Let's Talk with Nancy J. Cohen
Let’s Talk with Nancy J Cohen
November 19, 2020
Thanksgiving Celebrations
by Nancy J. Cohen
Happy Thanksgiving! Since we are expressing our gratitude this season, let me thank our Booklovers Bench followers for your support throughout the year. Your feedback, reviews and encouragement make our work as writers worthwhile.
This holiday is especially meaningful to me because I was born on Thanksgiving Day. My mother explained how she got a baby on a platter instead of a turkey. For this reason, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I love the fall decorations and the food. In normal times, we enjoy a bountiful feast of butternut squash soup, roast turkey with gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and green bean casserole or baked broccoli with cheese. We forego the stuffing since our kids never liked it, although my mother made a tasty variety using crushed Ritz crackers. I use the leftover carcass to make turkey soup, so we have plenty to eat for days.
This year will be different. I am loath to be around other family members unless we wear masks and stay six feet apart. That is possible only for small groupings, not for a big extended family dinner. And even then, we eat in different rooms or at different times to protect each other.
It will also herald a time of change. We are moving to be near our kids. The closing is scheduled for Thanksgiving week.
Af
ter a flurry of activities to get the new house ready, we’ll return to our former residence to finish what we have to do there before saying goodbye. We’ll be losing the house we’ve lived in for forty years, but we have happy memories along with saved photos. It will be a loss and a new beginning. Life evolves, and change is inevitable.
How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?
Posted in Let's Talk, with Nancy J. Cohen • Tags: BLB Discussion, Gatherings, Let's Talk, Nancy J Cohen, Thanksgiving Celebrations | 24 Comments
Happy birthday, and good luck with the move. We pulled up stakes from Florida and moved to Colorado. Two of our kids live there, but that’s not the main reason we moved. Just hated Florida, and 30 years was enough! Since we’d visited them in Colorado, we knew we liked the area, and we wanted a ‘forever’ home because they could easily have moved away for jobs, etc.
Our Thanksgiving will be just the 2 of us this year. I’m still roasting a turkey because I love the leftovers, but different sides, which will come from Home Chef.
Have a great holiday!
I like the leftovers too and especially to make turkey soup from the carcass. We’ll skip that this year as we’re ordering a cooked turkey but I am making the sweet potatoes. Colorado is vastly different than Florida. I can tell you love it there from your photos.
Happy Birthday, Nancy. What a treat to be your mother’s Thanksgiving blessing. We’re going to have a bring your own Thanksgiving dinner picnic in my oldest son’s back yard. It’s a lovely spot with a water view and plenty of distance for us to see each other in person.
Good luck with all your moving.
Hopefully you’ll have ideal weather for your holiday picnic. Enjoy the water view and the company!
Nancy, Best wishes on your move.
Thanks so much, Ray. I miss seeing everyone at our FMWA meetings.
Nancy, happy birthday and happy move! As for Thanksgiving, it will be just the two of us this year. We’ve decided to support one of our town’s local restaurants and let them prepare a meal for us that we’ll pick up curbside.
It’s so much easier to order out especially for just the two of you. Enjoy the meal and a peaceful holiday!
Spending Thanksgiving by myself this year instead of my neighbors of 24 years. They don’t believe in wearing masks inside and they have many people over. So I’m ordering a small Thanksgiving dinner from my local store.
You’re making the right choice. Better to be safe than sorry.
Good luck with the move – where to? Hopefully some place you don’t have to worry about flooding. As with you, our Thanksgiving meal will be a bit simpler and with less people. Wishing you a happy birthday despite the pandemic and moving stress. Do keep writing, Nancy!
Thanks so much Christa. We will be moving to the Orlando area. I’m looking forward to 2021 when we are past the pandemic and the move. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy birthday! I’ve ordered dinner for four… which will be eaten for days by 2. A big difference from past years, but at least we got to spend some time with our kids last weekend for only the second time since March.
I’ve ordered Thanksgiving meals before. It’s easy and great to have leftovers.
Hey, Nancy, and happy birthday!
This year my daughter got a new job working as a counsellor at a local hospital. Because she works with people who works with people who work with COVID patients, she and her husband have made the decision (in consultation with us) to start their own Thanksgiving meal tradition instead of celebrating with the larger family. My son and his girlfriend will be over for dessert (and take a plate or two of left-overs back to their place), so it’s going to be just my wife (Genie) and myself around the table for the main meal. But we are not skimping on the dishes! 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, we still have a lot to be thankful for this year.
Jim Elliott
Tallahassee, FL
Have a great holiday, Jim. It’s a sacrifice for your daughter not to be with you for the festive feast but it’s a very thoughtful decision. Yes, we do have a lot to be grateful for this season.
It’s always just the two of us for every holiday for the past 15+ years so nothing new/different this year. But I have to laugh at the idea of Baby Nancy on a platter. If you’d been born in the time of Instagram and FB I can just picture the photos that would have been taken of you and posted online! 😀
Those photos would be highly embarrassing today so I am glad there weren’t any!
Since the family everywhere now and doing there own thing, they aren’t coming at once. Part of the family is coming tomorrow for a visit and to wish us Happy Thanksgiving and the rest on Thanksgiving day. We split up food duties now to help Mom. Love Thanksgiving leftovers
Our extended family is splitting up their celebrations this year, too. It’s the safe way to do things during a pandemic.
Hi Nancy, Congratulations on buying a new place, having a birthday, and then moving! So much is happening in your world. Just do what you can each day and soon the busy-ness will subside. My Thanksgiving plans are like yours. I like big family gatherings, but that’s not the case this year. Will just be immediate family and social distancing. We all long for “normal” again but 2020 has hit a reset button that will move normal a bit, I predict. Even after the day we are all vaccinated, I have a feeling I will still be wearing a face mask in crowds…
Yes, I agree. Until everyone is vaccinated, we’re not completely safe. Things will be hectic here for a while so I will post when I can. Have a safe holiday.
Hi, Nancy. Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday, and Happy Move! We’ve been in our home for 30 years and moving would be an enormous undertaking but being closer to family would be wonderful and well worth it. Thanksgiving for us is usually the 3 of us – husband, granddaughter and me – so no big change. My mom’s stuffing (she called it dressing) recipe is always the highlight of my meal. Stay safe and enjoy the holidays. Knowing there are others who think we just need to wear the masks and stay distanced until we don’t always calms me.
Hope you had a good holiday, Sally. It is nice that your granddaughter is there with you. Stay well and safe!