Thanksgiving: Covid Style

Just like almost everything this year, our Thanksgiving looked very different from most years.  With spiking COVID numbers and recommendations to keep Thanksgiving gatherings to those you live with, we opted for an at-home Thanksgiving with our little family.

We started our day with a Zoom Thanksgiving get together with cousins.  There was a puppet message from Grammie followed by some Thanksgiving trivia and a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt.  Although we couldn't all be together in person, the kids had a lot of fun getting to play with their cousins virtually.

Staley made potholders and delivered potholders with notes to our neighbors, letting them know that we are thankful for them.

Since we were making our full Thanksgiving feast on our own this year, each person was in charge of a specific dish.  I made the turkey (breast) in the crockpot, the gravy, and the ham.  Adelie made strawberry pretzel jello salad while Briggs supervised.

Staley made Uma's famous scalloped pineapple casserole.

Briggs and Zach worked together to make the rolls.

When our food was done, we delivered some of our feast to our special neighbor friend, Miss Vickie.

In return, Miss Vickie made mashed potatoes and corn casserole to share with us.  Since this was her first Thanksgiving alone with her husband in the nursing home, I hated that we couldn't share our table with her.  I was glad we could at least share our food.

We enjoyed our massive Thanksgiving feast and soon realized a perk of making a full Thanksgiving meal for our little family.  We have since enjoyed Thanksgiving leftover dinner # 2 and are looking forward to Thanksgiving leftover dinner #3 tonight.  Bonus!  We rounded out our Thanksgiving day fun with a walk to help our food settle followed by movie night and pumpkin pie (courtesy of Grammie) for dinner.

There have been moments this year where it has been a lot easier to focus on things that are cancelled, things that we have missed out on, things that are different, things that are going wrong.  It is easy to lament 2020 and all that it has brought with it, just wishing for it to be over.  However, Thanksgiving was an opportunity to focus on all we have to be grateful for.  We are healthy.  We have stable jobs.  We have wonderful family and friends who we still connect with even when we can't be together.  Our kids get to go to school.  And although this year has not been what we planned, we've explored new places, found new hobbies, embraced a slower lifestyle, and enjoyed lots of family time.  This day was not what we had planned.  This year was not what we had planned.  But in the midst of it all, there is so much to be thankful for.  It was a happy Thanksgiving indeed! 

He Says...

For Thanksgiving, Briggs made a turkey at school.  His turkey had 4 feathers and on each feather he wrote something he was thankful for.  On Thanksgiving day, we were having a discussion about what we were thankful for.  Briggs said, "My school already knows what I'm thankful for.  I am thankful for mom, dad, cats, and God.  I mean, I'm thankful for sisters too, but I only had 4 feathers."

So I guess he is thankful for sisters.  Obviously not quite as much as cats, but thankful nonetheless.

Sadness

Last fall I booked our Disney trip.  I researched and decided on a new resort.  In the midst of our spring quarantine, I still woke up before 6:00 on our 180 day mark to make restaurant reservations.  Over the summer I booked cheap flights.  As Disney changed some of their operations, I modified our reservations and shortened our dates and adapted to the new situation.  Over the past few months I read almost daily reports about Disney's reopening guidelines and flight safety reports and attraction wait times and crowd status.  While I talked myself into and out of our trip on an almost daily basis, I continued to move forward with getting matching shirts and masks, stocking up on travel sized cleaning supplies, collecting airplane activities for the kids, and researching trip itineraries to maximize our days at the parks.  Our trip approached just as COVID cases across the country soared to new levels, hospitals started to become overloaded, and various states reinstituted lockdowns.  On the day before we were scheduled to leave, my anxiety peaked and we finally made the determination to cancel our trip.  At that moment, my anxiety that had been building was quelled while the sadness began to seep in.

I can't say that I knew we would cancel our trip.  There were definite moments of certainty in our plans.  However we never told the kids.  Although I put in for the time off at work, I did not move forward with communicating with the school or cancelling any of the kids' lessons or even telling our neighbors about our plans.  I made sure that we had flexible cancellation policies.  I knew that cancelling was not only a possibility, but a probability.  Although I am sad that we are home right now instead of soaking in the warmth and magic at Disney World, I also know that we made the right decision.  My kids are giggling as they play together, unaware that there could have been another option.  They got so excited when I stocked the pantry shelves with all the good vacation snacks I bought.  They have school activities and Thanksgiving break to look forward to.  And although what I really wanted was an escape from the heaviness of the current situation surrounding us, I also have had plenty of moments of escape while planning our trip over this past year.  Although our Disney trip didn't happen, I found joy in the planning.  I found joy in reading blog posts and articles.  I found joy in mapping out our days in my mind.  I found joy in planning the ultimate surprise for our kids.  Maybe God knew that I couldn't have the full escape that I dreamed of, but I could have these small tastes to satisfy my longing.  And with our trip officially cancelled, it opens up the door for me to do what I love to do...start planning our next one.

A Letter to God

 I found this letter that Adelie wrote:

"Dear god / jesus

I love you and I love chrismes but sumtimes I feel like presents are more inportint than you so pleas help me get good presents but also help me love you more.  Love Adelie  PS: Pleas write back if you do that would be awesome"

I love her honesty and I love her heart for God.

Milestones

 There have been a few milestone moments for the kids in this household.

Briggs became the final recipient in the household to have his very own library card.

Adelie started taking piano lessons.

And Staley has enjoyed serving on the grade school's Safety Patrol.

In the year of COVID, it is nice to still have these little milestones.

Indian Summer

As we settled into November, we were blessed with a late fall week of beautiful weather.  Seventy degrees and sunshine was just what we needed to combat the dread of the impending winter that is all too quickly approaching.  We used this week of opportunity to squeeze in some final outdoor play dates with friends, a cook-out with family, and finishing up some outdoor jobs.  We raked.  We hiked.  We closed out the garden.  We soaked in the sunshine, breathed in the fresh air, enjoyed a little socialization, and tried to just enjoy this November opportunity that we were given.

The kids enjoyed an outdoor play date with a few friends and neighbors.

We took our (maybe?) final Farmdale hike of the year.

We were thankful for the blessing of at least one more week of beautiful weather.

He Jokes...

 Briggs recently made up a couple of jokes:

Q:  What did one fire truck say to the other fire truck?
A:  Nice to "wheee" you.

Q:  What is a doctors favorite part of a book?
A:  The ILL-ustrations.

He thought his teacher should dress up as a banana for Halloween.

And disguised his turkey as Olaf.

I love this boy and his witty, creative, imaginative self.