to volunteer to help others. I've heard of families taking time to concentrate on moments of gratitude and taking to heart the extra time they've spent together this past year.

I never want to experience a Christmas exactly like this ever again, but perhaps we can pick out the good things that happened and make them a part of new traditions.

The spirit of Christmas is inside us, and nobody and nothing can take that away.

Hope your holidays are filled with love, family and happiness. Thank you for being a part of South Tahoe Now.

Paula