DH is sick (probably not COVID but we're not sure yet) and MIL is recuperating with us as she recovers from carpal tunnel surgery (so one of her arms is in a cast). Traditionally, her side of the family has a very formal Christmas dinner, and everyone dresses up (black tie-level dress up, e.g. she'd be in a floor-length gown). I wanted to give her the dress-up Christmas she longs for.
Because DH is sick, we're stuck in the house - and her dress-up outfit, Christmas presents for us, and some ingredients for the meal are all in her apartment on the other side of town. We also don't have a Christmas tree, because DH got sick just before he went to pick one up. (He's been travelling a lot for work in the last couple of weeks.) So we're decorating a houseplant instead.
I had planned a multi-course vegan feast for dinner tonight (including a mushroom wellington), but since we can't all be in the same room while DH is sick, and no one really feels like getting dressed up a the moment, we're going to postpone Christmas dinner until DH is not showing any symptoms.
Thankfully, I have some mini vegan "roast beasts" from Gardein in the freezer for emergencies like this, and I'll steam some carrots and sugar snap peas and roast a few potatoes. So we'll still have a nice Christmas dinner, TV-dinner style, with DH eating in his office, connected to us via Zoom, and MIL and I will eat in the kitchen/lounge.
NB - We are taking lots of precautions even if DH only has a cold because both of us are booked for scarce COVID boosters on Dec 28 and 30th, and we'll get turned away if we're at all sick with anything. I really need my COVID booster because I'm supposed to travel to Vancouver in a couple of weeks to help take care of my Dad, who is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.