Thanksgiving 2020 Style

Never in a million years would I have thought we’d still be dealing with this pandemic. The first week in March we were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina sharing a beach side house with friends. Every evening before dinner we watched the local news. With every passing day, there were more and more stories about Covid and at that time especially about the horrors coming out of Northern Italy. Little did we imagine the Northeast corridor, our neck of the woods, would be next.

And yet here we are, just days before Thanksgiving and not only are the numbers are rising, but there is speculation that we are heading into unprecedented growth…in the wrong direction. Hospitals could reach their breaking points and our entire healthcare system may be on the brink of disaster if we don’t contain this virus.

We have a large blended family, 6 grown children, 5 grands and thankfully both our dads, each in their mid 90’s are still very healthy. There has been much discussion over these past two weeks about what the holidays will look like for our family. We are like every other family right now, we feel frustrated that we can’t just do what we want to do and be with who we want to be with.

After weighing all the options and looking ahead to a dreary Thanksgiving weather forecast we’ve decided to try something completely different this year. We’re fortunate that several members of our family live relatively close by, so we’ll each make one or two dishes and divide them into several containers. Then we’ll meet briefly outdoors with our masks on and hands sanitized and exchange containers, a smile and some virtual hugs. The end product will be our complete traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but instead of eating it together at one table, we’ll each bring the exchanged containers back to our own homes.

So just as we’ve reimagined school and work in this time of Covid. It’s time IMHO to reimagine our holiday traditions. So maybe that means we put up the Christmas decorations after Halloween and that our traditional Turkey dinner this year is not all being physically together around one table, but that our dinner comes from several take out containers…who knows, maybe some of our reimagining will result in the making of new traditions.

I hope whatever you decide to do this Thanksgiving it’s the best decision for you and your loved ones.

So stay safe and keep wearing your mask and lathering yourself in hand sanitizer!