We'll be downsizing considerably from our usual Thanksgiving with family and many friends. It will be his kids and some of my kids gathering together at our house along with the grands...these are people already in our Covid bubble. Certainly a lot different than our usual rambunctious Thanksgiving get together, with lots of adults and kids and littles coming and going. Thanksgiving meal will be Friday this year, so that Ron’s kids can gather with their Mom on Thursday. And typically I never do the get together on Thanksgiving day. There are so many other gatherings to schedule around..kids in-laws and step parents and such, and I honestly don’t care what day we get together, just THAT we do! Christmas is my most favorite holiday of the year, but it will be different too. I'm still working out HOW exactly it will be different. We've always done Christmas in several stages in order to accommodate everyone's holiday schedules and such. There's a Christmas Eve thing, a Christmas Morning thing, Christmas breakfast, a gathering around lunch time or after, all with some different people and some of the same people, and then everyone who can will head to the movies in a large group. Not this year. We'll probably do a gift exchange with Ron's kids and grands at our house, and then another with my kids and grands at my daughter's house. I imagine I'll cook the traditional big breakfast when I get there, but that will probably be it. It makes me sad. I hate this.
A lot is going to depend on how much longer my mother lives. I think she'll still be here for Thanksgiving and in that case, we'll have a small family dinner without the usual crowd coming in from as far away as Asia. Christmas, it's anyone's guess.
My daughter is working in the Netherlands for the next month, and then has to do a 2-week quarantine when she gets back home, which will take it up to around New Years; so Bobby and I will be spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas by ourselves this year. No one else is anywhere close to us, my relatives are out west in Idaho and Washington state, and Bobby’s brother lives in Germany. Our holidays will be pretty much like any other day, except we will make a small turkey and dressing for Thanksgiving, and probably something special for Christmas, too.
My wife's recovery center is doing a Thanksgiving dinner and movie time today and tonight, so I have been home alone all day. We will do our Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. I was going to go by the recovery center and hang out for a while but I called my son instead and was on the phone with him for a couple of hours. He's old enough to join this forum but, oddly enough, he doesn't use a computer and has no interest in it. I refer to this as odd because I had one of the first widely distributed computers while he was living with me, long before anyone else I knew had one, and he had an Atari. Nevertheless, he doesn't own a computer and isn't interested. I was pleased to find that he was ignoring his governor's Thanksgiving edicts and was surrounded by his sons and their families today, though. I may not have taught him to appreciate computers but he has learned to think for himself. On normal years, our own Thanksgivings have been quiet affairs. Just my wife and I and, a couple of years, our neighbor across the street joined us, as his wife had died and his children were living out of state. One of his daughters has since moved to Millinocket, buying a perfectly good two-story house with a full basement for $600 at a tax sale, and it looks like one of his sons has made it home for Thanksgiving too. My family and my wife's family are far away from here, and the tradition of going home for Thanksgiving ended when my father died many years ago. So today turned out to be pretty good after all. We had a nice talk, and we don't do that often because I have never been one for telephone calls.
Raising our children, we did not make the secular holidays anything really 'big' - we taught and practiced trusting God and loving God and loving others and being thankful every day - and every day, any day, we were generous as could be with family and neighbors and friends and those in church or those who were homeless... whatever was needed, was provided.... and some times if not often, we had a lot more than what was 'needed', although often we did not even have a car or bicycles - our lives were about living day to day, as God Provides, as were others we knew too (back then). Things have changed a lot for almost everyone - most people have departed (fallen away) from living by faith (most people I know or see daily, weekly, monthly, or once a year or less). As someone else posted recently, even at the stores, there is a lot less life and joy and peace in people's eyes. For that matter, even at churches, instead of rejoicing with thanksgiving, instead of daily peace and joy and Godliness, I've seen grief, sorrow, pain, fear, and selfishness. - protecting one's own self, and defending the 'church' one is a member in, without spontaneity or generous outflowing when there were needs in the member's families, neighbors, and visitors.... (at most, usually, those in need were 'referred' away, and left on their own, even if they had been members for over twenty years/ all their lives since a child) .... Well, "the love of people has grown cold", as written, BUT there is , thankfully, by God's Grace, a Remnant of people with life, with light in their eyes, with love and joy and peace and righteousness .... who love God and are called according to His Plan. (not all the 'remnant' are in churches - some are, some are outside .... fwiw).... We celebrate , we rejoice, every day with hearts full of thanksgiving, when we remember what God has given us, (Even His Own Son!) , what God has Prepared for us (beyond what anyone can imagine!) freely! (when we were still sinners, when we were still His enemies!!) .... SO there IS still , ongoing, cause for joy, peace and thanksgiving every day, albeit with sorrow and grief (for all the pain, sickness, grief and loss all around us) ... As God Permits, we go on in His Grace, hopefully forgiven, and remaining (enduring) in Him thru all things. (I used to be a computer programmer.... well paid with the government right out of college... but it was a government 'fluff' job.... and I had no one to advise me how to stick with it and make something out of it, so I 'quit' computer jobs, and 'wish' people realized how much danger we are in because of the misuse of computers, (by governments and agencies and corporations and plain sinful thieves world wide) ...... When I went for a walk yesterday and/or day before, and talked in person with people in town - most with no thought nor concern of wearing a mask at all, thankfully, (even the police - only one out of five was wearing a mask) , I enjoyed the time and words and people a lot.... online is very difficult to really 'know' what's going on.... Shalom (peace and joy and health and righteousness to everyone who loves the truth), Jeff
President Trump has just signed an Executive Order making December 24th (Christmas Eve) a national holiday, just like Christmas Day. Christmas comes on a Friday in 2020, so that means people (at least this year) will have a 4 day holiday.
I'll be laying low by myself. Prior holidays had been spent with one of my younger brothers to varying degrees of regularity, but he passed away in early 2019. I am part of a group of 3 affiliated churches (we share the costs of a pastor), and there's usually events around this time of year at each church that I'm involved in, but that's not gonna happen this year. I will say that I always like waking up Christmas morning to the sound of silence. It's as though the world stops and rests for just that single day...you can feel it.