Thanksgiving

With the coronavirus raging all across the country, many people canceled or reduced their Thanksgiving plans. It was already an assumption among both our families that we wouldn't be getting together, so no hurt feelings there, but I know other people who had to make painful decisions or change plans last minute in light of new guidance and travel restrictions.

Pandemic Thanksgiving for two

From what I saw on social media, many of my friends kept their celebration to just their household, or maybe combined a couple households outdoors, at a distance. Our catered dinner plan worked out perfectly - I split a full prepared meal with some other family members (we picked it up yesterday, took out our half, and delivered the rest to them). The food was delicious and we still have plenty of leftovers.

We tried watching a replay of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and it was weird! There were no crowds, of course - the event took place just on one block in front of the Macy's store in New York. There were people on floats waving to nobody, and the whole thing was very eerie.

One other eerie thing: yesterday our state sent out an emergency alert to cell phones advising that COVID cases are rising and hospitals could soon be at capacity. I'm not really sure what the purpose was, because I feel like if you're someone who's concerned about that type of stuff, you're probably already aware - and if you weren't aware, you're probably someone who thinks the whole thing is a mild flu or a hoax. Maybe it was meant to drive home the severity for people who weren't really taking it seriously. Our state also announced that bars would have to close at 5 PM last night (Thanksgiving-eve, the biggest party night of the year), and lots of people and businesses were joking that, "Ok, happy hour has been moved to 8 AM-5 PM," or trying to find other loopholes to stay open and keep people drinking...