Upsides of a Covid Thanksgiving, Grace Koch ‘24

As we all know, Thanksgiving is the only time where whoever eats the most wins (I am usually the winner). This year may have looked a little different, but I wanted to focus on the upsides. For high school students, Thanksgiving with extended family is really an interrogation of the never-ending questions: Do you have a boyfriend? Where are you going to college? What are you going to do with your life? If you’re a vegetarian, why are you starving yourself? This year, you avoided all of that. You put off going through the utter terror of bringing your boyfriend to meet the extended family (and he didn’t have to get cross-examined by scary Uncle Rudy). You didn’t have to weasel out of uncomfortable conversations with creepy Uncle Larry, and you didn’t have to abide by Aunt Alice’s strict dress code, which means you avoided the embarrassing unbuttoning of the pants maneuver under the table. Since you weren’t under Grandma’s watchful eye, you were free to throw food with reckless abandon and smash a pie in someone’s face (both of which are regular occurrences in my house). You escaped the four hours of fighting with your siblings in the car while starving and really needing to use the restroom. You said goodbye to the chaos that follows feuding family football. This year, there were no eggshells to walk on. You didn’t have to go through the checklist of family-friendly topics and what not to say: For example, why doesn’t Cousin Tom have a job yet, and why is he still living in Aunt Susan’s basement; and boy, Aunt Peggy’s really packed on pounds. You got more dessert to yourself, didn’t have to eat food you don’t like, and, most importantly, you didn’t have to pretend to eat a piece of Grandpa’s mystery dessert. There were fewer dishes, which meant a happier Mom, and you got to bypass pretending that Uncle Lou wasn’t totally hammered. All joking aside, we needed to take safety precautions to stay safe last Thanksgiving. As per Governor Carney’s November press release, you should have made sure to only have ten people gathering in any given place at one time. If the pandemic continues and you choose to hold family gatherings next year, I have some advice for ways to do so in a safe, fun fashion.

**Disclaimer: The following advice is not scientific, nor is it meant to be taken as actual safety advice. ● If you’re having extended family over, don’t forget to put your mask on in between bites and install your plexiglass barrier down the middle of your Thanksgiving table. ● Maybe consider giving everyone their own individually wrapped apple pie.