Pandemic, Week 38 (It's Beginning to Look...)

President-elect Joe Biden fractured his foot this week while playing with his dog. Biden also revealed his pick for Treasury Secretary – former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. It was revealed that the Justice Department investigated a potential presidential pardon bribery scheme back in August. Separately, Trump has discussed with his advisors blanket pardons for his three eldest children and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Ivanka Trump was deposed by DC Attorney General Karl Racine for an investigation into misuse of inaugural funds in 2017. Trump headed to Georgia for a rally for Senators Loeffler and Perdue, and to pressure Georgia's governor to convince state legislators to overturn Biden's win. Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr announced that the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election. A new blood test is being released for people over age 60 to test for Alzheimer's disease. Elliott Page, the former star of the indie film, Juno, came out as a transgender man. Warner Bros. announced that all 2021 movies would be released to HBO Max for streaming the same day they hit theaters. David Lander who played Squiggy in Laverne & Shirley, died.

The world reached 66.9 million COVID cases this week and 1.5 million deaths. The U.S. hit 15.0 million cases and 288,000 deaths. Great Britain approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for distribution starting next week. The CDC recommended that Phase 1a inoculations would include front-line health care workers and adults living in long-term care facilities. Both Allen and John received negatives COVID tests (we figured they could be our household representatives to make sure we didn't pick up any unintended souvenirs from Iowa).

But for us, this week marked the beginning of the Christmas season. We decorated the house, drafted our Christmas letter, and started addressing our Christmas cards. Mom Mom and Grandpa Don swung by for dinner and to check out our tree. Jacqui flew in from Texas for our annual holiday tea, complete with her face shield, mask, a negative test result, and a lot of Clorox wipes. Owen recorded his final concert piece for the season; Nora began the the Winter Intensive for DCYOP. We printed out Positive Pineapple Paul and Nora created a prosthetic arm for her GoldieBlox doll.  We even caught up on the latest episode of His Dark Materials. And while it was generally a happy week filled with family and Christmas songs, there was one tragedy: Jaws, our sole remaining neon fish passed away and was returned from whence he came.

Hopefully, that isn't a harbinger of things to come...

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)