Thankful Together... Apart

Of all the Holidays this year, Thanksgiving has been the weirdest. 

My folks are leaving soon for a year long mission in England so we really wish we could have spent Thanksgiving together. But we decided it was too risky. 

The day before Thanksgiving we headed South to spend some time outdoors and masked with cousins. 

It was the best we could do given the circumstances. 

The kids were thrilled to get to see their cousins, even if it was just a couple of hours. 

And then, we had our own little Thanksgiving, followed by a Zoom session with the rest of the family. 

It was weird. And a little sad.

But when my brother came down with COVID the week before Thanksgiving and my sister came down with it two days after Thanksgiving, we were grateful that we hadn't gotten together to celebrate. One small thing to be grateful for in this weird world we are living in. 

 

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

As with the other holidays this year, we tried to make Halloween as normal as possible. 

We mostly succeeded. 

Pumpkins were carved. 

Jane's is the one with bows, Emily's is the Dwight K. Schrute one.

Costumes were donned.

Jane is Dorothy. Emily is a WWII service member. That's all the specifics I know...

And candy was collected. 

This is just Jane's haul. I think it was her best year. Jane is a sunset to lights off style trick-or-treater. While the traffic of trick-or-treaters was a little bit lighter this year, it still was relatively steady. For better or worse, we don't live in the kind of place that cancels Halloween due to a pandemic. I'm glad for that because the kids needed it. They need every morsel of normalcy they can possibly get this year.