5 day break...

A lovely post Canadian Gran.Couldn't have expressed my own feelings better.A safe and happy Xmas to you and yours .

Here in British Columbia we have a 'household only' order in place since Dec 15, so we all knew in advance not to plan visitors or extended family for Christmas dinner. The exception is for single people - they may go to one household where they are already in regular contact.

It will be just myself and my husband. He will go to the hospital to visit his mother in the morning, and we will facetime or phone our grown children and families.

Boxing Day if the weather permits I may ask to go for a walk with them, which is allowed.

I feel badly for those in Britain that had plans and now need to cancel, but understand the need.

Also I would like to say that Christmas is not cancelled. Celebrating with any other than household is. We can all celebrate in our own small way. Santa is still expected to visit children at night, we can watch Christmas mass on livestream if you check your church plans; we can eat a nice meal and watch Christmas movies, play board games and listen to Christmas music. Reflect on how little we actually need, and how much we actually have, and value the connections we have to friends and family.

It's really up to the government to shoulder the responsibility of designing and enforcing the guidelines because leaving it up to us to judge each other obviously isn't helping-

Lesleyroch

Wearing face masks and isolating hasn’t helped over the last year. If all that worked we wouldn’t be in this position. I want to see my family, might just as well kill myself.

You will Lesleyroch. There are many days when I feel the same.

I feared the rules would change so we made no arrangements for this Christmas. My daughter lives 300 miles away so we couldn't do a day visit anyway.

Trouble is not everyone has worn masks, washed their hands and socially distanced.

Please find someone to talk to. It will help. Take care.

We only need to wait a bit longer to see everyone. If I thought there wouldn’t be an end to this I’d probably be tempted to meet up with my family. But we’re nearly there.

Wearing face masks and isolating hasn’t helped over the last year. If all that worked we wouldn’t be in this position. I want to see my family, might just as well kill myself.

Dr John said in his latest blog that the Oxford vaccine will be approved soon after Christmas. And that there are plans to do mass vaccinations at football stadiums and racecourses. I was getting really worried that the vaccine had hit a problem but it looks good to go. I hope he’s correct. He doesn’t usually say anything that has no foundation. Things may seem really bad at this moment in time but we’ve just got to stick it out for a bit longer.

You're not actually alone there will be two of you at home together.

This is awful, a u turn at the last minute but what else did we expect. Seeing and reading about the crowds leaving London I fear that they will just spread it, are they going to family or second homes in places like Cornwall who could end up having their hospitals totally overwhelmed. It is so selfish, its all about me and what I want and dam anyone else.

Have you seen the scenes at London stations tonight as everyone tries to flee the capital?
Lockdown3 is inevitable.

MamaCaz...really feel for you..?

There are only 6 flats but one of the couples are having a baby, the other has a small toddler.
They've no choice but to use the lobby.

I'm downstairs, so have a back door I can use.

MissAdventure....not something I'd do in normal times...but I would be tempted to report her...that sounds awful...but as you said...all her guests will be using the communal hallway!

Yep.
She has done it throughout, but doesn't seem to want to understand.

MissAdventure

I don't imagine her plans will alter at all.
She's in tier 4.

Then totally breaking the law!
“Max two households...”

We are in level 1 in Scotland; next Saturday we are going into level 4 along with the rest of our country. We are allowed to meet up with another two households on Christmas Day (only Christmas Day) but advised not to. Another few weeks or months won’t make much difference at this stage. We have to accept that this will be the law and we must not break it for fear of prosecution. At 71, vaccine is still a good bit away for me and my husband but we hope we are still around to get it so will stay within the law as long as it takes.

You had better go and lie down with a cool flannel on your head.

Omg, I find myself agreeing with Growstuff AGAIN

Summerlove

AJKW

We don’t live in North Korea. Most people are sensible, let them decide.

People have very different definitions of what is sensible though. I think Christmas at home is sensible.

Others feel their rights are being stolen away and the best way to fight is to have a large Christmas. That’s what they feel is sensible.

If they want a fight, maybe somebody could be persuaded to donate a large island somewhere, where they can go and fight each other. Most of the rest of us realise that we live in a society.

Well, I'm not one of the fittest or youngest and I'm quite keen on surviving for a bit longer.

Historically, plagues have indeed wiped out whole populations and the human race has survived, but I don't want to be one of the sacrifices.

Each and every Gransnet member who has posted on this thread has considered and valid opinions about the appalling situation we find ourselves in. Despite this our planet has survived for millions of years and it does seem that Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" is our fate during this major crisis.
There are endless disputes about why we survive these events. Multiple factors appear to have have contributed - but all the acquired life experience, preservation instinct, intellectual knowledge and medical advances or even personal wealth in the past seem to have proved futile.
Our world comprises such a wealth of multiple cultures and views that it is unsurprising and unreasonable to expect even our closest family to mirror our own views on coping with C19. I believe we listen and read as much as we can about this current pandemic but none of us can be condemned by our decisions but neither should we condemn other peoples opinions. The crunch is that our decisions affect each other.

It seems Boris was listening ?. I live on tier 2, my friend lives in tier 4. She and I will now be spending Christmas alone, separately as we are not allowed to mix.

AJKW

We don’t live in North Korea. Most people are sensible, let them decide.

People have very different definitions of what is sensible though. I think Christmas at home is sensible.

Others feel their rights are being stolen away and the best way to fight is to have a large Christmas. That’s what they feel is sensible.

MamaCaz, that is so sad for your poor Mum but better safe than sorry, hope she gets her jab soon and you can have a belated celebration with her.

I really feel for your mum MamaCaz that so sad. x

The joke made me laugh though Ellianne. I’m off to share it!