Christmas

It was a Berning Covid Christmas this year. Uggg…the timing of getting sick could not have been worse. About a week and a half before Christmas, Sarah came down with a sore throat and fever. She was pretty down and out for two days but then she seemed okay. But then Mark and Lydie came down hard the following day. Mark took a COVID test and, sure enough, it was COVID.

A COVID Christmas

At that point, with half of the family sick I knew it was coming our way. I tried my best to do as much as I could before I was down with it as well. The kids were so patient as we spent a lot of time snuggling and watching Christmas movies. It was a good reminder to me, that really all any of us want is time with each other. And we definitely got a lot of that!

Luckily, by Christmas Eve, I was really the only one left with some lingering symptoms. It was such a rough sickness to get over. Each of us had our own little buffet of symptoms: sore throat, fever, chills, body aches, congestion, headaches, and just plain tired.

Seizures

Christmas Eve day Lydie was acting off. I don’t know how else to explain it – just not herself. Mark and I were both a little worried about her, and she hadn’t shown any symptoms in a couple of days and so we weren’t sure what was going on.

A little after midnight on Christmas Eve, she woke up really upset. She was really agitated and we didn’t know what was going on. It would take me about 15 minutes to get her to calm down and then she would fall back asleep. She would wake up like this every 45 minutes to an hour the whole rest of the night. Finally about 3, I started to get really nervous about what was going on and slept-ish the rest of the night on the floor of her room.

Finally, about 6:45 AM on Christmas morning, Mark and I began to do her morning routine before getting the rest of the kiddos up. We had just finished giving her meds and changing her, when she threw up big time all over Mark. At this point, Mark and I’s anxiety was pretty high about what was going on. He went to give Lydie a bath and change while I cleaned up her bed and started laundry.

It was so hard. It was hard because we felt so badly for Lydie and confused about what was going on. And it was sad for our other kiddos because they were so confused. What was supposed to be such a happy morning was delayed and sad. We eventually got Lydie all good to go and started our Christmas morning festivities. But very quickly, Mark and I noticed that Lydie was having seizures again. Her seizures are very subtle and we quickly realized that this is what had been going on the whole night.

It seems so obvious now, but Lydie has been seizure free for almost a year and a half and so it just wasn’t on our radar. The rest of the day was sweet and fun in some ways, but also really hard. By the time night rolled around and Mark and I had a quiet moment to ourselves we both commented on how hard the day had been. We both felt like we were kind of faking the joy with the other kiddos and trying to hide our concern for Lydie. Basically the whole day, Lydie would wake up and have a seizure within about five minutes, then was agitated for several minutes, and then would fall asleep again. Repeat over and over and over again throughout the day. It was a hard day.

In a lot of ways, I wish we could have a do-over of Christmas. It just felt hard this year with sickness and seizures. But some years I think Christmas can be harder than others. This was a harder year for us. Even though it looked a little different this year, I am grateful for the time we had to slow down and remember our Savior. For His love and the joy that He brings to our lives. Merry Christmas from the Bernings!

Here are some Christmas highlights from us:

Ornament Exchange

We had a lot of fun at our friend ornament exchange!

Advents

The kids had LOADS of advents this year! Mark and I got one for them to do where they created their own Christmas village – each day adding another little piece to it. It was such a fun craft. And then my parents gave each of the kiddos their own individual advent which they all loved.

Bluey

Lydie got a Bluey advent – she was obsessed!

Puzzles

I thought this was so creative. Jacob got to do a little block of puzzle each day to make one giant one! Also, he was the only one that got a picture at the end with his advent. I blame COVID 😉

Charms

Sarah LOVED her advent. Each day she got a new Christmas charm and ended up with two bracelets FILLED!

LEGO

And, of course, our LEGO loving boy got a LEGO advent!

Dollhouse

Back in November, we decided that we were going to built the girls a dollhouse for Christmas. I was SO EXCITED! There are so many fun ideas out there. I had all these amazing visions of Christmas morning getting to unveil it to the girls. But oh goodness, this was a project that just did not go as planned.

First of all, these are WAY more intense than I ever knew! We were just moving at a snail’s pace. Between trying to finish the kiddos scrapbooks and this, things were not moving quickly. As December moved along and things were still barely moving forward, I was just hoping to have the outside done. Mark and I agreed that the week leading up to Christmas we would just spend every night staying up late to get it done.

Enter COVID.

It was just the gift that kept on giving. We were so wiped out there was just nothing we could do. We ended up just laying down what we had on the rug in the office. We had the girls open the box that the dollhouse was in and then brought the in to see it. Sarah was THRILLED and actually really excited to be able to help build and design it all. I was still disappointed it didn’t happen but am excited for the chance to do it along with her and Lydie.

New Ornaments

Every year, the kiddos get a new ornament from their Gramps and Grammy. This year the girls got new ocean ornaments to commemorate our Mississippi Gulf trip. Ben got a soccer ball for his first year playing soccer. And Jacob got a Charlie Brown ornament because he loves him!

Gingerbread Houses

During the thick of it all, we tried to pull ourselves together and do some gingerbread houses. They turned out so cute and was a fun distraction.

Games

We played a LOT of games this Christmas. It was the year of Sorry, air hockey, Hues and Cues, and Wavelength.

Christmas Baking

I didn’t get to all of the Christmas baking I normally do, but we did our best (and definitely still had plenty!). Sarah and Ben helped me with some chocolate covered pretzels. I made the Christmas bon bons before I got sick, but they still needed to be molded. I asked the kids and this is what I found – we might need a refresher course 😉 And then, of course, sugar cookies on Christmas Eve!