Holiday Plans

manillabar

With COVID on the rise (almost) everywhere, what are your plans for the upcoming holidays?

manillabar

I'm asking because I don't know what to do here. We're in NJ and numbers are going up.  We figured it would make the most sense to do thanksgiving at home just us three instead of going to either or both families. (which is weird for me, I've only spent one other thanksgiving without either family and that was because my H was working). But now my siblings want to try to get together for one or more holidays, which ideally I would love, too, but then that also means finding time for my in-laws as well. Plus I definitely have a larger family (4 siblings, 3 of whom are married, plus 6 nieces/nephews, plus large extended family).  And also my nephew's first birthday is the day after Christmas so I'd like to be around for that.   

... and to be honest, I also want to make sure I have time to just rest at home! It's tough when the holidays is just full of back and forth travel.  

princessjenney

We are probably going to be ordering a full Thanksgiving dinner from a local cajun restaurant that does fried turkeys, and eating here at the house just us. I miss everyone but a big family gathering doesn't seem like a good idea yet.. especially indoors.

kloe818

We are just us as well. Honestly the numbers in NH are higher than we've seen before and it's scary. Pregnancy is higher risk for covid complications anyway and I have asthma and hubby is diabetic. Do I want to see everyone? Yes! I'm stuck working at home and haven't seen people in so long and I'm sick of it but I want to be safe and healthy. I can only hope that things look up for Christmas and my baby shower in January. Not likely, unfortunately. 

redselig

We celebrated Canadian thanksgiving a month ago and invited one other family to be with us at home. We were supposed to go to Italy over the Christmas holidays but the risk is just not worth it. I’m pregnant, SO’s parents are old and high risk and Covid in Europe is surging everywhere. Total bummer but on the upside, maybe I can get a lot done at home. 

juliebeannn

Nov/Dec are actually chalk full of big events for our family - between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we've got 2 birthdays and a 100 day celebration (Korean culture does a celebration for when a baby turns 100 days).  We were planning on doing Thanksgiving, Christmas and just combining the birthdays into the 100 days gathering but now we're starting to rethink.  It's a group of 8 family members that have gotten together monthly and spent very little time with anyone other than each other so I think we're still getting together for Thanksgiving.  It was brought up that we could all get tested the week of as a precaution, we'll see.  

mvt2003

I'm so sad for us all that have decided to be safe and cancel, but I know it's probably for the best. I think the hardest part of all of this distancing is that there's no concrete "results" from it - all there is is "I didn't get sick"  

As a family, we've decided it's too risky to have the group meal, so we're staying with our immediate families. MH and I have ordered a turkey breast, we'll have a small dinner just us. 

Christmas still hasn't been formally cancelled, but I assume it will be. It's an open house style Christmas Eve at my ILs, so that's a hard no at the moment. 

duhduhduck

Thanksgiving with my in-laws has been nixed. My BIL's wife just tested positive and they both work in a nursing home that is overwhelmed with cases right now. We were really hoping my SIL would get to come home for christmas, but that seems to be off the table. She lives in Austria and just had her first in February. My ILs were supposed to go see her back in March, a few days after they shut down travel. It really sucks that none of us have gotten to meet their little girl and we have no way of knowing when we will.

treebagel

We’re planning on having a small thanksgiving with my MIL, FIL, and my two parents. We’ve been seeing them this whole pandemic. 

ae252525

We’re staying home with just our family.  We have three kiddos so we will do a dinner for us.  It’s hard to not join our families but we also need to make the choice for our health too.  Our oldest has congenital heart disease so we also need to keep her healthy.  

juliebeannn

Update: we cancelled all our holiday plans.  My dad is super high risk (lung cancer survivor) and my brother and his wife have a newborn, so high risk all over the place. But we're still allowing my BIL and his husband to come over since they're both WFH until next year and don't go anywhere.  They're part of our covid bubble.  I'm sort of relieved to not have to cook and host Thanksgiving while 7 months pregnant lol  We'll be ordering Korean fried chicken instead

manillabar

Ooh @juliebeann now I’m craving fried chicken lol

We’re ordering our thanksgiving meal so I’m happily not cooking either. Christmas is still up in the air but with the governor already tightening restrictions in NJ it’s becoming more and more likely that we’ll just stay home for that as well.

kloe818

We are planning for a lot of leftovers. My husband's favorite thing is fried turkey so we are cooking a full size turkey and I'm doing sides that we normally have. I'm pretty sure his mom is going to drop by with a Canadian meat pie (I can't spell the name of it for the life of me) and his favorite sausage stuffing from the big gathering. We are already planning a Google meeting with both sides.

mvt2003

@juliebeannn I'm so sorry, it's so hard to finally call it on the holidays. MH is struggling with Christmas, and is trying to think of some safer options to try to keep some of the traditions - like instead of the gift grab at his parents' open house, we could do a version of that over Zoom with the immediate family. 

@manillabar I semi wish we were ordering ours too. We're scaling it way back and only making the things he and I enjoy, I bought a turkey breast, and we'll make mashed potatoes and stuffing. Our nephew's school fundraiser was Thanksgiving pies, so we're all set for dessert. 

finnflan

@kloe818 - tourtière!

kloe818

@finnflan aka delicious

redselig

@juliebeannn I wish I could order Korean fried chicken!