I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, megan walker.

Yeah, Thanksgiving is just so different this year, it's hard to even get my brain around it, much less plan for it. But we did talk turkey this morning (heh). I'm going to look for the smallest whole, frozen one I can find today after a routine lab work appointment. With even a smallish turkey in the freezer, it will be hard to ignore impending stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole day.

I just noticed "Phoenix Board Reborn 1.0.2" in the bottom bar of my screen. It gives me a happy. Even in a gloomy pit of despair, this is a place of light.

We were planning to go up to have Thanksgiving lunch with my parents on their porch but my Hopkins emergency room doc friend is advising against that now. Given what she's seen in the last few days in the ER.

Yeah, I have reservations for a restaurant with a patio, but... should we? Probably not.

And Megan Walker, I'm so sorry.

lisah, that's alarming.

I think our patio dining is done. Not just because the weather is turning, I mean.

Our Costco hasn't had TP or paper towels for a month or more.

We were planning to go up to have Thanksgiving lunch with my parents on their porch but my Hopkins emergency room doc friend is advising against that now. Given what she's seen in the last few days in the ER.

Man. Thanks for sharing that. I sure hope we can go up to my sister's for Christmas, but I'm starting to prepare myself for even that being a no-go. Seven of us, all careful, the kids (three grown-ups, living in Atlanta) are getting tested before they go up, and the rest of us might all, too, but... I dunno.

Thanks to re-entering Tier 1, my work has cancelled our Thanksgiving Potluck. Which I both understand and 100% support. Still stinks though. And makes it that much harder to get myself geared up for the actual day. I haven't even spoken to my brother about whether he wants to try to get together. The problem is if I offer to host, I'll do all the cooking, tidying up, plus pay for the food - and he won't appreciate it anyway. So I'm pretty strongly leaning toward getting a ham and some sides (a reasonable-sized portion of dark meat turkey if I can find it) and just eating when I feel like it. I'm really more into leftover turkey & ham sandwiches than I am the actual T-day meal anyway. Maybe doing the restaurant thing with the brother. Possibly with Dad & his wife too - they "don't really bother to celebrate". But they gotta eat something that day, whether it happens to be turkey-based or not.

Boy JenP, that's a lot of households coming together.

My parents have started stocking up on TP and other items assuming there will be another “shortage”. I have 16 rolls and plan to get more after work today. I have 2 gallons of disinfectant cleaner and have started re-stocking cans and non-perishables. I plan on either a TJs or ALDI run today.

We're not traveling or gathering as a group for any of the holidays this year, and we won't be having a party for my 50th birthday in January. This is going to be the first year I haven't flown at any point since 1988.

We've done just-the-three-of-us holidays before, though, when for whatever reason we couldn't or didn't want to make the long flight to Oklahoma or Alabama. What's going to be weird is to have the holiday season without the work Thanksgiving potluck or the office holiday party with its truly hokey games and ugly sweaters or the late Christmas Eve service with a crowded church singing ALL the carols and then crowding into the library for champagne and cookies or going to a single Messiah singalong, much less all three of the ones I'm a semi-regular at.

I'm trying to build in some extra home festivity, on top of our usual tree and stockings, to maybe make up some of the difference--an Advent wreath, an Advent calendar, some festive decorations for my home office desk, etc.--but it's going to be a strange Christmas.