Thanksgiving | What is your plan?

We haven't seen the inside of a rest since March, but maybe they are doing pick up! LOL!!!

 

Maybe everyone needs a comfy!!

 

We can't leave the state, hubs work has a mandatory quarantine if you do, so we are spending our first thanksgiving and likely Christmas in our home. We always have gone back to Arkansas and stayed in a hotel and been with family. The reality is that with COVID, the risks are too high for all of us to get together. I think I am okay with it. I do worry as our parents get older that each holiday could be the last but that's true of anyone I guess so I am going to push it out of my head and celebrate the best as possible. It's just us and the two dogs so I hope we can still find ways to make it special and feel like Christmas vs just another day.

 

lol, its way too hot in texas for that, ha ha!

 

I figure do whatever you're comfortable with. Everyone has a different comfort level.

We're not quite sure yet, but it'll most likely just be the three of us. DH's parents don't feel safe about going to someone else's house, which we totally understand. And they can only have two people visit them, so that takes away us going there. If that's the case we're trying to figure out a delicious but alternative meal since I can't have any of the "traditional" Thanksgiving fare. My guess is that we'll all sleep in, take our time making food, eat, then spend the day watching tv or playing games. Not optimal, but that's the way it is and we'll deal with it.

 

ME TOO!!!! If not... anyone in Nashville that would know???

 

What I'm hoping for is that my husband and I will fix a nice Thanksgiving dinner for two and zoom with son, daughter-in-love, and her parents. What I'm afraid of is that sister-in-law will invite herself over with her husband and son. We have not invited them right now because we want to be low-key and on zoom!

 

I think it's reasonable to ask everyone to get tested, but of course it's no guarantee that someone won't bring Covid.

Thanksgiving is usually the holiday that my extended family gathers for. But most of us aren't socializing indoors with anyone outside our household right now, and my high risk parents aren't even comfortable seeing others outside. So we're going to stay home (in VA) and Zoom with family members in NY, CT, and MA.

Our schools have been out since March, and my kids are *finally* scheduled to go back in January. Even if my extended family didn't feel like they do, we'd stay home. I feel like if my county wants cases to be low enough for in person school to resume, everyone needs to do their part and avoid high risk situations. (And unfortunately, I think that indoor unmasked gatherings are high risk for almost everyplace in the country right now. ) Sadly, I think too many people aren't going to make that sacrifice and the kids aren't going to be going back in Jan. Or if we are, it will be amid a big holiday-related spike.

 

Disclaimer: I'm in the camp that we should avoid gatherings this year. I've come to the conclusion, for us, the holidays this year are just going to be sucky and won't be family, sigh.

Gatherings are currently the biggest culprit for transmission right now. We are having Thanksgiving with just our household. My mom lives nearby and I will bring her a meal and maybe we will Skype during dinner. Tyler is at daycare, so it's impossible for us to quarantine and even a test wouldn't negate the risk, so that's just how it will be this year.

The west coast just issued a mandate for a 14 day quarantine for out of state travelers. In the county I live in, we are prohibited from interacting with more than 5 people outside our household on a weekly basis (our phase 2), but I suspect we will be put back into a more restrictive phase 1 soon. I've heard loads of people who are just blatantly disregarding it for Thanksgiving Our hospitals are already filling up, I'm cringing about what it will look like a few weeks after Thanksgiving.

 

We are in the same camp Sheri as no kind of gathering for us. It's just the two of us with all our children on their on though my daughter called with the hint, hint...What are your plans for Thanksgiving??? Dick said we weren't doing anything just to protect our health. She dropped the idea and will probably go to a Free soup kitchen somewhere as she has done for the past couple years. One son is a chef in Boston so he'll be cooking in volume while other son may or may not have his adult children for the holiday. They're each just a state away from their parents so it will probably be the 5 of them together.

Today a friend came over to help get the dead freezer out of all cellar and he asked what our plans were. I said Nothing! and so he's going to bring us (really Dick!) a turkey plated dinner. That's better than carry out.

Now we're still on the fence about inviting my 14 yr old granddaughter to come for her Christmas winter holiday. As everyone has said, testing is only a picture of the most recent day and I doubt that her mother even has a clue where you can get tested where they live. But this is a whole other picture!

 

Our local newspaper just announced that our governor will be issuing a 4 week state-wide ban starting tomorrow which will close restaurants for indoor dining, prohibit all gatherings (regardless of size) and limit all business (including grocery stores) to 25% capacity. [knocks on wood] Seattle has only had 3 deaths over the past 2 weeks. For the most part, WA has done a phenomenal job controlling COVID spread. Even though we started with the first documented case in the US and are the 13th largest state by population, we are ranked 43rd in deaths/1M due to COVID. I'm really pleased with the testing availability and that everyone is pretty respectful about wearing masks, social distancing, etc and it's made a big difference.

One of my teammates at work (lives in Boston) just recovered from COVID last week. He said he's never ever been sicker in his life (he's in his mid-50s). He was very close to being hospitalized. He thinks his very mildly symptomatic son (short-lived headache) gave it to him and his wife - I say this because many people simply don't know they are contagious which is a huge culprit. My husband and I have both have work teammates who have parents who have died of COVID. A couple down the street from us both died It's very real for me.

Anyway, I don't say this to make anyone feel guilty about their plans, but I do think it's important to be informed about risk. I would feel terribly guilty if I hosted a gathering where people got sick. A big round of hugs and stay-healthy vibes to everyone as we go into the holiday season!!

 

In Canada, we were doing a pretty good job of flattening the curve; our cases/hospitalizations were going down throughout late spring and summer...

And then came Canadian Thanksgiving (12 October 2020), with family and friends gathering indoors, because we had grown too complacent. In the aftermath of Canadian Thanksgiving, cases spiked all across the country. Some people ended up in hospital; some people died. Officials are now warning us that if we don't get our act together, we won't be celebrating Christmas with friends and family: our hospitals/health care system cannot support another such spike.

This thing is real. Totally reasonable to err on the side of caution.

 

Well, plans have changed and gathering for Thanksgiving is off. Cases are so bad here in Wisconsin and my daughter was getting anxious over the situation. We decided it was the prudent thing to call it off. We'll do a family Zoom meeting that day instead. DH and I will have a simplified turkey dinner on the actual day. As long as there's pumpkin pie to eat all is right with the world.

 

Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here at all. As far as Christmas goes, we as a family won’t get together until January. 5 out of 6 of us need to do some sort of travel to celebrate, my mum only gets Christmas Day off and it’s way way too expensive for my cousin to fly home at Christmas so we’ve decided we’ll get together for our Christmas in the new year some time. If regional borders close or I move away in the meantime we’ll reassess as needed.

 

Well.... our Governor did a news conference last night and 3 week restrictions are in place.

@Karen @tkradtke Karen you have high schoolers? Tracy will your son travel home this week? My son is wondering on how they are going to be able to complete one of his classes which is a lab and impossible to do online.
We are just happy our decision to take back our invitation to my brother and my husband’s brother for Thanksgiving dinner.
they completely understand and took up other offers extended to them. Whew...
We called them last week explaining with the increase in Covid cases we were just going to do a small meal.
Which means me and my husband, our youngest who lives home and one daughter who lives alone and is home working. Now this isn’t a easy decision. We have 6 children, 4 are married, 2 grandchildren. But my husband is high risk and already has had to work through thiS pandemic as he is a State fire inspector so has to go out, including schools/hospitals/afh which many are wings on nursing homes..... but our children have jobs that also expose themselves, 2 Troopers 1 nurse 1 military SF. So you see their chances of getting it are high too. We have done the summer meeting and visiting outdoors on our back deck but with Michigan the cold weather has arrived.
Blessing to all and may you find the joy in this holiday season. It is possible to still be special! Think outside of the box!