In Person Church

 For the first time in 13 months, we went to in-person church today. We were nervous, but it went really well.

On Thursday, I took the girls shopping for new church dresses and dress shoes. I wanted them to have something to look forward to- it totally worked! Camille kept saying, "I'm so excited to go to church on Sunday!"

For shopping, we had that and the bee thing at Hudson Gardens. When I told Camille our plans for the day, she ran to Claire and said, "Today is the BEST day! We are GOING SOMEWHERE!" Thank you, Covid, for lowering the bar of excitement so low! Can we keep that bar so low?

Anyway, I had to get pictures of our first day back:

We went and very purposely sat in the very back row. We didn't want people singing on our backs, even with masks on.

We didn't know what to expect. And we were both pleasantly surprised.

There was one family who didn't wear masks, so we know we will avoid them. But, the young men all wore gloves passing the sacrament, they each had two trays- one to get your water, the other to put your dirty cup in. We don't touch the sacrament handle, the young men hold it the entire time and take it to each person. They take their responsibility to keep us safe seriously. Our Bishop takes it seriously. I felt totally safe the whole time. I expected to be angry, honestly. And, while I was upset about this one family, I was overall very impressed. So much so that next week we are transitioning to two hour church, but we are doing it in such a way that I'm not worried. It's a very smart, socially distanced, way- and after seeing how well they did today, I am confident they will keep being responsible in how the second hour is implemented.