What do you think about Thanksgiving and Christmas?

A pandemic doesn’t take a break because it’s the holidays. It will be a hard holiday season but unless there is some miracle we will be doing what we’ve been doing since early March.

I don’t want to be a downer but I am guessing unless there is a pretty dramatic shift in strategy soon the numbers are going to be bad enough in winter that the numbers now will look manageable :/. I am not making plans.

Holidays will just be us at home, no grandparents, aunt/uncles or cousins.

This might be the Scrooge coming out in me, but to be completely honest, DSO and I would love an excuse to stay home on Christmas Day, and not have to go to 4 different houses on the day. We always say that one year we're going to refuse to go anywhere and just stay at home. 

I just said to him "What if there are still restrictions in place at Christmas time and we can't see our families?" He replied in the most sarcastic tone ever "Oh no, I would be devastated," with a big grin on his face. Mind you, apart from my mum, we see the rest of our families regularly, at least once a week. So not seeing them on Christmas Day would not be the end of the world.

We were just talking about what the rest of year will be like. This is what I see playing out - there will still be a large number of Covid-19 cases in November and December, especially if kids go back to school. And then cases will go up when everyone gets together for all the holidays. I think winter will be good for all of us because we'll all be staying home due to bad weather. And then, who knows what happens after the winter thaw. It all depends on the vaccine.

About 25 years ago we experienced a huge, I mean historically huge, blizzard and there was no holiday travel back & forth between all the families for the weeks during winter break. In fact, break was extended an additional week or two in our area because we were rather remote and far down the list for street clearing.

I have to admit it was a delightful holiday, all things considered. We had a house full of food and new toys to feed and entertain the kids, and didn't have to drive all over the place. I'm pretty sure I wore jammies & thick socks the entire time. Heav.en.

A couple days ago I woke up and my first thought was, "we're not going to be able to have Thanksgiving this year!"

Both kids will be off at college and may not be allowed to come home and I don't feel comfortable getting together with our parents as both DH and I are going to offices every day.

It's very possible that it could just be me and DH this year.😭

And I know this is completely superficial, but I'm sad that Black Friday probably won't be happening either. My DD, sister, and neice have a long-standing tradition of going out early every year, getting coffee and shopping/browsing.

That's a nice thing of him to offer to do 

Since we moved here, we have had Christmas just the 2 of us most years. We have been back to Australia once and done a cruise over Christmas, but neither of those will be an option this year sadly. We had hoped to go back to Oz this year, now that our granddaughter will be old enough to get excited over all the presents, but covid has put paid to that. 
It will still be strange - I doubt we will be able to have our regular Christmas Eve Mass, as our normal attendance for that would exceed allowed numbers. We also won't have the normal lead up to Christmas - I just can't see the Christmas Markets being able to take place, at least not in their usual form, which is sad.
I also am not sure if I will be able to post gifts back to my family - at the moment, there is no parcel post from Germany to Australia - or have things sent to me. 

Since we can only mix with one other household in your home and you must follow social distancing rules it is unlikely we will be visiting family or having them visit us. We are also advised to avoid using other peoples bathrooms and avoid sharing plates or utensils. So short answer is no.

Most colleges here are going remote from Thanksgiving through the New Year. Something tells me your kids will be home.

My son comes home from college the day before Thanksgiving so I already told my parents we will not be celebrating with them this year. It's my mom's favorite holiday so it's doubly sad. Without knowing what the conditions will be like then, I'm hopeful that we can all quarantine for 14 days so that we can spend some time on Christmas day together.

we've never really done big extended family holidays.

Thanksgiving the past few years we've been at a friend's - they invite a big group of people who don't have local family. We won't be doing that this year although I suspect it'll still be happening.

Christmas - we were hoping that DS would be able to come home at Christmas since we had to cancel our summer visit with him but I really don't think it's likely.

I think it'll just be the four of us.

We don't live in the area of our family so we also don't do big holidays.

However for everything else we have to hold off on I think of it this way: yes, this has gone on 5 months, it could go on for a year or more, but in the scheme of our whole lives, if we are to stay healthy and live a long life as we hope, it is only a small piece of that. Best to be careful and wait it out so we can be here later.