The 12 Months of Christmas will be taking a short break...

HAPPY NEW YEAR folks! I hope that you and your families all had a wonderful holiday season.

 

I know our regulars were expecting to see a new challenge posted today. Unfortunately, I have been dealing with some tough issues in real life. I briefly touched on this during the last midway post. I have also posted an update on my personal blog as well.

 

Both my parents were hospitalized after being diagnosed with Covid during the first week of December. My father was released too soon and ended back in the hospital three days later; only this time, in a much worse state. He was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and was considered critical when he returned to the hospital. He was pumped full of antibiotics and was on 80% oxygen at the start, slowly weaned down over a two week period. My mom was released after a week in the hospital and thankfully had people coming into the apartment to check on her during her first two weeks. Dad remained on oxygen until they released him on Dec. 19th. Both are extremely weak, exhausted and dealing with the lingering effects of covid (and for my dad, the after effects of having a bad pneumonia as well). Thankfully, for now they continue to have a personal support worker or someone from the Covid Team, checking on them daily throughout the weekdays but it is definitely a challenge for the two of them to look after themselves properly when they are so weak. It has become difficult for them to take care of themselves during normal times, never mind right now. They have been told that it will take MONTHS before they are back to their normal selves.

 

Worrying about my parents and having to check in on them with daily calls to both the apartment and the hospital depending on where each of them was at the time, left me with time for little else during the first few weeks of December. My stress levels and inability to concentrate greatly affected the quality of my work. Given that at the same time, I was supposed to be getting the team ready for our January challenge, it became necessary to take a little break from taking care of the challenge blogs that I am responsible for in order to maintain my own sanity.

I'm hoping that things will calm down soon and I can come back renewed for our February challenge. If it turns out I need some extra time, I'll be sure to provide an update at that time. I will do my best to publish the winner announcement for our November challenge, sometime over the next couple of weeks. I also have a special announcement to make as we'll be making some changes to the way we do things this year here at The 12 Months of Christmas--more on that soon.

I hope that we can count on your support and that you'll all come back and join us when we start up again soon! Until that time, wishing you a happy and healthy start to 2022!