Senior Kurt Heerdegen talks about the holiday chaos, specific to life during the pandemic. “During the holidays I had to stay in my house because a lot of my family members had COVID”. This seemed to be the case with a lot of people not being able to spend time with their friends and family because of the outbreak of the virus and new variants that happened over break. With that people had to find new ways to do things and keep some of their normality around. Food-based traditions are one way many people keep regularity to their holidays. For Kurt, his family “eats Chinese food on New Year’s Eve”, and his favorite holiday food to eat is “turkey”. 

Science teacher Shanna Piggott was also talked to regarding the comparisons between what a teacher’s holiday break looks like compared to students’ breaks. “Over break, I did some painting and sewing to get time away from my computer screen,” said Piggott. Getting away from technology for a little was a great thing for everybody to get a fresh start for their New Year and second semester of school. “I made a concentrated effort to step away from school for a little while..and then the last two days of break were just straight planning”.Said Piggott Although like students, many teachers make it a priority to get away from the thought of school for a bit they still have their responsibilities they have to get done just like any other person. With most families including travel in their regular holiday routine, COVID really hindered people’s ability to do that. “We were able to visit family in Madison, Wisconsin. We got to go up for one night to visit but it was anxiety-ridden” Said Piggott. This appeared to be a common occurrence for most families, either not being able to travel at all or being restricted in what they were able to do once they did travel to visit family and friends. 

Lastly, Lisa Ulrichs was asked a few questions regarding how she dealt with the new changes during the holiday break. “We normally have people over on Christmas Eve, but a family member got sick before Christmas…so we couldn’t do that,” said Lisa. Although that was different some things were able to stay the same. “We have the tradition of attending a Christmas Eve church service and eating German foods for dinner which makes for a nice evening,” said Lisa. The holidays were a hectic time for most people, but being able to have joy from the little things helped a lot of people get through it with a smile on their faces.