A somber Christmas for many American families

Suzanne and Steve Rose have endured their share of personal travail over the past 20 years, but Christmas with family was always the constant moment to ease the pain.

The unrelenting advance of the COVID-19 pandemic led to their two children being quarantined, leading to an interruption to their annual traditions of turkey and watching movies and holiday basketball at their home in Raleigh, North Carolina.Suzanne Rose said in as much as they're trying to remain upbeat, they have to make sure their children, Carleigh and Zac, don't get down over the canceled gathering.

Her daughter is a restaurant manager who was exposed to the virus as she closed one night. Her son is a firefighter who was exposed to a colleague who tested positive. Rose was counting on this Christmas for the family fellowship."Christmas is huge to this family, especially after some of the things we've been through over the past decade," said Rose, alluding to her staph infection after a bad fall in 2009 and a subsequent bout with cancer in 2011. In between, her husband endured multiple heart attacks and surgeries.

"Christmas means more now than ever before."It's not so much about presents. It's about all of us being together and our normal family traditions," she said. "It's a big deal to us. The air went out of the balloon, definitely, with this news."

Another tradition is making her father-in-law's spaghetti, an undertaking which involves fresh ingredients and which, she said, is an all-day venture. Instead of setting places at the table, Rose has to make a delivery to her daughter.

"We're still doing that today, but we don't have the kids with us to eat, so I'm packaging up, at least for our daughter, stick it on her outside stoop and go back to my car and call her and let her know it's there. We definitely want her to be able to participate."We'll probably do a lot of Zooming throughout this process. Typically, she will stay with us on Christmas Eve. One of our big things is we watch "Home Alone" every Christmas. That won't be happening."

Rose recently had surgery on her foot, so her baking and cooking would have been curtailed to a degree. She ordered a meal which she will pick up and have it delivered to the kids. Despite the effort, it's not the Christmas she was hoping for.

"When I first found out, I was pretty upset," she said. "I've been looking forward to Christmas. Our kids work so hard that we don't get to see them as much as we used to. That was our Christmas gift, to get to spend time with them. We're putting it off. We're going to celebrate with them when they're out of quarantine. But, still, it's Christmas. It's not the same thing."