This week we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Now, it most definitely will not be the same, since we are currently spiking in Covid cases, and our governor has "recommended" no groups of more than 10 people get together.
Plus, all of our family live in other states--all of which has been designated "red" and are on our state's restricted travel list (basically the entire nation). If they were to come visit, they would have to quarantine for 14 days, or quarantine until a negative Covid test came back--which would still be 2-3 days.
So, it will be just us.
Does anyone even want a turkey? Does anyone in this house even know how to cook a turkey?
I have no clue what we will have for dinner, but I'm pretty sure I know how the day will go.
We will wake up whenever we feel like it. I will hopefully go for a quick run, which I've been doing since I started running 8 years ago. When we would visit my brother-in-law and his wife, one of my nieces would go with me. This year, I'll go on my own. At least I have some killer playlists. It is supposed to rain. Oh well.
After I get home and shower, I will make sure that the boys have eaten some sort of breakfast. I will have coffee and breakfast myself, and watch the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and just relax.
Then it is time for football--a time for pain and torture. You see, I am a Detroit Lions fan. If you are a football fan, that makes sense. If you are not...basically it is a comedy of errors. It's like watching Lucy and Charlie Brown. They get your hopes up, just to crush them with seconds remaining on the clock.
But I wouldn't miss it for anything.
At halftime, I will call home and talk to my family. I've done this almost every year I don't make it back.
When I was younger, the whole family would get together. There would be as many as 20 people (or more) gathered to celebrate. Grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, oh my! It was awesome!
Now, with a lot of us spread out all over the country, we often still call home and check in. The remaining gathered family would pass the phone around, and I'd get to talk to everyone there. I 'd get to hear the same story from 8 different people--different versions, different takes, but always something humorous. It was almost as good as being there...almost.
This year, there will be a small gathering. I will call my mom, and hopefully there will be a little phone passing. This this is one tradition that won't go down the drain due to Covid.
My family is nuts...but I wouldn't trade them in for the world.
After the game, I'll figure out what's for dinner, and maybe get it started. Pizza kinda sounds good. (But as I type this a few days before, I'm overhearing B talk about turkey...guess I'd better go find one of those, and learn how to cook it).
Then it will be time for the next football game. Although at this point, I'm sure the boys will be bugging me and my husband to play a game--board game, video game, card game, you name it.
During dinner I will put on "Alice's Restaurant," by Arlo Guthrie. This has also become a Turkey Day tradition. When we would go to my brother-in-law's place, he'd put it on during dinner. I think it started as a joke, but it has turned into a tradition. We won't be there this year, but I will make sure it is playing in the background.
We will watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" at some point during the day, because that too has become one of our family traditions. We will probably watch it more than once...in fact, we've already watched in once before Thanksgiving week.
We will stay home, be safe, and be thankful. We have our health. My husband and I have jobs. The boys are still going to school. We have a warm house to live in. Food on the table.
We are truly blessed.
And we'll do it all, because the one thing that has happened during Covid is that our family has become even closer than ever.
Family can be taken for granted...I hope that never happens. We may argue, block each other on Facebook (temporarily), and complain about whatever. But at the end of the day, they will always be with us, whether sitting across the table, a 1000 miles away, or up in Heaven.
And no matter what, family is the one thing that Covid can't take away!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Comentários