I was just at our local supermarket, or one of them … okay, the one my family most often frequents. I’ll tell you; the place was mobbed. Well, it wasn’t actually mobbed, and this year I can feel especially good about that. It WAS packed with people shopping. And I mean packed.
Most of the time I was in the store I felt like stopping one of the many shoppers with an overflowing shopping cart and asking her, (Most of them seemed to be ‘hers’.) if she was shopping for Thanksgiving dinner or because of the next COVID-19 apocalypse. Eventually, I stopped wondering about that and learned that I could somewhat figure it out if I was just a bit nosey and peeked into her cart as I passed by in the aisle. (After, of course, checking that I was heading in the correct direction.) If I could see a big fat family-sized frozen turkey in the cart, I had my answer. If I could see several big fat family-sized packs of toilet paper in there, again I had my answer. If I could see both the turkey and the TP, I knew this was a very astute and prepared shopper. (I should have been a private detective.)
For most U.S. families, this Thanksgiving Day will probably resemble a ‘normal’ Thanksgiving in some ways, but maybe not in other ways. If your family is like most others this year, you may have fewer relatives visiting your home, or you may not be visiting theirs. The COVID-19 rules seem to be changing almost daily and do vary by state.
If you plan on visiting family out of state, you just might want to have a Thanksgiving backup plan in case those original plans fall apart. In years past some families sort of loosely figured out such a plan, (ours included) if bad weather was predicted, and those plans came in handy more than once. To me, having such a plan in place could be a holiday-saver this year. (No one wants a PBJ sandwich on Thanksgiving.)
Your Thanksgiving dinner rescue plan could be as simple as this: Get a small frozen turkey, which will cost you about five bucks if bought before Thanksgiving. (If you don’t eat it now, they’re great anytime in the winter, or on your gas grill next summer. Yum!) Buy some canned veggies, (which you should probably be stockpiling right now anyway,) Stovetop Stuffing, (not to be a brand dropper,) some turkey gravy, and a bag of potatoes. Ta-Da! Instant Thanksgiving dinner, just in case you must stay at home yourself or have fewer family members visiting this year.
We Americans have always been great innovators. As of this writing, my own family is unsure if our dinner plans for Thanksgiving will actually materialize. We’re all praying that they will, but God only knows, and I do not mean that sarcastically. Truly, only He really does know, and only He can be our guide through these tough times. Still, it doesn’t hurt to do a little extra planning, (At this moment there are two smallish turkeys taking a long cold nap in our freezer.)
In some ways, this year is not different from others. Thanksgiving Day is still a day in which we are reminded to be thankful for all that we have. Regardless of anything and everything else this year may change for us; it cannot stop us from being thankful. Have a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving