Three Kids and a Dog: Thanksgiving in a Pandemic

This Thanksgiving during our COVID-19 pandemic was quite different than any other Thanksgiving I've probably experienced in a long time. Families keeping their festivities to one household and not traveling. We did travel but only to our house in Michigan to have Thanksgiving on our own. We were able to spend an entire week in Michigan but the weather prohibited us from doing much such as finding some good daily hikes to go one which we have come to enjoy during quarantine. Still we went for long drives and discovered a new lake for boating just west of Kalamazoo (Gull Lake) and checked out a new ski resort (Timber Ridge) so that was our outing for one day. Another day, Tom worked while the kids and I went shopping for our Thanksgiving day feast including a tablecloth and a centerpiece. One day, we sought refuge from the rain at a mall to get in our daily exercise around the now sparse holiday shoppers. The rain finally broke on Thanksgiving Day, and Tom was able to smoke our almost 16lb turkey. He did an admirable job. We made sweet potatoes, carrots and salad along with pumpkin pie and German chocolate cake bars to round out our meal. It was just the five of us but we were able to Zoom with both families and get cozy on our coach while watching a lot of holiday movies. The day after Thanksgiving, we saw the sun for the first time all week and took a road trip to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It's something that's always been on our list of places to go and this was the perfect time to do it since we only wanted to walk around and you had to wear your masks even to just be on campus. Saturday we headed home but not before making a pit stop to cut down our Xmas tree with friends (all masked up). We had to change the way we do things this year from our Thanksgiving plans to our outings but we made do and we'll continue to do what we need to do to rid our country of this terrible virus. The end is in sight. Just a few more months to go before the vaccine becomes available, we hope! I just had to cancel another vacation that was planned for January. Boy are we going to travel once this is all over!