Thanksgiving | What is your plan?

I totally understand!! Hard decision. I think when guests are coming to your house you can make any restrictions that you want. Here in Michigan they actually want guests in your home to wear a mask inside.

 

Ugh... I do not know. We're in Michigan now and have been for the past five-ish weeks. We decided to stay at our home here so we can isolate, but still get out and do stuff like go for walks, bike and hike trails. As for our son, I honestly, do not know. We were supposed to pick him up in Ann Arbor this Saturday and take him back to Chicago with us. He had planned on staying the week before going back to his apartment to finish the semester. BUT, he contacted us last night and said that his best friend/roommate's girlfriend's roommate just tested positive. His friend has been exposed to the roommate directly and of course Graham has been exposed to his friend. The entire group is going to be tested this week (it had been the plan anyway, but the importance of this test has changed now). So now we're trying to weight our options and determine whether or not it's worth taking a chance with bringing him home at this time. Even if he tests negative before we pick him up, it doesn't mean he'll stay negative with his potential exposure. We'll see what the first round of testing shows, if the girlfriend or roommate test positive, even if Graham is negative, I'm pretty sure we won't see him for Thanksgiving. It really stinks though because he was really, really looking forward to coming home. He's badly in need of a change of scenery.

We saw them all last weekend in Ann Arbor (we drove in for the day to treat them to lunch)... but I am soooo thankful that we took all of the precautions (always wore masks, ordered take out and sat outside to eat, the roommates all at one table and Jeff and I at a separate table).

As for classes... the boys all said that the engineering department had done a good job at being proactive and moved everything online early. I'm not sure what that means as far as the quality of his labs though. The UM parents page has been a train wreck lately after UM canceled housing contracts through the end of next semester... meaning that kids aren't just going home for the holidays, they're going home for the rest of the school year now. It's been a mad scramble to pack up dorm rooms on short notice.

^^See my note above about how our plans have changed in an instant. I don't even know what to write. I was feeling fairly confident when I last posted here, that with my kids keeping their small bubbles and testing before coming home, we'd be ok (especially if we took other precautions as well). But this kind of shook things up and made us realize that unless you know what everyone in your bubble is doing and what's going on in their side bubbles... it's really not much of a bubble... sigh.

Maybe if you're going to talk to your mom about canceling, if might help if you have an alternative activity planned instead. Like... let's all plan to fix our meals at home and meet on Zoom at whatever time type of thing?

 

@tkradtke
Oh No! Too bad he didn’t have a vehicle and could drive up there himself and stay in your rental for the quarantine time line...?

our Emma was sick, never got tested but her best friend and her husband were positive tested. My daughter just had mild symptoms so basically self quarantined herself and I grocery shopped and put the bags outside her window or she has been having groceries ‘shipped’ to her home.
As of Thanksgiving day she’ll be well for 3 weeks well past the time they say you’re safe after the last symptoms have left. So she will be here Thanksgiving day.

 

I know what you mean. My trainer and I were just talking about this during my virtual workout this morning... there is a serious amount of decision fatigue going on right now. I feel like that for everything we've tried to do, we've had to make a new decision based on new info daily. Right now it's about trying to bring our kids home safely at break. Graham could stay in his apartment, but Clara HAS to leave her dorm, so with her we have no choice. As for celebrating Christmas, I feel like I should start the focus now on how to make a fun virtual celebration with extended family vs. making myself crazy trying to figure how we might possibly pull off a safe, in person visit.

 

Yep. My sister had a friend who works with the school and health department and gave us a head's up, so I watched the press conference. Both of my boys are in high school. They get to go to school today and tomorrow and then they are home for three weeks. I really hope it's ONLY three weeks and then they give it another chance. I know a lot of high schools have outbreaks, but our school has been doing really well. All of the kids that have tested positive caught it from their parents or someone outside of the school. They haven't had any student to student or teacher - student transmissions so far. Everything they are doing to mitigate the spread is working so far.

 

I totally get this feeling. I was feeling the same way and was wishing that it didn't have to be up to me, but thankfully my sister texted and said she was feeling the same way and we both agreed to skip it this year.

 

I know! We considered just getting him here and letting him ride it out... but he would be alone without a car until we were back which wouldn't be good if he got worse or ran out of anything. We're trying to figure it all out right now. His test is tomorrow morning and so is his friend's test. If the friend is negative, then I'm thinking that bodes well for Graham since any contact with the infected person would have come through his friend. If the first round of tests are negative for the group, and he still wants to come home, we'll schedule him a second test for as soon as he's home. We'll set him up in a room to isolate until we get those results. Thankfully we'll have a few days before Clara comes home to figure things out if that's the case, so I can deal with one child at a time... lol!

That's good that Emma had mild symptoms and was able to isolate... and glad that isolation time is up so she can join you for Thanksgiving!

 

I don't know if this is relatable to your family, but in my house, my husband and I have different opinions about how to handle visiting friends and family -- he being more lax than I -- and I have no doubt he would refuse to take a test. However, he would be willing to wear a mask indoors, because he believes the snapshot of a test can give a false sense of wellness where a mask offers some protection to the wearer and others nearby. When my father in law came over to have him fix a computer issue last spring, we all wore masks, except during dinner (pizza!) and then put them back on again for the rest of the visit.

I know Thanksgiving is a grazing holiday, but maybe this year it shouldn't be.

That's my state! LOL Those charts are *everywhere*, but also very helpful.

I do wish more people accepted the mask recommendation because I personally think it's the maskless gatherings at home that are escalating the numbers. (No proof, of course, just personal observation based on the attitudes of my friends both for themselves and their remarks about the people they know and their communities.)

I told my high school kids to bring everything home and expect it to be extended when the cases spike again after Thanksgiving. I hope I'm wrong, but while *most* people are trying to follow the guidelines, especially when with people who are observing them, I just feel like those that think they're a waste of effort are going to have smaller get-togethers that are still larger than is wise.

In our district, most of the outbreaks have been at one of the three elementary schools and the early childhood center, with comparatively fewer at the high and middle schools. My kids and their friends are taking it more seriously than a lot of the adults I know; they want to be at school and are behaving accordingly. I'm only grateful that their fall sports (cross country and marching band) wrapped in the last couple of weeks, so they don't have that hanging over them.

Traditionally, we have Thanksgiving with only my mom, and will likely do that this year as well. Both of us have been keeping to ourselves (for the most part) so that the we can visit each other.

 

We're staying home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just the 2 of us. So sad. But we are kind of in our own little medical crisis so we don't want to be around anyone who might give us covid, and Florida is a hot mess. My daughter and her husband just cancelled yet another trip to visit us. That makes #4. We haven't seen them since March.

 

Ohio has now instituted (starts Thursday) a 3 week curfew that goes from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. They are hoping this will keep the people home. Most retail establishments have already shorted hours so will not be affected by this curfew. 24 hours stores cut back in the beginning. My local Wal-Mart had actually stopped being open 24 hours in 2019. The governor is adamant that he does not want to shut down again and feels that the curfew might be something that will help. We have now breached 300,000 cases but the health care workers are what is worrisome. Plenty of PPE and ventilators available, it is the people needed where the shortage is happening.

But the governor in today's presser has again said that it is the gatherings that are the problem because of people not staying below the 10 person limit and being lax about masks and social distancing. I found out last week that in my county a person knew they were positive and had a party at their residence anyways. Everyone attending knew about the positive and quite a few of them also became positive. They were excited because they got 2 weeks off work with no loss of pay.

As for me, with the way I feel today, no way I want to go out! Surgery has wiped me out and I haven't had solid food since Sunday. Still have a little bleeding from the stitches around the implants. I've been in pain and sleeping most of the day.

 

this is soooo wrong in all ways!

praying for speedy recovery!!

 

It is amazing how stu.. foolish some people can be about wanting to do it the way we've always done it. Thank goodness our own families value their life more than tradition. Prayers for those of you who don't have this kind of family. Be the Grinch and live for another year. Please!

 

Yes another Michigander! I’m Livingston county and it is a rare site to see someone in public without a mask. Now I don’t know about indoor events. We don’t participate in any of those. I have a weekly Woman’s Bible Class but we do those virtual instead of in person.
We did a trip in August to help my son and his wife move. They live in the
Keweenaw Peninsula, and that part of Michigan you saw many without masks..... but there was a large outbreak there so they (the public) are taking it serious now, my son who is a Trooper in that area and his wife is a Nurse so they always took it seriously.

 

Okay getting back to my comment on hardly any mask wearing in the Keweenaw Peninsula, they had only one case back through the spring. It wasn’t until end of summer when all the college students moved back to the area that have made Covid cases rise dramatically. I actually was surprised the summer and vacations to that area didn’t increase cases. But maybe vacationers stick to themselves vs mixing with the general public/parties.

 

Feel better soon Rene.

 

This is true with where we are in Michigan EXCEPT in Meijer (in Manistee). And it was pretty much all men that were maskless. We make a big box store supply and grocery store run every few weeks. We vary which one we go to and all have been good except that one Meijer... so odd!