The first few months of this pandemic seemed to drag by ever so slowly but somehow we are now past the midpoint of November and the holidays are spinning in like one of those alphabet-depleting hurricanes we’ve grown weary of this year.
Toss in what seems like a never-ending election cycle and lots of folks are beginning to get a better understanding of what Elvis was talking about when he belted out I’ll have a, have a, have a blue Christmas!
With Thanksgiving only a week away, I’m guessing we’re not the only ones trying to figure out what to do with all the leftovers since turkeys don’t come in “teacup” sizes and the number of chairs at the table will be reduced greatly this year. Or, at least that’s what the doctors and medical experts are asking of us.
Truth be known, our Thanksgiving celebrations have become pretty small as family members have left this earth for the fancy buffet up in the sky and, as they do, children became parents, and parents became grandparents, and the family nucleus shifted.
Looking ahead to Christmas is a different story. We still “did” that holiday big with a grand gathering of friends and family for a sit down dinner party. That tradition has grown every year, and with a now adult daughter, we’ve added some of her friends and some of their families to the invitation list. You know, the more the merrier — especially at Christmas.
But not this year!
Wife Danny, and I have already ditched the dinner party plans altogether. Our house isn’t tiny but the rooms do kind of flow around the foyer and social distancing of more than a handful of people is almost impossible.
The kitchen is pretty big with a sitting area of it’s own, and it tends to be the people magnet even in years when the weather is clear and warm enough to open the French doors out to the pool. Sort of a free flow in and out.
Being that there is no way to know what this crazy, screwed up, weather pattern may be doing on December 25th, there really is no way to plan an outside event and get invitations out in a timely fashion. And, of course, it could rain, or freeze, or snow.
So, the dinner party is off.
We are trying to figure out some way to celebrate the holidays with a smaller group of just our closest buddies, but as of this writing were still saying maybe this way, then probably not, a lot!
The double whammy with Christmas and this whole COVID mess is that the holiday falls on a Friday making for a long weekend. Plenty of travel time for those heading home for the holidays. It also means there would be plenty of time to get the house back in order without having to rush back to the office the next day. I suppose I’m getting to the point of whining all this into a pity party rather than a dinner party and it is not going to make a bit of difference in the end.
A month from now, barring a miracle of divine intervention, the coronavirus will still be rampant and the advice from the experts will continue to be to stay at home and stay away from crowds along with all the other good (boring) social distancing protocol. The best thing, probably, is to just suck it up and have a two person party and get on with life.
We’ll save a bundle of money. We’ll save a whole lot of time when it comes to preparation and cleanup. We’ll not suffer from sleep deprivation nor over indulgence.
Come to think of it, there are all sorts of positive outcomes from not having a social gathering in this wild year called 2020. All sorts of them.
Unfortunately I can’t think of a single one, however, that has the word “fun” included in it. So, perhaps the best thing to do at this point is keep studying the options and hope for temperatures in the 70s and starry skies when Santa comes knocking.
Or, better yet, a cure.
