December 26

There's really nothing about this trip that's been normal or gone as expected. 

When we got up this morning, the plan was to have Dunkin Donuts and coffee and take photos at grandma's house with my grandma, mom, Charlie, Bobby, and the rest of the bunch. That was the plan.

The reality was that Bobby called at 11 or so --just after I'd downed a delicious toasted coconut donut, gotten dressed and started to put on my makeup-- and told me that my niece Brianna had tested positive for COVID this morning. 

Oddly enough, I didn't freak out (maybe because the past few days have been so weird that not much could phase me right now). But I did feel a need to figure out a plan to limit our exposure to grandma (since she's 99 and all). So I shared the news with Adam and we opted to go off separately and pray about it to see if we could find clarity. In the end, we didn't, really, but we knew we needed to get out of the house sooner than later, so we loaded into the sporty white rental minivan with Colorado plates and headed over to my very longtime friend Gretchen's house to pick up an air purifier for my grandma to use. (Thank you, G! XOXO) 

Then (after a brief stop along Wightman Road to take a silly pic... get it?), we navigated our way to Jerry's for a late-late lunch of cheesesteaks (for Adam and Abby and me) and chicken nuggets, pizza, and mozzarella sticks for Isaac and Brady, and fries for all. Then, on the way to the Tour of My Childhood (also known as a drive-by of my old house), Bobby texted to share that COVID-conscious Charlie had opted to leave early, so we were welcome to move over to their house.

So we did. We went back to grandma's, explained what was going on, and moved our stuff out to the car. And then we were off. Again. We settled in to Bobby's house, enjoyed some yummy BBQ chicken for dinner, and then settled onto the couch for some football.

It's stunning that things have once again taken a left-hand turn, but I'm taking it in stride. I know grandma was really disappointed to see us go (because she told me so!), but I told her that as long as we test negative later this week, we'll come back again. Ultimately, our priority is keeping her as safe as possible, so if that means bunking at Bobby's for a while, that's what we'll do. And we'll enjoy the time here. Things aren't ideal, but they're still good. Silver linings exist. And I am thankful.