Find Joy...Be Well...In a Different Holiday Season

I look at my calendar and realize that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away.  How is this possible?

I see that I've added the word Cleveland from Tuesday, November 24th to Saturday, November 28th on my calendar.  In a moment of optimism, my husband and I thought that we would be able to drive to visit his family in Ohio. We would all get tested, wear masks and social distance. 

But a few weeks ago, we realized that keeping everyone safe from the spread of Covid was more important than gathering together.

I feel a little unanchored.  Thanksgiving for Dan and I has always been a time to travel. We either visit out-of-town relatives or indulge in one of our favorite things, a long weekend away from it all. Some years it has been on the quiet beaches of the Cape. Other times we've explored the back roads of Vermont.  In the 16 years that we've been together, we have never spent Thanksgiving at home.

This year we will. 

Are you starting to think about how to celebrate the holiday?  Have you canceled your usual plans, or will you take precautions and gather together?

Either way the holiday will be different.

In 2020, our lives have been upended.  It will take our creative spirits to make this year's Thanksgiving a meaningful one. 

Here are my suggestions:

1) Start to plan.

• If you're cooking a holiday meal, decide on your menu.  I'll be making roasted turkey thighs, stuffed acorn squash, stuffing and cranberry/mango chutney. Think about when you'll shop and put together a grocery list.

• If you're visiting someone, think about how to socially distance and wear a mask.

• If you need to get tested for Covid, research where and make an appointment if necessary.

2) Think about what is most meaningful about the holiday for you. Is it the food, visiting friends and family, watching football? Find ways of enjoying your favorite rituals even if they look and feel different this year. 

• Perhaps you'll be preparing your mom's mashed potato recipe or your uncle's pumpkin pie for the first time.  
• Maybe you'll visit over Zoom.  

• Maybe you'll save loud football cheers for a time when we can once again yell without the risk of infecting someone :)

3) Remember that we're starting the holiday season.  That gives us the opportunity to have small celebrations, small joys through New Years.

• If you can't visit, send a card.  Write a personal note about how you value your relationship with the person you're sending the card to.

• If you're not having company, still decorate your house.  Mark the holidays in some concrete way.

• If you're missing loved ones, create a photo album of holidays past.  Put pictures up to remind you of the people that you're missing.

4) Take a look at the blog,  A Holistic Approach to the Holidays,  that I send out each year.  

5) It is a season of gift giving.  I'm offering these holiday packages so that you can give the gift of health to someone you love.

Most of all, remember that you're going to get through this.  Be a little kinder to yourself and those around you.  We're all feeling the specific challenge of a very unusual time.  My holiday blog talks about the gift of imperfection.  This is an imperfect year.

Strive on. Find joy. Be well.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Bonnie

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