Who has cancelled their holiday plans?

We usually host Thanksgiving for my DH’s side of the family. So there are usually 14 to 17 people here.  We canceled it in July. We invited only MIL to our home because we are the only family that has isolated and have not been exposed to anyone or had to have a test. But she wants to stay in her bubble. I feel bad for my her because she lives in a senior community development (they have had several cases, deaths) and she is eating Thanksgiving dinner for the first time since her children were born,  without any of them and the grandchildren. 

Christmas Eve, we usually go to another sibling’s home for dinner and gift exchange. We canceled that for our family. We just don’t want to risk it.

We have canceled all our holiday plans as well. We are doing a porch dessert drop off for Thanksgiving so we can all share our desserts. And then we will have a zoom dessert in the evening.

For our Christmas cookie baking day we have decided to also do a zoom and my mom will drop off sugar cookies to the grandkids with decorating supplies. Mom, my sister, and I will bake in our own homes and exchange via porch drop offs. The kids will all zoom while decorating their cookies.

We still have not worked out our Christmas plans. But we will not be getting together in person and we've already decided that.

ETA: my mom is very upset by this. My sister and I made the decisions.

Thanksgiving has always been a low-key affair for me, but Christmas has always been a full-on celebration. I always have two large parties at my home in Dec – one for all friends, former colleagues, etc in early Dec, and another one on Dec 24 for family. I even have family members who fly from all over for that celebration.

We all agreed to cancel everything this year for obvious reasons. I’m terribly disappointed because these are the highlights of the holidays for me, but I’m not complaining. There’ll be other years and what’s important is that everybody stays healthy. Just accept and move on is my attitude.

Just me and my 2 kids. Normally it would have been my cousins & their families and my parents & aunt. Better safe than sorry.

Is it wrong to look forward to January?  

This is us. We are a tiny group - 7 people in 3 households, but it’s still a no.

All 3 houses are within 5 minutes of each other so we are doing a food exchange. Every household will make/contribute food. I will make a food delivery & pickup at each house. We can then all eat about the same time and share our Thanksgiving that way.

We will probably do the same thing for Christmas. I will deliver gifts and food to each house and we can have our food and open our gifts at our leisure.

Thanksgiving is pretty normal for us (very small family -- but this year dd is home) although we're not having my sister here. She lives in DC and doesn't have a car so although she's being as careful as she can she still has to take public transportation sometimes. I'm not will to risk it. But I'm thinking of making up a to-go box from our meal and driving it in to her...she can grab it at the curb. Same with Christmas dinner, unless we try to do something outside. Haven't thought that through yet.

Christmas will be different though even without my sister here, because ds and his family aren't coming. They live in Georgia. It was going to be ds, his fiancée, and her 10-year-old dd. They've been careful but we all just don't want to risk it. Plus, the fiancée's older daughter's plans have been canceled and they don't want her to spend Christmas alone, but we don't want her here (and she agrees that she wouldn't want to come) because she's been going out of the house to work. Because the weather is more mild in Georgia they're basically planning to have Christmas in the backyard so the risks will be minimized. 

My mother is near me in assisted living and we won't be able to see her of course. But we will sign up for a visitation as close to Xmas as possible, and we'll take her a small tree, and gifts, and treats (her favorite tea, chocolate, etc.) The assisted living facility provides the holiday meal of course.

It’ll just be my family of four for Christmas. I was thinking yesterday that maybe I should get us matching long john pyjamas for the family zoom. Probably too late already.

Yes.  Well sort of.  

We were planning to have my parents and sister/nephew and her boyfriend for Thanksgiving.  We thought we'd wear masks except when eating and everyone would sit by family group at a different seating area (kitchen island, dining room and a folding table in the living room).  But now sister and I are not at all comfortable with that.  The rest would probably risk it, but no.  

Haven't made plans for Christmas with my family yet, but also no.  

Dh's aunt has a gathering at her place every year a few weeks before Christmas.  Not much family left there but it would be about 10-12of us.  She sent out the invites several weeks ago.  I think she will cancel but if not, I will not feel comfortable going.  Dh will want to go though so it will be an "issue".  Sigh.

When we decided to move to Belgium, never once did I think I wouldn’t spend Christmas with my kids. But we’ve decided as a family that the kids won’t come over for Christmas. There’s not enough time for them to quarantine when they get here and then again when they get back to their apartments, plus make it worth their time. We had planned to go back to the States their Christmas, but that would take a month of leave for DH just to quarantine, plus another week to actually spend time with family.

And because of the local SIP cautions, we can’t have friends over. So it will be a lonely holiday season for us and we will likely spend a lot of time on FaceTime.

We have cancelled our ‘Sinterklaas’ weekend with the family early December. In the Netherlands, that’s when kids get presents and it’s usually a fun family party for us.

Christmas will be just the five of us. I always host Christmas for the family, I start planning for it in the summer. It will be weird and a little sad to cook for five instead of for 25+ people. I love doing it every year and will miss it so much, but I also realise we are the lucky ones and this is a small compared to what many people are dealing with at the moment. We will just make it special.

Thanksgiving + Christmas = Cancelled 

We have, my brother and I were going to see our folks in NC. But with the up tick in NY we've decided its best not to go. I'm so sad. Haven't seen my mom and dad in almost a year.