As I sit down to write this very retrospective post on Christmas 2021, I'm not sure I'm entirely over the events that culminated in it becoming the most absurdly stressful trip that we have ever done. The testing before the flights, the testing on arrival, the paperwork to board, the paperwork to enter the countries, the almost daily changes to the rules, then the events that happened while we were in Scotland...it was mental.
The Thursday was finally upon us and with a late afternoon flight from Toulouse, we decided to let William go to school in the morning. It meant we could do all the last minute packing and checks in peace! Then it was into the car and away. With me having checked and double checked everything, we had everything we needed to board and finally, remarkably, we were en route to Écosse. 
Heather picked us up at Edinburgh Airport and took us through to Glasgow. We dropped her at Cambuslang then headed to CHQ for a much needed feed and a glass of wine. It was an early(ish) night as Iain and I were up first thing to go to Braehead for our drive through PCR test at some shady portakabin set-up. Someone's making serious coin from this pandemic. Anyway, after our tests, it was home and into quarantine at CHQ until we got our results. I am still kicking myself that I didn't verify my email address when I was sent the email from the test company (fell through the plethora of travel and testing emails - aaaargh) so by 5pm on Saturday we were climbing the walls waiting for the test result. Of course it hadn't come through yet as my email hadn't been verified. As soon as I clicked the verify link - PING! - the results arrived into my inbox. Negative! Hurrah! We threw our things into the car, Iain dropped me in town to meet Vicki and Catster and he headed to EK to stay at Ross' with William.
It was absolutely brilliant to see Cat and Vicki and to get an evening away after 48hrs of travel stress. Tbh, it still felt like covid was breathing down our necks with everyone very nervous about the omicron variants and the possibility of being the The One Who Ruined Christmas. Me, Cat, Vicki and Katie had originally had grand plans for a girls day/night out but Katie pulled out and the whole thing got completely downgraded to try to avoid the crowds and the dreaded covid. No complaints from the me though: a night in a hotel with my besties, drinking booze, eating lots of food and watching the Strictly final. Brilliant.
I headed back to CHQ on the Sunday afternoon and we tried to put a tenuous plan together for the week, but with serious reservations about the amount and type of socialising we should be doing. I went to see Jinty on the Monday and William and Euan put her Christmas tree up together which was cool. William didn't eat much dinner and said he felt a bit "meh'.
This is when the trip really started to unravel. On the Tuesday, William still wasn't himself and then the vomiting started. He spent all of Wednesday in bed, either sleeping or spewing and by Thursday he couldn't even keep water down. As it was nearing 48hrs of this hell, I called NHS24 who referred me to the out of hours clinic at Stobhill (the Vicki was closed due to staff shortages) and because I didn't have a car and Iain was over at Gregor's, Sheena ended up having to take me. The nurse was great and suggested to the doctor that he took a sample of William's urine when I said that he needed to pee, and I'm so glad she did: keytones in the urine and coupled with an elevated heart rate, it was classic signs of dehydration. We were then referred to the Sick Kids and ended up there until 3.30am by which time the paediatrician had administered some amazing anti-sickness drugs and I'd finally managed to get William to keep some apple juice down. What a hellish couple of days.
That's not all. Gayle was at work on Wednesday morning and her waters broke, 10 weeks early. She was rushed into hospital and the doctors said that they simply couldn't let her go home as it was too risky. As you can imagine, everyone went into a tailspin, worrying about her and CHQ became a bit of a hub whilst everyone rallied to support the rest of the MacBrides. She ended up having the baby, Stella, early doors on Christmas morning. Thank God, they were both fine. Obviously as she was so premature, they needed to stay in hospital for much longer but the docs were delighted with her progress.
In amongst this, we had also pulled the pin on going to the Pantomime with Katie and Steph. There was a lot of covid anxiety but once William had gotten sick, it was never going to happen. Gutted. 60 notes, down the drain.
With all of the above, Christmas Day, therefore, was not the usual event that Sheena hosts. There were trips to the hospital, and people coming and going at different times but eventually were were (almost) all there and able to enjoy the food, the booze and each other. William had a great time playing with his new toys and with his cousins and was generally just swept up in the chaos of it all (whilst still recovering from his sickness bug). 
On Boxing Day, we headed over to Clare and Joe's for Round 2. We had a great time with lots of wine and food, and William was delighted that Euan was there (with his Nintendo switch!) and that Clare and Joe had got him some new Lego. Simple pleasures.
The next couple of days were and opportunity to come up for air and we even managed a wee jaunt up to Bearsden to see Broon, Oman, Sophie & Lauchlan. But, by now we had one eye on getting home to France, and jumping through the many new hoops that had been imposed on travellers since we'd left the country. Trying to find somewhere that would do our tests became a massive exercise and we ended up having to go to Glasgow Airport on the morning of the flight (from Edin).
I'm not being over dramatic when I say that it was the most stressful trip we've ever done. I said to Iain when we left Glasgow that I wasn't doing this again until covid was over and all the extra travel requirements were lifted. I'm out.
Oh, and Merry Christmas.
Lorna.
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