The kids were disappointed that we didn’t visit grandma, but were settled because both of them woke with 100°F fevers, and a bunch of gifts to open.

Before mom got home last night, the boy decided he wanted to turn in. He’d been checked, and with small concern at a little elevated 98°F temperature, was not given any fever reducer. About a half hour before normal, and knowing mom was almost home, he decided to lay down, and was asleep within minutes.

Mom got home and checked on the girl. Her temp was much less, but she’d been dosed with some ibuprofen a few hours before. Still had a scratchy throat and general fatigue, but was glad mom got home before she gave up for the night, and seemed OK to not be going to grandma’s in the morning.

She took a rapid test, which reported negative. We’re not entirely convinced, but are relieved it wasn’t an immediate positive. We have appointments for our regular Saturday tests moved to Monday, so we’ll hold onto the other tests to check again later if needed.

Kid went to bed without any struggle, despite the festive day. Mom and I set about finishing the last bits of wrapping and setting things out for the morning.

Morning came and the kids woke and dashed for…their tablets. A short time later the boy came to tell me the girl was downstairs crying. I came and checked and each of them had 100°F fevers. I dropped some ibuprofen on both of them, set the girl up with a cold cloth, and set them each back in bed.

An hour later they felt good enough to try again. Mom got up with them and started with some breakfast preparations. For all of their eagerness to bust into wrapped goodies, they both seemed patient and happy to play with tablets and huddle under blankets.

A little while later, the boy came and told me I needed to get dressed so he could open gifts. I quickly cycled through morning prep, including donning a festive sweater. I chose the one with Santa punching a shark on it. A classic. It seems the boys were the only ones to dress, with the girls deciding to hang all day in PJs.

We ate a little something, opened some gifts for a while. We don’t do a lot of big things, but instead try to wear them out with a lot of little things they like. There are a couple bigger things, some clothes and PJs, and then little boxes of Lego kits, and the like. They wound down and were ready to give up with just a couple boxes left. They were polite and opened them, and with were finally rewarded with something else to do.

The rest of the day was spent lazy, hiding inside, nursing these colds, watching some movies, building some Lego, and just being mellow.

We dosed the kids each after lunch, and then again before bed. This ends the first solid day of fevers, so tomorrow we plan to give another rapid test to one of them, and see what unfurls. If the fevers persist, we’ll reach out with our concerns to the nurse line, and maybe make an appointment for them on Monday. We do have the regular test scheduled, and get priority results because the wife works for the company, so that’ll help.

We’re already planning to keep the kids home on Monday from the fun day at school, until we get the COVID results. We don’t want to be those parents who overlook symptoms and send the kids into a mob with that uncertainty.

We’re mostly healthy. The kids have fevers and aches, but the adults all seem fine.