It’s Thanksgiving week, and to be honest, it couldn’t be worse timing. The country is in a massive wave of covid, with nearly 200,000 new cases a day, making July’s spike look like peanuts. This has been going poorly for weeks, and San Antonio has been faring relatively well…until now. Two days ago, our case numbers suddenly skyrocketed, and we all got emergency warnings on our phones about levels that hadn’t been seen since mid-July.

Now, we weren’t planning on having a huge traditional Thanksgiving celebration anyway. I have a very large extended family, and most years, we have an early Thanksgiving gathering with my mom’s side of the family the weekend before. It would have been yesterday, but it didn’t happen of course. And then on the day-of, we would normally go to my aunt and uncle’s house for a celebration with my dad’s side of the family. Again, that’s not going to happen, not in the current environment and definitely not now that our area is starting to spike.

But we were planning a few small things. We were going to make traditional foods just for us. My sister was thinking of coming to town and even isolated herself completely for a few weeks beforehand to be extra safe. We were going to hang out on our back deck, outside, far enough apart to again be extra safe. My mom and stepdad might have come over as well, though those plans weren’t finalized. At some point, we might have gotten together outdoors with my dad and stepmom and half-sister, maybe for a walk on the trails. It’s looking like all of that might be canceled, though. Our meagre attempts to be with family at this time of year, as safely as possible, just gone.

I know this is the way it has to be. I know. I’m going to spend some time mourning anyway. I have no idea when I’m going to see my family again, and my oldest son isn’t even coming home from college for the holiday. (He’s decided to stay up in Kansas over the long winter break, with a short week down here at Christmas.) Those are sad things. Covid has made a lot of sad things this year.

But I’m also going to take some time to be thankful this week for the things we have. None of us have been sick. (Fingers crossed it stays that way!) My kids have options for virtual schooling. Jason has a job that can be done from home, so we haven’t had to worry about income issues or him potentially getting exposed at work. I have a social support network that I can lean on when I’m sad.

I do hope that soon, we can be together again. Christmas is coming and I know it won’t be the same this year, which is going to be doubly hard as it already wasn’t the same last year due to other family circumstances. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve seen some of the people in my family now, and for a group that’s as tightly connected as ours, this has been rough. We’re all still hanging in there, though. And I’m going to try my best to appreciate that this Thanksgiving week.