Celebrating the Holidays 2020 Style
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We wanted to take a break from our No Destination Road Trip and think about how the coronavirus pandemic will be affecting the way we celebrate the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving usually ushers in a frenzy of holiday buying, travel, celebrating and get-togethers. This year portends to be somewhat different for many of us in many ways. Still, we think we have lots to be thankful for.
We watched a CBS ‘On the Road’ segment the other night in which the host, Steve Hartman, asked his three school-age kids what they had to be thankful for this year. They hesitated a bit. He moved on to an interview with several folks waiting patiently in a food line and asked what they were thankful for this year. Folks who were out of work and struggling just to put food on the table. They seemed to have plenty to be thankful for. Their answers? Their health… just being alive… still able to walk, talk and breathe on their own… not being homeless.
The highlight, however, was a man named Gabriel. Gabriel said he planned to have an amazing Thanksgiving all by himself. He was going to sit on a park bench and conjure up wonderful memories of Thanksgivings past. He figured one bad Thanksgiving out of 63 wasn’t bad odds. People need ‘to be thankful for what they do have instead of complaining about what they don’t.’ “An attitude of gratitude!” was the takeaway from this thoughtful response.
A Thanksgiving toast in 2016 at our home in Las Vegas.
For us, Thanksgiving will be about the same as recent years past though some loved ones are no longer with us.. We’ll celebrate with a turkey and a small feast with our household sibs, Mary and Paul. There will be plenty of sweets for dessert. The Macy’s parade, albeit pandemic-altered, will provide background noise as we cook and prepare the meal together. We’ll eat and play cards or a board game afterwards or maybe watch a football game. We’ll tell old family stories and laugh. We’ll nosh on leftovers that evening… and for a day or two later.
Wow! Thanksgiving 2001… we cooked a turkey in the marina oven and shared it with fellow liveaboards in Charleston.
For David and I, we’ll have fond memories of previous Thanksgivings we’ve shared with family or maybe remember introducing Tasmanian friends to our American Thanksgiving traditions one year or sharing turkey with American cruising friends in New Zealand one year or virtually by ourselves on a long Atlantic crossing in November 2006.
2010 in New Zealand shared with fellow American cruisers, John & Shawn.
We do have so much to be thankful for: family and friends we love; continued excellent health for both of us; years of adventures and travel together; our ability and opportunities to continue to travel; a comfortable home; plenty to eat; enough to share.
In 2012, we invited some of our Australian friends to Thanksgiving to share our American tradition. The turkey was well-received… the pumpkin pie, not so much.
The major change and disappointment for us in 2020 will be the Christmas season. For years and years, I have spent Christmases with my sister, Lin, in New England. I’ve flown half way around the world from Australia and Africa to be together with her at Christmastime. This year, David and I will stay home in Las Vegas. It’s the prudent thing to do… it’s the right thing to do. That doesn’t make it any easier.
We’ll shop online to avoid crowded stores. We’ll wrap gifts at home and mail them. But there will be no travel, no stuffing of stockings with Lin on Christmas Eve, nor planning meals nor trivial bickering over menus or who sits where at the crowded Christmas table; no Christmas morning excitement. We’ll call, we’ll chat, we’ll FaceTime maybe, but we won’t be together.
Maybe we’ll plan a Christmas rendezvous somewhere in July? And then, I consider Gabriel’s words and I guess one Christmas in 70+ years isn’t bad odds at all. I’m thankful for what we have. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!