Holidays with family this year

[lifesavacation]

We won’t do a Christmas meal with DH’s mother and his brothers and their families. It’s too risky since his mother is older. We still plan to get together with our children and their SOs. If we get it, so be it. There’s no way I can be away from my kids for the holidays when I’m not high risk and neither are they.

 

[disneychrista]

We won't be having our regular holiday celebrations this year. No one in my house (my 2 daughters & myself) are really big into holidays but we usually spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents, at my parents house, usually with my sister and her boyfriend. This year that won't be happening. My mom is extremely high risk and the 3 in my house all work in/with the public.

Hopefully by next year things will be back to some sense of normalcy.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I’m kind of dreading the discussion in DH’s family. Thanksgiving is usually a huge deal, at MIL’s, with lots of people, food, and fun! I will miss it, but I really don’t think we should do it this year.

I personally think parties with food, so everyone is naturally going maskless and touching everything, are prime spreaders of the virus. With three grandkids coming home from three different colleges, and several people working, we would be a perfect storm.

I’m holding off on thinking about Christmas. There might be some really creative solutions to rescue that one, but it’s too early for me to get invested in plans that would very likely change.

 

[NannyBeBe]

My little family are all in the same bubble. We eat together often. So the holidays will be normal for us.

 

[HeatherC]

We are going to Hilton Head Island for Thanksgiving. My parents own a home down there which has been sitting empty. Thanksgiving is the “big” holiday in my family. There are about 35 of us together from multi states, but we are not comfortable with that this year. We were all feeling bummed about it so we talked about it with the kids (all adults) and we decided we will go on vacation that week. We will be driving there.

We plan on walking the beach, riding bikes, hitting some tennis balls, playing games and just relaxing together. It won’t be the same, but hopefully it will be fun. And warmer and sunnier than Massachusetts at that time of year.

 

[Colleen27]

We're planning to have our celebrations more or less as normal, as far as I know. Our holidays have gotten smaller over the years, and although we bring together 10-12 people from four households, we're all so intertwined in normal life that we're barely a degree of separation apart at any given time (I do my mom's shopping and laundry every week, DH does all the heavy work at his mother's house and BIL does her shopping and other routine chores, DH helps not-so-handy BIL with home projects, DS keeps his project car in MIL's garage, etc). This is how both my mom and my MIL want it, and I'm willing to follow their leads since they're the ones who are most at risk. They've both experienced unexpected losses in the last few years and feel strongly about not missing holidays and celebrations on the assumption that there is always next year, and I really can't argue with that.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

No family gatherings for us this year.

 

[fla4fun]

There is just me, and my sister and BIL. We will all quarantine before and after since we work from home anyway and then get together as normal for the holiday itself.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

We have been seeing our parents during the entire time and will continue to for holidays. But it is just DH & I and either my parents or his parents on a particular holiday. Never any extended family.

 

[jdb in AZ]

A few weeks ago I booked our flights for Christmas, but they're on southwest -- easily transferred without a penalty -- so if push comes to shove we'll just stay home. We'd much rather spend the holidays with the grand kids, but we can't put our health at an even greater risk.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Op here, I see there are some here who are not going to chance getting together for the holidays and some will be gathering like always. Stay safe everyone.
DH said tonight that we will see what we do according to the next 2 months with COVID cases in our area. I’m fine with staying home and then video calling extended family.

 

[leebee]

We have dear friends here in town who usually host Thanksgiving. It's always a large, disparate group- our family, theirs, an elderly stand-in grandpa, several other sets of friends, and often several grad students who don't go home for the holidays. Not this year. They have been "taking care" of our elderly friend, so they'll do T-giving with him, only, this year. I miss everyone. In "normal" times we have dinner and game night with them probably 3 Fridays a month. Now? We've only seen them in person twice since the beginning of April. SO... t-giving will probably be DH, DD27, and me. It'll probably be just the 3 of us for Christmas, too... but that's normal, family lives too far away for a day trip. Unfortunately our annual "Cousins Christmas" visit (3 nights in a hotel, about 10 cousins and spouses) has already been canceled. I'm a little bummed about all this, not seeing people and such. I just learned that students are returning to lab, F2F, for spring semester. I will face about 125 students a week, and this makes me nervous. I am 64, DH 60 w/health concerns, and DD27 (who lives nearby) is immunocompromised. I suspect I am moving into the spare bedroom for the semester and won't be seeing DD at all. I'm pretty anxious about all this, but I can't retire, we need my income and I carry the health insurance. Guess DH, DD, and I will just have to have a big blowout "going away" party in January!

 

[SirDuff]

I live in Europe but spend Christmas split between Canada and the US (have family in both). Not currently allowed into the US and I don't see that changing by Christmas. I can get into Canada (I'm Canadian), but need to isolate for 14-days, which means it really isn't worthwhile. And, it seems unlikely that my family there will be doing a big dinner (they are spread across a few households), so I'll likely be on my own.

On the bright side, I suspect a lot of us will still be here (I work with mainly ex-pats), so likely will get together with some f them. Also, it is the first time in years that I won't be traveling, so I can actually put up my own tree.

 

[pigletgirl]

Normally, because it is an 'even year, 2020' we usually have a large family gathering with all of my dad's siblings, their families etc. It usually ends up being 40-ish people. Pushing the pandemic aside, we would not of attended because the week prior I will be having a c-section/hysterectomy and in no shape to go to any family gathering. With the pandemic on top of all of this, its a definite no. My mom will make a meal for us and we will keep it simple and quiet.

 

[firefly_ris]

Planning for everything as usual here.

 

[travelmomof3]

We're most likely hosting our extended family. My sisters fam has been like us - extremely careful, limited visit with friends (we have only had one set over and had double sets of apps and stayed distanced outside), and our kids doing school virtually. We combined our family bubble back in May so feel comfortable about that.

My brother's family is invited but I have to see. His kids are back to in person school so I'd like to wait 14 days til after they are out to host them as well.

We'd love to have my mom but she'd have to travel by plane. She is 70, cancer survivor, has asthma, so we aren't thinking that is the best idea. But she also can't be alone on Christmas so we have to figure that out.

As for Thanksgiving, my oldest is at college (a small town, with few COVID cases in the whole area) but we are still having her quarantine in the basement for 14 days after she gets home. She comes home just before Thanksgiving so because of that we can't go anywhere and we won't have anyone here. So it will be just our family for Thanksgiving this year.

 

[belleatdisney]

I already told everyone it is cancelled.

Maybe everyone can do the event on zoom

 

[ronandannette]

I'm one of those who really love Thanksgiving because it's a very meaningful time but takes soooo much less work than Christmas! Our norm would be to have a few different events; a big community meal at church, at least one dinner with friends (either hosting or being hosted) and a family dinner. This year the first two are off but we're travelling to my sister's in my hometown 500 miles from here.

We haven't seen each other for over a year thanks to Covid and she and her husband are elderly and have become very isolated over the past 6 months. Frankly, I'm concerned about them and don't want to put this off any longer. DH and I will go alone (DS will stay home) and we're debating staying in a hotel rather than at their house. The meal will be there though but with just the 4 of us, keeping distance won't be much of an issue; none of us are "huggers".

 

[spiders]

COVID is providing me with a perfect excuse not to see all of the extended family I don’t ever want to see anyway!

Otherwise, we’ll be seeing everyone important like we always do.

 

[spiders]

We haven't seen each other for over a year thanks to Covid and she and her husband are elderly and have become very isolated over the past 6 months. Frankly, I'm concerned about them and don't want to put this off any longer. DH and I will go alone (DS will stay home) and we're debating staying in a hotel rather than at their house. The meal will be there though but with just the 4 of us, keeping distance won't be much of an issue; none of us are "huggers".

I’ve been complaining about this for a while now. I don’t want to see anyone die but elderly relatives aren’t getting any younger.

I believe the average stay at a nursing home is 7 months. Well, we are now at 7 months and probably have at least another 7 to go until normalcy if not more. The very same people we are trying to isolate will be statistically be dead before this is over.