DECEMBER 2020 - DEAR EMILY

 Hello my darling!

December has been a special month.  The most special thing is that your cousin,
Alex Jordan was born on 14 December!  

He is your first 'real' cousin and you were so excited when you heard that he'd been born at 13h35 at Westville Hospital.

When Tammy and Mark got the call that he had been born you burst into tears!  

Due to Covid, Greg couldn't go into the hospital with Sharon when he took her there.  They called him back at 12:30 to say that he could go back and watch the baby being born by caesarian section.  He was able to give Sharon and his newborn son a hug before having to leave again.  He didn't see them again (besides on Whatsapp video calls) until he fetched them 3 days later.

When you were born you weighed 2.9kg but you lost 300g almost right away, and then you got jaundice, which many babies get (Greg also had it).

Once they started treating you you quickly put on 110g and didn't look back after that!

Greg brought them home on Thursday and that was the first time he could hold his baby.  The grand-parents visited in the afternoon and then you visited him the following day.  

You got to hold him and even feed him!  Such a beautiful photograph
of our two grand-children - both unexpected, miracle babies! 
You each have a special place in our hearts which are now so full of love and gratitude!

Looking back on this year Covid has changed our lives in many ways since we had the first lockdown in March. We had a hard lock-down when we couldn't go out for over a month unless it was to a doctor, hospital or to buy food.  Then we had a curfew and had to be in our homes between 6am and 6pm.  We couldn't go further than 5km from our homes. Then we could exercise but only outdoors and only with 4 people.   

Businesses and schools were closed, people started working from home, virtual classes were held online; Zoom became the way to have meetings, 'webinars' became the new name for seminars.

Some people said that their eating patterns improved when they couldn't get take-away or go to restaurants. Many families started doing things together and children spent more time with parents than they did before Covid.  (This hasn't been all positive as the rate of domestic violence and child abuse also rose.)

We created family 'bubbles' to keep us all safe.  You and your Mom and Dad did not visit others (besides me and Gumpy a few times) and stopped going to shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants and other public places even after they had opened.  Finn and I did exactly the same thing. We only walk in the village, visit you guys and a few times to Greg and Sharon.  Because Sharon was still working she didn't come to visit us for nearly 9 months.   We saw Dennis and Rita for the first time in 9 months when Alex was born.

Because we have all kept safe, we had a lovely Christmas lunch at the Wishart's house with the Nilsen and Wishart families and Laura and Gavin, following all the protection and safety routines for groups of people from different households.

Rita set up a sanitiser station at the front door complete with temperature scanner (photobombed by Bruno!)

There were paper towels in the bathroom.

Condiments in sachets and small packets of assorted crisps were offered and individual cheese plates with sweet chili sauce and biscuits were on each table.

Tammy served a plate of gammon and chicken at each table and Rita dished our the filet steak. We all brought our own salads.

Dessert was a gorgeous sugar free trifle made by Tammy - and Magnum ice creams on sticks.

5 socially distanced seating family 'bubbles' were set up outdoors. We all brought our own garden table, crockery and cutlery.

Mark and Emily (Tammy was getting the trifle ready!)

Dawn, Rita and Dennis

                                            

Sylvia and Finn

Greg, Sharon and baby Alex who slept through most of Christmas!

Laura and Gavin. Laura had to have an angiogram this week and a Covid Test before that.

Gavin hadn't been feeling well so he also had a Covid test. Both were negative so we called them Mr and Mrs Negative!

We opened presents before having lunch. I think one of your favourites was the Body Board we gave you!

It was overcast but no rain and baby Alex slept through most of it!

Mark and Tammy left early to get home to Ruby who was confined to her crate and we stayed on a bit longer and then we took you home.

We haven't been with a group of people since February so we were a bit concerned about different households coming together but with proper planning and safety precautions, we all relaxed and had a lovely afternoon together.

 COVID

23 December - Deaths  25 657