Clamping Down

Our governor has tightened the COVID restrictions some more starting tomorrow. Two things we did on Tuesday - saw Queen Esther and ate inside a Cracker Barrel are no longer possible starting tomorrow. Sight and Sound is hoping to reopen in February. In the spring, the maximum indoor gathering of 10 included churches, synagogues, and mosques. This time around the Governor said that those organizations are excluded from the guidelines, but of course he is hoping that churches will return to only offering online services due to the rising number of COVID cases. I'm thankful that more respect for the freedom of religion is being shown this time around. I imagine some churches will choose to return to only offering online services, but I'm thankful that it's a decision that churches and individuals can make. Nadia is in two youth groups. FBC has returned to only offering their youth group via Zoom for the month of December. Nadia has a Zoom meeting with them tonight. Our church cancelled a Christmas program that was to take place this evening because some members of the worship team (including the Worship Arts pastor) have COVID right now. Our church's youth group only has one more Wednesday night meeting planned for this month. The church is still planning to offer in person worship and online services on Sundays and also on Christmas Eve. I am aware of at least one business that is planning to defy the governor's orders this time around. I know of a roller skating rink which is going to stay open even though all indoor entertainment venues are banned starting tomorrow. We had been signed up for a homeschool Christmas party at the roller skating rink for next Wednesday. Even before the governor tightened the restrictions, I had decided not to attend. I was very surprised to see today that the owner is still allowing the group to have their party there. There are 150 people signed up for the party! I imagine some will cancel their plans as I did, but I am a bit in shock that some would  be okay with being indoors with 150 people who aren't wearing masks. A few months ago it wouldn't have bothered me because there were very few cases in our area, but it's a different story right now. No roller skating party is worth contracting COVID-19 in my opinion. We rarely eat in a sit down restaurant so it's not a hardship to us that eating inside a restaurant has been banned again, but I feel badly for the restaurants. This has been a very tough year for restaurants. Although I won't take the kids roller skating right now, the three places I will still enter are the library, grocery store, and church. In the spring we weren't able to go to the library or church. I am thankful that those places haven't been required to close.

We did give a restaurant some business yesterday as I bought pizza (carryout). Ian had two boys (brothers) over since his birthday is tomorrow. They were here for about 8.5 hours. The kids played outside and inside and watched a Home Alone movie together. Micah beat Ian in chess, and Nadia beat Micah. They had made two piñatas on Wednesday, and they brought one of them to our house yesterday.  In the picture above they are each holding the candy they got from the piñata. They also brought a bag of SunChips which is a highly prized item in our house (and one I very rarely purchase). Aunt Millie had made a Pokémon cake for his birthday; it was our first Aunt Millie birthday cake this year because Nadia didn't want cake in June and Oliver was in New York in August. It's birthday week in our extended family as Aunt Janet turned 78 on Wednesday, my Dad turned 77 yesterday, and Ian will turn 11 tomorrow. Aunt Janet is in Tahoe as two of her kids live there. She didn't want to spend more holidays alone in 2020 so she went out there before Thanksgiving so she could spend Thanksgiving, her birthday, and Christmas with family. My dad celebrated his birthday by having cataract surgery. We're praying for Margie because the doctors are strongly encouraging her to have chemo based on the results of her MammaPrint. They had thought she'd only need surgery plus radiation. Margie and my Dad are trying to decide whether or not she'll pursue the chemo or not.

During the first nine days of December I took a grand total of one picture with my camera. Oops! I also hadn't recorded any videos in four months. I have been scanning more artwork than I usually do. As I was listening to Ian practice the piano today, I decided to record him playing one of his songs. Lately he's enjoying playing through a book of Christmas music. From the picture below you can see that the kids did an art project today that involved using Bombay ink and Tombow pens.