My favorite time of the year has always been the holiday season. I remember the time I spent as a child helping my grandmother make tamales and ponche, eagerly awaiting the arrival of my cousins to play and overall seeing my entire family spend the holidays together. Those memories are what I hold in my heart, and now for the first time, I am unable to spend my holidays with them. Despite not spending the holidays with my family, there are still various ways to celebrate with them.
FaceTime, Skype and Zoom all are good methods of communicating and video chatting with family members. For my birthday in May, I FaceTimed my family to celebrate, and now in November and December, it is the same method that I will use to celebrate the holidays with them. For Christmas, I plan to make myself a nice meal and dress up to give myself a sense of going out. I will call my family to virtually eat dinner together and spend an entertaining evening together. Although we might not be able to spend time together in person, spending time over a screen is better than nothing.
Now more than ever, it is easier to get together and watch a movie virtually. Netflix Party is a popular way to watch movies together, and getting everyone together after dinner to binge holiday-themed movies is a relaxing and safe way of spending quality time with your family. It makes the holidays enjoyable and nice while also allowing you to know that your family is happy and safe.
Although I would love to visit my family, I cannot do that since I am an essential employee. Instead, I will mail them their Christmas presents and virtually spend time with them. For other people, quarantining and testing negative might be the way to go. As long as everyone is communicating with their family members while keeping in mind everyone’s safety, you can employ this method to spend time with your family during the holidays. If you are the only person self-isolating, it might be a bit risky unless your family members have been doing the same.
However, if your family members have all followed the same method of quarantining and testing negative, spending time together can be possible, so long as everyone takes the proper precautions and follows CDC guidelines, such as social distancing and wearing face masks. With the pandemic still raging on (even with everyone testing negative,) it is better to be safe than sorry.
Overall, ensuring that you and your family members are all safe and healthy is most important. This holiday season might be harder for some people, but it is important to be kind to each other during these times.
