Thanksgiving 2020: Scaled-Down

Based on the current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our usual Thanksgiving celebration of almost 40 people will not be happening this year. My kids are a little upset about it but they also understand the importance of this very hard decision that my cousin in law had to make. Every year we celebrate Thanksgiving with my husband’s relatives. It’s once a year where we are all reminded of how thankful we all should be ?? .

We gather, kissing and hugging family members and celebrating with food and wine, and may I add – the tradition of watching the football game on tv — all day!

Having grandma, grandpa, aunts and uncles around makes it even more meaningful. We talk about the good old days and so much more.

With 14 nieces and nephews plus their cousins, it’s just a lot more fun exchanging stories and catching up on life.

What else can we reminisce about Thanksgiving? Of course the food! Well, the menu hasn’t changed from the very beginning. All I know is that from the very first year (1997), of spending Thanksgiving with my husband’s family—- all these years, their tradition has been ingrained in my life.

The celebration starts at 2:00 pm. A buffet of overflowing appetizers!

That alone will fill you up! All the Italian cold cuts and cheeses, roasted hot peppers, Italian bread salad, calamari, and so much more. Before the main course, a tradition of having “Italian Wedding Soup” is served. The boys love it especially coming in from the cold weather after playing the game of football ?.

My husband’s first cousin Lesley and her husband Phil have been hosting Thanksgiving for many years. It was with a heavy heart that they had to cancel this year. It was a smart decision. Covid 19 has brought a lot of challenges in our lives. We all need to learn to adapt and be flexible with these trying times.

We don’t even know when this will end.

So this year’s Thanksgiving will be scaled down. A lot more intimate. Even with the menu. Cooking an entire turkey would not be something I would like to tackle at this point. I have done this quite a few times during Christmas. I would like to simplify my life this time. Scaling down on the menu is my plan as well.

What’s important to me right now is my family being all present on this special day. I have my son Jake who’s in South Carolina and my other son in California. They both will be home and that will complete us.

We also plan to pass by grandma and grandpa’s place and just wave and blow them tons of kisses at their doorway. It’s so sad to think that we can’t even physically embrace them.