Thanksgiving

[jerseygirl]

Family starting to think if we can have thanksgiving together. Son is physician and just sent text to all, need to get a Covid test 2-3 days before. And we will eat outside, heat lamps blankets etc

[NoNamePerson]

Unless something changes we will be doing Thanksgiving. We did 3 birthdays and 4th of July rolled into one day. But there are only 7 of us. Outside with long table under canopy. We were able to social distance - maybe not exactly 6 feet but not on top of each other. This bunch are big huggers but that was a no go which was ok with me since I've never been much of a hugger anyway

There will be 8 (maybe) for Thanksgiving but will be outside weather permitting. If not plenty of room between dining area and great room for us to spread out.

I just know it felt so good to get together when we did the b'days since we missed Easter get together.

Hope things work out for every one here to their comfort level!!  

[raeoflyte]

I was trying to come up with a byoe or dessert potluck for thanksgiving, but thats pretty solidly off. Gatherings are restricted to 5 people.

[NastyWoman]

I have already been invited to a socially distanced outdoor TG. If it rains there will be tents on the tennis court. Separate plates so no shared passed around dishes. But...I am a hugger, I kiss three times coming and going (tradition in the region I come from), and I like quiet conversations (not distanced). So this is going to be too hard for me, so I am going to decline. With pain in my heart as they are my "adopted" US family but I know myself and this will not work for me.


 

[haapai]

My parents already sent out the email putting the kibosh on a last Thanksgiving at their place before they sell it.  They rather bluntly noted that they are about ninety times more likely to die of Covid-19 than any of their children or grandchildren. 

I'm relieved.  Yes, it's sad that I probably won't see them until March or April, but this is safer. 

[wvugurl26]

DH's parents and oldest sister's family are going to visit the younger sister since they moved this summer. We are going to stay home and cook for our nephew. He doesn't have enough time off to go with his grandparents and family.

The day after we are driving to my aunt's. I feel comfortable she's been cautious. Things can change in a month though. She's going in 1 day a week so if our state lands on her work's hot spot list we will not go. Also neither my grandma or her mother in law will be there as they reside in a hot spot state per her work.

It could all be a massive shit show in a month then all bets are off.

[Deleted]

Yanno all those restaurants and supermarket delis that offer a precooked Thanksgiving Dinner? They'll feed 10 or 20 or however many you need. Um. This year it's not likely there will be many tables set for even 10. Reckon those ready-made dinners will be offered for 4 or 6 or maybe 8 instead?

I can tell you that Cracker Barrel isn't going to change. We got our T'Day Dinner from Cracker Barrel last year (it was delicious!) and just looked at this year's deal. Nope. 10. We thought we'd be seven last year, turned out to be six, and what we thought would be leftovers just turned out to be way too much even beyond leftovers. There will only be five of us this year. One 6-7 lb turkey breast, a few pounds of potatoes, only half an apple and a quarter pound of sausage needed for dressing. A pumpkin pie, an apple pie and a peanut butter pie certainly won't be needed for five people.

However...except for last year, it usually turns out that I'm chief cook and bottle washer for any holiday dinner. This year it'll just be cooking dinner for five and not slaving over a hot stove for two or three days.

[Blonde Granny]

I'm one of the ones that don't have any family anywhere close, so the day before I will pick up a BBQ at my favorite place. Will bring it home and with luck there will be a college football game on T-D and I can enjoy watching that and having BBQ for lunch.

[TheOtherMe]

I know my family is going about life like there is no covid.  Positivity rates around here are ridiculously high.

I will not be attending anything that they are having.

I will spend the day at home.  

[jeffreymo]

We generally have 2 Thanksgiving dinners - day of and Saturday following - and we travel for overnight stays for both.

As of now, we are planning to do it the same as we always have. Involves 13 at my side of the family with sleeping arrangements spread out over 3 houses. For in-laws we usually have 14 and 3 dogs all in the same large house.

Risky I know. This was planned in July when things were ok in our region. Maybe a month from now plans will get canceled.

[haapai]

I probably should have mentioned this when I posted about my parents' pulling the plug on T-Day.  They live 200 miles away from me.  It's a three hour drive.  It's a five-hour drive for my brother and his family.  It's a three and a half hour drive for my brother's mother-in-law. 

If they lived an hour from me, I'd be willing to attempt a safe and distanced T-day just to say that we kept up the tradition.  Eating outside in bitter wind, rain, or snow would be a bit of an adventure and could easily be turned into a meal packed to go if numbers went haywire or the weather was particularly foul. 

I cannot trust myself to settle for such limited contact at the end of a three hour drive.  The temptation will be too great. 

[swamp]

I don't know what to do about thanksgiving.   My niece is coming up from Philly.   My SIL works in a hospital.  DH's aunt works in a school.   

I usually host about 20.    My parents are both elderly and compromised.    

[bookkeeper]

We will travel to see our son and his wife 7 hours away.  She may invite her father to join us for dinner, so still a small group.  This will be the last time we see those two until May, so I'm not wanting to skip it. DIL is working from home and taking Covid very seriously, so we feel pretty good about visiting there.

We are talking about moving the holiday up a week or two.  This son told me years ago that we didn't need Hallmark to tell us when we are going to get together or that we love each other!  He's a keeper.

[Tennesseer]

Oct 22, 2020 9:31:55 GMT -5 bookkeeper said:

We will travel to see our son and his wife 7 hours away.  She may invite her father to join us for dinner, so still a small group.  This will be the last time we see those two until May, so I'm not wanting to skip it. DIL is working from home and taking Covid very seriously, so we feel pretty good about visiting there.

We are talking about moving the holiday up a week or two.  This son told me years ago that we didn't need Hallmark to tell us when we are going to get together or that we love each other!  He's a keeper.

Good way to avoid all the holiday traffic too.

[taz157]

We generally go to my ILs the Saturday before Thanksgiving and celebrate with that side (could be as many as 35 people in total); however, my ILs already cancelled it because of everything going on (plus they are high risk). Generally on Thanksgiving Day we have my parents over (so 5 I total) and still plan to have that again this year.

[trippypea]

Before my mother passed away 4 years ago, we always had Thanksgiving at my parents' house (I cooked the later years) and it would be 10-11 of us. After my mom died, my sister stopped coming so I started hosting my father and brother at my house, and that was 6 of us. This year I am going to cancel it since my father is 76 and has a lot of health conditions and I don't want to risk his health. My kids are both college students who are on campus several days a week, and while their campus currently has no cases, that can change at any time.

I'm planning on cooking a small dinner on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and running it up to him (he lives an hour away) on Wednesday so they will at least have home cooking, and then I'll just make dinner for DH, the kids, and I on Thanksgiving.

[vetswife]

i will see what my kids have planned.  We've had a few gatherings, both inside and outside, and so far so good.  But all are careful to follow prevention guidelines so as long as they are doing that I feel pretty safe. On the other hand, am not attending any meetings with larger groups such as at church.  Masks are optional, which I think is foolish so I just go to the safest service and that's all.

[giramomma]

I think it will be another day as usual. Maybe I'll get some baking done or something and play a few games with the kids. I'm taking a shawl knitting class hopefully in Nov, so that will give me some work time.

I'm unwilling to expand our pod unless it's for something like my dad's death. We're taking enough risk with the kids being in activities (but not in school), especially when the positivity rate for my state is over 20%, and we'll be at 200K cases by the end of the month.

[Deleted]

Fauci was on CNN the other day and mentioned Thanksgiving as one of the likely leading causes of massive spread of COVID if people start gathering.

If we keep acting like there's no pandemic - it will continue to rage on and kill people. 

[jerseygirl]

We want to test first but little grandkids were tested because exposure at school. They were very upset by it, had to be held down crying from the nasal probe.
If they can get saliva test then they will come, not putting them through that if not absolutely needed for school
I felt so bad when I learned about the test they had. Poor kids - in school, no online, back to school some days not others. Very confusing and scary for little kids not really understanding about this frightening virus
If Thanksgiving does happen we’re probably getting prepared meal or even pizza .

[Deleted]

Oct 22, 2020 11:25:47 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

We want to test first but little grandkids were tested because exposure at school. They were very upset by it, had to be held down crying from the nasal probe.
If they can get saliva test then they will come, not putting them through that if not absolutely needed for school
I felt so bad when I learned about the test they had. Poor kids - in school, no online, back to school some days not others. Very confusing and scary for little kids not really understanding about this frightening virus
If Thanksgiving does happen we’re probably getting prepared meal or even pizza .

How do you get tested at will when much of the country still can't get testing if they are actually sick? Who pays for pre-party testing? 

[jerseygirl]

Oct 22, 2020 11:27:26 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

Oct 22, 2020 11:25:47 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

We want to test first but little grandkids were tested because exposure at school. They were very upset by it, had to be held down crying from the nasal probe.
If they can get saliva test then they will come, not putting them through that if not absolutely needed for school
I felt so bad when I learned about the test they had. Poor kids - in school, no online, back to school some days not others. Very confusing and scary for little kids not really understanding about this frightening virus
If Thanksgiving does happen we’re probably getting prepared meal or even pizza .

How do you get tested at will when much of the country still can't get testing if they are actually sick? Who pays for pre-party testing? 

Son is doctor . He said we can probably just have our doctor give prescription or son will write
In NJ you don’t need to have symptoms to get tested, local CVS and Rite Aid don’t even require ‘referral’ or prescription just an appointment. Obviously the great majority of people getting tested weren’t sick since positive rate is very low , even if ‘high’ it’s only 10% so 90% of people are ok
Testing should be free (for us). Insurance including Medicare pays all costs for testing or treatments
If we need to pay I’m ok with that

I don’t know if what you said is correct now - most can’t get tested even if sick. Think that was earlier before there were so many tests and labs that were up and running

[HoneyBBQ]

Please everyone stay home and zoom with your loved ones.

[busymom]

We're planning to stay at home, so it'll just be DH & I, and the kids.  Sadly, we're also going to spend Christmas alone, too.  It's not that we don't want to see DH's side of the family, but they've already had 4 confirmed cases of the virus, which is just another reason NOT to see extended family members.

[lynnerself]

We decided just to not have it. A big family gathering was always out. So should we have my 2 kids and 1 grandchild over for dinner inside? We decided it was just not that important to see everyone at once.

We have invited DS to come visit at his convenience and stay with us. We have only seen him once since about February. He is in Seattle, but is being very carefully.

DD and family we see often, but generally only outside and distanced. (Grandbaby is another story. If we get covid it will be from toddler hugs. Not willing to give these up.)

[flamingo]

It'll just be Dh and I for Thanksgiving. It's usually just us, or we travel somewhere. No traveling this year, so we'll buy a turkey and make a big dinner with lots of leftovers. My parents usually go to see my grandparents, but given that grandpa died earlier this year and grandma is in a nursing home with strict outside only visitation, they'll stay home too. I wouldn't be opposed to them coming to us, but they live 6 hours away, so it would have to be a multi-day visit and I really don't want that. It stresses me out to have them here for that long, plus there's nothing to do here in the cold months, so it's doubtful they would even want to.

I would like to visit my parents some time this holiday season. I'll probably do it between the holidays and I'll go there because it's really easier for me to travel to them. But again, it's just them, and I trust them to be careful. I'm worried about my dad's health for other reasons, but in terms of Covid, they are being careful.

[NastyWoman]

Oct 22, 2020 11:15:07 GMT -5 giramomma said:

I think it will be another day as usual. Maybe I'll get some baking done or something and play a few games with the kids. I'm taking a shawl knitting class hopefully in Nov, so that will give me some work time.

I'm unwilling to expand our pod unless it's for something like my dad's death. We're taking enough risk with the kids being in activities (but not in school), especially when the positivity rate for my state is over 20%, Andrea we'll be at 200K cases by the end of the month.

Wow, to put that in perspective my post above is written in an environment were the county positivity rate is under 1.7% and the state as a whole hovers around 2.5%

[weltschmerz]

We were solidly in the red zone during Thanksgiving. Getting together with family and friends was prohibited. Everybody had to stay home.
So, I roasted a small turkey for just me and DS.

[Deleted]

Oct 22, 2020 11:35:24 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Oct 22, 2020 11:27:26 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

How do you get tested at will when much of the country still can't get testing if they are actually sick? Who pays for pre-party testing? 

Son is doctor . He said we can probably just have our doctor give prescription or son will write
In NJ you don’t need to have symptoms to get tested, local CVS and Rite Aid don’t even require ‘referral’ or prescription just an appointment. Obviously the great majority of people getting tested weren’t sick since positive rate is very low , even if ‘high’ it’s only 10% so 90% of people are ok
Testing should be free (for us). Insurance including Medicare pays all costs for testing or treatments
If we need to pay I’m ok with that

I don’t know if what you said is correct now - most can’t get tested even if sick. Think that was earlier before there were so many tests and labs that were up and running

Actually, there are NOT tests available for anyone who wants one.

Our PHO officer said just the other day you have to "qualify" to be tested here.

Not only are there not enough tests, but all the people getting tested are once again backing up labs and making it impossible for people to get other types of lab tests. 

I see "vacation" or "party" testing as a giant waste of limited testing and taxpayer/insurance dollars.

Great if you can get it, I guess, but it would be nice if people who need testing due to illness would get what they need... And, for those who insist on getting tested for non-medical, choice reasons should have to pay for it.

Article dated 10/19.
"Despite widespread increases in the production of COVID-19 test kits this year, about three out of four surveyed U.S. laboratories still report that they do not have enough supplies to meet the pandemic’s demand.

According to data collected by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Association for Supply Chain Management, about two-thirds of 117 CLIA-certified labs also said they are lacking the supplies necessary for routine bacterial screenings.

This has resulted in testing delays for more common illnesses, such as strep throat, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

Supply shortages have rippled through the industry since March, uncovering bottlenecks in almost every aspect of test production—from the chemical reagents needed to run the tests, to the swabs and sterile containers used to collect and transport samples.

The two associations found that labs are currently running at an average of 41% of their total testing capacity for COVID-19. While 73% of labs reported shortages of commercial testing kits for the novel coronavirus, 32% said they’re also lacking the necessary in vitro diagnostic hardware. About 4% said they were short on control materials.

In addition, nearly 30% said they lacked enough viral transport media, used to keep samples viable during shipment to the lab for analysis."


www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/lab-survey-illustrates-testing-delays-spreading-to-non-covid-diagnostic-areas

[resolution]

My mother-in-law has asked me to set up a Zoom call for everyone, so we can all eat separately during the Zoom call.  I already have my 3lb turkey breast in the freezer, in case there is a shortage of small turkeys.

She hasn't broken the news yet to my SIL/BIL, who were offended when we all declined to show up for a huge party they threw last weekend. I'm supposed to keep quiet about the Zoom call until she has more people on board, which is fine with me. I have an ongoing dispute with my SIL about the efficacy of modern medicine, immunizations, and covid vs. the flu, so I really don't want to go at it about the Zoom call.