I would be more worried about her giving Covid to you…if she is taking no precautions.
But like I said…everyone has a different risk tolerance.
My company allows the rolling over of unused accrued PTO, up to 40 hours into the next year. We can sellback unused hours that exceed this number, up to 48 hours; this is paid at 50 cents on the dollar. The sellback will end after the 2020 year; their reasoning for this, according to them, is to encourage employees to focus on planning time off. 
When I worked for the government, we could only bank 240 hours of vacation, and we could not donate sick time to others, only vacation time. Sick time could be banked unlimited and then was credited to retirement. I still have hundreds of hours in my bank and if I go back, I get it back (I didn’t have enough time in to get it in retirement, but have about 400 hours banked).
For the federal government - if you’re a senior executive or have done some “special tours (overseas for example) you can bank more than 240 use or lose vacation hours, but the norm is 240 hours. I also think that you have to give your vacation time when helping people who need time because they have used all of their sick leave. You can save all of your sick leave and it counts towards your years of service when calculating your pension amount.
Bringing this back up because we just pulled the plug on a planned trip due to worsening conditions in Colorado. We have been invited to stay with friends (part of our bubble) at their home in a mountain town for the week after Thanksgiving. We’ve been there several times and really enjoy it. Now the county is at level red shutdown, so we had to re-examine risks vs rewards. Finally decided it isn’t worth the risk. Too many of the things we like to do there wouldn’t be available to do safely. Restaurants, wineries, cideries, steam trains, shops…basically we would hike in the cold and read or play board games while enjoying the view. Hmmmm, I need to stop, I’m making myself have second thoughts.
@dragonmom, I think you made the right decision. Mountain towns do not have the infrastructure for COVID cases and the altitude is bad for breathing. Best stay home.
Did I help any?
@dragonmom - It’s a season of hard decisions. Hopefully if we all bite the bullet through the holidays we can minimize the exponential growth of Covid. I hope you find some other fun ways to brighten things this winter.
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@Silpat maybe work on some baby steps to traveling. Even just a drive that is more than a couple miles and with no need to get out of the car.
@abasket , thank you. I managed an unmedicated drive (as H’s passenger) of about 8 mi. round trip today and was okay, until he went through a light turning red. Luckily, there were no other cars at the intersection. Not sure that experience helped. 
@silpat I am a very bad rider in the car. Things are better when I’m driving and controlling the situation. I really do have anxiety when my husband is driving. Even though he’s a good driver.
Although yesterday I had to get on the expressway from the right instead of the left in a very busy downtown spot. It wasn’t pretty, my husband had to yell at me. I was petrified honestly.
My anxiety about driving has definitely become worse as I’ve aged. I sometimes have to keep my eyes on the floor or read my phone. I’m convinced my husband is going to run into the person in front of him.
As I mentioned earlier, our kids and I jointly decided to pull the plug on their Thanksgiving visit (while ShawWife was silently feeling sad in the background). Flying just seemed to add too much risk to the mix.
This morning, they called with a new plan. Just before Christmas, they would rent a car in SF, drive four days to come here (ShawSon and new GF, ShawD and BF and ShawD’s new dog) and drop the car off. ShawD has 2 weeks vacation she she and BF could stay with us and then switch and stay with his mother. ShawSon can stay with us for 10 days. His GF may have to go home sooner. Then they would fly home. Flights are really cheap right now. GF has already rented cancelable Airbnbs along the way.
ShawSon, BF and GF can pretty much stay inside for 2 weeks before the trip as all are working remotely. ShawD does primary care, but says she works with a mask a shield, cleans obsessively, and that only one person in her whole company has gotten COVID and he was in NY and caught it March or April before anyone knew what precautions to take.
They were concerned that the new GF is Christian and loves Christmas and they’d be driving on Christmas day. I suggested that they buy a tiny tree for the car. ShawD loved the idea and will also hang some lights.
Wow! @shawbridge
Something for our family to consider for our AZ kid…but I think we would be doing the traveling…in March.
I’m hoping my daughter and her husband can visit us later in December. They can drive here and we have a big house. I’m hoping cases don’t get so out of hand we have to cancel.
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My son’s lease is ending so he’s moving home on Tuesday and finishing his semester here. I am feeling very worried about how full the plane will be and how many will be traveling home from holiday visits. S has been staying in his apartment for weeks without being around other people, so his only exposure will be two airports and the flight. He’ll be in his room for 2 weeks, and will have a bathroom to himself.
Hopefully he (and we) can stay healthy and have a great time visiting the second half of December. He may just stay here next semester if things stay as they are now with the covid numbers increasing. The numbers around here are not good, but we rarely leave the house, so aren’t being exposed.
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While the forums were down we got an airline refund from SAS for our cancelled flight to Germany/Poland last April/May. Well, JustFly has the refund. I’m giving them a week to 10 days to get it to me before I call.
I never thought I’d see that money TBH. My credit union credit card refused to intervene for me. JustFly charged me $35 to put in for a refund after they said it had been refused the first time. SAS told me they never asked for one and it certainly wasn’t refused. I’m out the $35, but not the rest (assuming JustFly doesn’t keep it!).
Hopefully this means SAS is holding its own through the pandemic. We will certainly use them when we get to go visit.
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Well, we pulled the plug on our February in Hawaii. Broke my heart but the trends are in the wrong direction and traveling that far just looks to be such a hassle. I’ll start planning 2022’s trip.
My father in law wants to plan a extended family vacation for the summer. One of his ideas is a houseboat. I can’t imagine being able to get together with 15 people even in the summer. The dilemma I have is if I don’t get involved in the planning I’m stuck with whatever plans they or my sister in law makes. I don’t have the desire or energy to think of ideas and plan. I know it’s a privileged problem to have.
We’re still planning a whole family (grown kids + SOs) trip somewhere in late May. I don’t think we’ll pick a location until March after Match Day (for med school graduates). So much is unknown between now and then.
I just read about HI offering a free round trip ticket for folks who want to do at least a month of remote work there. That’s incredibly tempting, but I’m not sure if FIL will hold up over an entire month this winter. We’d go from mid Jan - early March. H and I are in the mulling it over stage. With FIL’s health, I doubt we’ll check into it.
Youngest son and DIL are on their way to stay with her parents in CA for 6 weeks. They stayed in a hotel (Sheraton) last night due to an early morning flight to Chicago this morning. After that they are catching a train to CA. (Their choice on how to travel - not mine.)
So far they said the hotel was nearly empty and terrific and BWI was practically deserted. On their hotel shuttle to the airport it was just them and flight attendants. Their flight (Southwest) is nicely distanced.
Time will tell about the train.
They’re young and willingly taking the risk, though picked midweek hoping for fewer travelers. Her parents are willingly accepting them into their house (and aren’t super cautious on their own anyway). I’m just hopeful everyone stays safe.
When they return here mid Jan, H and I plan to be with FIL for 2 weeks so they can isolate - just in case. If they catch it and get over it between now and then I guess we’ll have to see if we stick with Plan A or not. Time will tell.
We’ll be taking our own risk here if med school lad is still allowed to come home for Christmas. He wouldn’t get Covid from travel though (non-stop driving trip). He’s careful at work and other things, but who knows?
We’ll take that risk, but won’t go to see FIL until after isolating.
Definitely hoping the vaccine works as they say. At this point it seems like anyone wanting to raise a caution flag about it would be skewered by society, so only time will tell as we see it played out over the next few months.
I can also see how the travel industry is taking a huge hit based upon their reports about numbers of people in various places. It’s sad that there’s no answer that helps everyone.
May the vaccine work!