How are you going to handle the holidays this year? Covid talk

[mommyoffive]

Do you have any thoughts on how you are going to handle them this year in regards with Covid?

I feel like I am not going to figure out Christmas now.  But I am thinking about Halloween and then Thanksgiving.  What am I going to feel comfy with this year?  Sigh. 

What are you doing?

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by mommyoffive

[happi duck]

Saw this article recently regarding gatherings: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1280634

[happi duck]

We normally host Halloween.  I have a "if the weather's nice come hang outside" invitation out.  We are not doing our normal indoor gathering.

Edited October 4, 2021 by happi duck

[JustEm]

Those people in our family who are vaccinated and happy to mask if asked will be invited to our house for dinner. My brother across the street is hosting Thanksgiving. Halloween will be trick or treating as usual. 

I think it'll likely only be siblings and their families, none of my mom's siblings or their kids.

[HomeAgain]

Our neighbors are committed to a safe environment, so ds is ToTing.  Most houses will place a table or container outside for no contact.  We may get together with another family who keeps their kids masked and stays home, too.  They are in our activity bubble, and I'm okay with that plan.  Not sure if we'll do food or not.

Oldest ds will be home by Thanksgiving.  We would like to go to his graduation, but for one of us to go it hinges on the ability to get the youngest vaccinated.  Either way, oldest will come home, spend time in his part of the house, and take a Covid test a week after getting back. 

Christmas is easy.  We are staying home.  No visitors.  Dh is working, so we'll do an early Christmas morning or a late evening one, and our main activity during that holiday week will be at home escape room games.

 

The thing is, with ds's activity we have a minimal risk bubble.  He does scouting (outside, masked), and hockey (inside, masked, helmet shield).  For all of our sanity, I have to be okay with those two things.  But there are other areas we are struggling with, and a lot of that is going to depend on numbers.

[Faith-manor]

Here is what we are doing:

Halloween. The grad school boys and undergrad will be busy with school. The grandmothers really do not observe it. So dh and I will do a shut down here for 10 days beginning Oct. 11. We are vaxed, by will do this just to be careful for our grandson with a heart condition. Then on the 21st we will make that 12 hour drive to the mountain house south of Huntsville and spent two weeks with dd, dsil, and grandsons. There are two homeschool families, all adults and teens vaxed, who have formed a pod so the families can socialize together. We are hosting an outdoor Halloween party. Costumes for fun. Pumpkin carving. Fire in the fire pit. Spooky (one kind of really spooky for older kids, and one cutesy spooky for the little ones) scavenger hunt in the big yard. Buffet of fun foods, and making glow in that dark slime dough. Dd and I are going to have fun decorating the yards and we will play songs like Monster Mash, theme song to Harry Potter, etc. softly in the background. If weather cooperates we will get the telescope out. The whole thing is intended to be outdoors and in the garage with the garage doors open. The half bath just off the garage will be available for us with the window open and a fan, and everyone three and older wearing a mask when using it. The other families are super covid cautious so the mask in the bathroom might be overkill. But we don't want to have any regrets.

Christmas: The grad school boys too not have finals. They just have papers due, and those will be submitted by Dec. 8. The undergrad who lives in the dorm will be done Dec. 10, and will be headed home for break. So they will all come here (they are vaxed and will happily take boosters or third doses when available) and hunker down for nine days, then make the drive to Alabama. On grandmother is going to her sister's in Colorado, the other who is thrilled to be going will also hunker down. On these trips, we pack food to eat in the cars, and we double mask to use rest areas and even outdoors when pumping gas just in case. No hotels. We muscle through the long drive. Well, dh and I do. Other people (looking at the college boys) nap half the time! 🤔

So we will all be together there. Dd remains pretty isolated with our grandsons except for her homeschool pod. Son in law was given a private office where he works because work remote is not an option despite being in IT due to the nature of his projects. He still only zooms into meetings with others even at work. His boss set it up this way when dsil shared that his son was now high risk. His boss felt so bad about not being able to let him work remote, that he told everyone to stay the heck away, and no one is allowed in dsil's office. There is a mask mandate company wide for in person so that helps, and his colleagues have a high vax rate. He eats his lunch in the car just to be extra careful about taking his mask off. We really hope this means we are keeping grandson very protected until he can be vaccinated. The poor little man asks regularly, "Can I have my shot yet, mama? I want to take swim lessons again." Makes my heart break. If the vast majority of the grownups in this land had actually acted like grownups from the start, the little ones would not be suffering in this way.

Since the other two pod families are not having relatives and friends to their homes (because they have a lot of relatives who do not respect their concerns), we will probably have a Christmas Eve get together. Food, Christmas Carol singing, stories, maybe a movie. It all depends on how much entertaining dd, Mark, and I feel up of because we will already be managing a group of ten. I think we can make a go of it because the grad school boys don't mind cleaning up, and undergrad likes to cook my mom loves to help cook and entertain. So we may manage it.

Then after that, we will collapse on Christmas Day and eat leftovers while the little play with their new toys.

The grandmothers will then do a hunker down -  if this thing is still raging - in order to go back from kids February through mismatch for a break from the ice, snow, and bitter weather here. 

Easter is a wild card. None of the boys have any kind of decent break. I suspect Mark and I will run down for just a short visit, host an Easter Egg hunt for the pod, and then come back home and begin preparations for ds's college commencement. Classes end on the same day for all three of our sons. So we are all heading to A's graduation, and then taking them on a "Yay, everyone has finally made it through their undergrad and mom and dad are delighted to no longer be paying on college bills" trip west. If we adults have all had third doses by then, and N has been vaxed, we will probably let our hair down a LOT and just have fun. We do tend to be outdoor people, and love to be in the scenery, eat picnics, or enjoy outdoor dining experiences. So we will probably wouldn't need to worry anyway, and won't see the kiddoes again until June when they come up to go boating, kayaking, and camping around the Great Lakes.

And of course, these are plans, but we also know things could change.

Note that in none of this did I mention my brother, his wife, his kids, my mom's brother, etc. They are covid hoaxers. Not really much of a relationship there, and the sister in law thinks she can cure everything in the world with Reiki, vitamin c, and vegetables. Mark's brother and his wife are great people. But they have two little grand daughters who they are trying to protect so they will have their own pod with their adult kids, and not be mingling. That's okay. We have agreed to meet sometime next summer and have a family cookout somewhere special like a meet up at New River Gorge National Park or something, and everyone has their own vacation rentals, or for our family of avid campers, campsites.

[skimomma]

43 minutes ago, happi duck said:

Saw this article recently regarding gatherings: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1280634

A window fan?  Really?  My heating bill is through the roof that time of year!  I cannot even imagine.  Many days our furnace struggles to keep up without opening windows.  It is like the recommendation is ignorant to the fact that it is COLD for half the U.S. during the holidays.  

[mlktwins]

We lost my in-laws this spring.  They were the reason we got with DH's side of the family.  This year, we have decided it will just be the 4 of us at home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We usually do the hosting for Christmas and it's a lot of work.  We really just want to cherish the time we have with my boys as they are off to college in less than 2 years.  It will be sad as it will be the first Christmas without my in-laws, but we are looking forward to it just being the 4 of us for once.

My dad will be at his place with his caregiver.  I will probably make them food and all of us go over on Christmas Eve to spend some time with him.

[Faith-manor]

Just now, skimomma said:

A window fan?  Really?  My heating bill is through the roof that time of year!  I cannot even imagine.  Many days our furnace struggles to keep up without opening windows.  It is like the recommendation is ignorant to the fact that it is COLD for half the U.S. during the holidays.  

With you on that! Come to Michigan where it will be 20-25 degrees Christmas Day on a warm Christmas, and the house is heated on propane and make that statement, LOL. Ya, half the country is probably going to have to do this with that recommendation...😂😂😂

[scholastica]

I’m praying that this report holds to be true. We might be able to have normalish holidays with my and dh’s families.

[Farrar]

Halloween - gathering with fully vaxxed friends more or less as normal unless they nix it, in which case, we'll do what we did last year and set up a bonfire and a movie screen with tons of blankets outside and they can take the one tiny sibling in the friend group around for distanced ToT with the teens supervising.

Thanksgiving - seeing my mother here. No one else. All fully vaxxed and mom with a covid booster (got it yesterday!). Possibly testing beforehand since balletboy is in studio and all of us are doing indoor things masked at least sometimes.

Christmas - here, ds dancing as Nut is on.

New Year's - visiting the in-laws, everyone vaxxed, older folks with boosters (and us if they become available), definitely us testing beforehand

If we weren't all vaxxed, this would be a very different conversation.

[Loowit]

Halloween:  DD will be home for the weekend from college.  We will be setting up our candy zip-line, and having homemade treats while watching movies or just visiting.  I wanted to go to talking tombstone event, but it is actually on Halloween this year and with everything else going on we are going to skip it.

Thanksgiving: It is still a bit up in the air.  We are tentatively planning to go to my parent's house, however, it will depend on how things are going around here.  Everyone will be vaxed, and the most vulnerable family members will have had their boosters.  DD will be home for the weekend, so we will at least have dinner at home with her if we can't go to see my family.

Christmas: We haven't really discussed.  DD will be home for her semester break for about a month.  We will be doing stuff at home for sure, but I am not sure if we will get together with any extended family.  I am hoping to at least have a small gathering with my parents, if not we will drop off gifts at doors, and wave from a distance.

New Years: We always just do at home with the kids.  We'll have lots of snack foods around, play games, and just enjoy each others company.

DH's parents are out of town for a year, so we won't see them at all, except maybe some sort of online meetup.

[rebcoola]

Halloween they will Trick or Treat as usual. We will set out our treats no contact style again.    

Thanksgiving is usually just us and our parents everyone is vaxxed except the toddler.  The elders are all setup to get their boosters to. So I think it will all go ahead as usual.   

We will do n the outdoor Christmas lights and skip most parties I assume.  Especially the large NYE dance party a friend holds that was a super spreader event last year.

[catz]

30 minutes ago, scholastica said:

I’m praying that this report holds to be true. We might be able to have normalish holidays with my and dh’s families.

Me too!

We sit outdoors for Halloween typically.  We did it last year and it was great and fine and will do that again this year.  Our neighborhood has an astronomically high vaccination rate and has been good with covid safety measures.  I hope we can get start getting kids vaccinated in the not too distant future.  I think that will help with reducing transmission too.  School outbreaks are really driving numbers here, it's pretty clear in our current data.

I had a sibling already grilling me for holiday info and I just said, listen, for us it's a wait and see situation.  I am more open to get togethers than last year.  But I'm definitely not at the point where I feel comfortable committing.  Getting together with DH's family is like 20+ people and not all of them are vaccinated.  Numbers would have to be quite low for me to be cool with an indoor get together with that whole crew.  My brother has shown pretty flagrant disregard for covid - they've had it through their house twice and just keep chugging along.  Not to mention, we've shown up to holidays with them and get a reveal they have a sick kid.  So meh, not super excited about booking early with that side either.  We will almost certainly do something with the grandparents of one sort or another even if the big get togethers don't happen.  Last year they just got meal deliveries.

Edited October 4, 2021 by FuzzyCatz

[MEmama]

Halloween: We won’t be handing out candy again this year (don’t like the holiday in normal times, so it’s no loss). 
 

Thanksgiving: Just the two of us this year. Thinking it might be fun to have another non-traditional couple over for a casual dinner outside around the fire pit, weather permitting. 
 

Winter holidays: fingers crossed DS will be able to fly home! 

 

[lynn]

Nothing different here.   dd's friend hosts a Halloween party.  We have only a few trick or treaters now and in saw Halloween pea dispensers tongue out this year

Going to the beach for Thanksgiving

Christmas spending with my kids and grands.  I usually visit my parents the week before. We visit family through out the year and we stay home for Christmas.  

 

[City Mouse]

I’m not a good person to answer as we never did much for holidays before Covid. We are relatively rural and far from relatives, so most holidays are just quiet meals done around work schedules. 

[WildflowerMom]

Halloween?   We'd planned to hand out candy at the end of the driveway, but I don't feel safe doing that.   No offense to those with littles, but putting candy into their buckets with their germy hands holding it is too risky for me.    I guess I could throw it at people but that seems a little aggressive, lol.   I hate it though, because we actually missed it last year.    

Thanksgiving?   Idk.  We may go to Cracker Barrel again.  There was no one there last year and they do have outdoor seating if many people show up.   

Christmas?   I'm *considering* having a family Christmas at my house and setting up a couple tables on the deck and also setting up some outdoor games for people to play.    

[Faith-manor]

7 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

Halloween?   We'd planned to hand out candy at the end of the driveway, but I don't feel safe doing that.   No offense to those with littles, but putting candy into their buckets with their germy hands holding it is too risky for me.    I guess I could throw it at people but that seems a little aggressive, lol.   I hate it though, because we actually missed it last year.    

Thanksgiving?   Idk.  We may go to Cracker Barrel again.  There was no one there last year and they do have outdoor seating if many people show up.   

Christmas?   I'm *considering* having a family Christmas at my house and setting up a couple tables on the deck and also setting up some outdoor games for people to play.    

I agree about the bucket of candy. Very germy. If you want to have fun, you could make a PVC catapult and !launch candy to the end of the driveway! 😁

[WildflowerMom]

Just now, Faith-manor said:

I agree about the bucket of candy. Very germy. If you want to have fun, you could make a PVC catapult and !launch candy to the end of the driveway! 😁

😆

That's awesome.   Or maybe a slingshot.  Though a catapult might be safer.  

[Faith-manor]

2 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

😆

That's awesome.   Or maybe a slingshot.  Though a catapult might be safer.  

Oh yes. And for fun, you could have a spooky theme target to aim for, and make it a game for the teens. We did it one year with 4H. We had them participate in a trunk or treat, and we took the back part of the parking lot so as kids approached, we launched to the target area, and then they had to retrieve it. We were a HIGHLY popular station. 😁

[WildflowerMom]

2 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

Oh yes. And for fun, you could have a spooky theme target to aim for, and make it a game for the teens. We did it one year with 4H. We had them participate in a trunk or treat, and we took the back part of the parking lot so as kids approached, we launched to the target area, and then they had to retrieve it. We were a HIGHLY popular station. 😁

Tell me more.  You launched the candy into something and they had to get it?   Or was there some sort of literal target?   

[prairiewindmomma]

Halloween: I am taking Youngest out trick or treating.  She will be outdoors and in a KF94 ped mask.  I'm feeling reassured that fomite transmission isn't a big deal, and this year we have good quality masks for her. (Last year we stayed entirely home.)  My older kids will all just be home for our usual Harry Potter movie marathon + snacks. 

Thanksgiving: One of our kids is having surgery earlier in that week.  It's in a non-hospital setting, so it shouldn't be canceled (unless someone in our household gets sick). We're planning an easy week at home. Everyone will be out of school (even university). Zoom call with extended family while they gather in person.

Christmas: We're going to repeat Thanksgiving plans---easy week at home, no travel, Zoom call.  Youngest may be vaccinated by then (whenever is the ped dose going to come out?) but it's all of the rest that's a mess. We'd have to be in a hotel because there's limited home rentals there, there'd be demands for us to eat in restaurants and go do things, and extended family aren't consistent maskers.  They are out and about doing all of the things...largely without masks....in an area where my doctor friends are losing their minds because they are caring for patients out in hallways. The question I keep asking is--if this all fell apart and I needed care, am I ok with getting it there? The answer to that is no, so we're staying home.

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by prairiewindmomma

[barnwife]

16 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

Halloween?   We'd planned to hand out candy at the end of the driveway, but I don't feel safe doing that.   No offense to those with littles, but putting candy into their buckets with their germy hands holding it is too risky for me.    I guess I could throw it at people but that seems a little aggressive, lol.   I hate it though, because we actually missed it last year.    

You could just set what you want each kid to take on a table and let them pick it up. It doesn't have to be complicated. 

I assume we will be TOTing this year. I have no expectations yet about other holidays. My sister and her family are all vaxxed, as is my mom. DH's family...not so much (both because younger children and other reasons I can't be nice about). So my comfort level is different between the two. It will depend exactly on how things look in our area closer to then. 

Ideally, we will see my family for at least one holiday or for a belated holiday or something this year. I'd love to see DH's family too (it's been 2 years), but I don't see myself being comfortable with the risk.
 

[WildflowerMom]

Just now, barnwife said:

You could just set what you want each kid to take on a table and let them pick it up. It doesn't have to be complicated. 

I assume we will be TOTing this year. I have no expectations yet about other holidays. My sister and her family are all vaxxed, as is my mom. DH's family...not so much (both because younger children and other reasons I can't be nice about). So my comfort level is different between the two. It will depend exactly on how things look in our area closer to then. 

Ideally, we will see my family for at least one holiday or for a belated holiday or something this year. I'd love to see DH's family too (it's been 2 years), but I don't see myself being comfortable with the risk.
 

Actually, that's a good idea. 🎃 I could bag it up and put the bags in a basket with a sign on it saying take one or something.  
 

[Faith-manor]

3 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

Tell me more.  You launched the candy into something and they had to get it?   Or was there some sort of literal target?   

We made a big, fabric target (if memory serves, it was a funny ghost face against an orange background, and about 10 ft by 10ft) and anchored it down with rocks. How far away you and the catapult or trend get (depending on what you build) depends on size of machine and the amount of force generated. There are a lot of plans for simple ones available online, and a book (wish I could remember the name) on amazon. Not expensive to build. You get a lot more distance from a trend bet than a catapult, and sometimes it is easier to "sight in". Usually each child got to launch their little fabric baggie (a square of junk fabric tied up with twine around three tootsie rolls or something similar) to see if they could land on the target. But we did have little ones come through who wanted someone to do it for them because they were afraid to come too close to it. Then one of the 4H teens would do it for them and then walk them to the target to get the candy. We also gave away " kits" of rubber bands, plastic spoons, and marshmallows to older kids instead of candy so they could go home make a super rudimentary catapult and have marshmallow wars with their friends. That's just the kind of 4H leaders we were! 😂

[WildflowerMom]

2 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

We made a big, fabric target (if memory serves, it was a funny ghost face against an orange background, and about 10 ft by 10ft) and anchored it down with rocks. How far away you and the catapult or trend get (depending on what you build) depends on size of machine and the amount of force generated. There are a lot of plans for simple ones available online, and a book (wish I could remember the name) on amazon. Not expensive to build. You get a lot more distance from a trend bet than a catapult, and sometimes it is easier to "sight in". Usually each child got to launch their little fabric baggie (a square of junk fabric tied up with twine around three tootsie rolls or something similar) to see if they could land on the target. But we did have little ones come through who wanted someone to do it for them because they were afraid to come too close to it. Then one of the 4H teens would do it for them and then walk them to the target to get the candy. We also gave away " kits" of rubber bands, plastic spoons, and marshmallows to older kids instead of candy so they could go home make a super rudimentary catapult and have marshmallow wars with their friends. That's just the kind of 4H leaders we were! 😂

This is awesome!!   If my friend's church does a trunk or treat or fall festival, I'm going to tell her about this!   Such a fun idea!    

[Storygirl]

We get only four or five trick-or-treaters here, but they are in the houses right beside us, so we want to do something for them. I will probably do the same as last year and set up a little table out on the sidewalk, so they can take their own treat.

We will probably invite FIL and SIL for Thanksgiving. DH's brother and family have a big family reunion for SIL's side, so they never do Thanksgiving with us. My side of the family can celebrate among themselves, and we won't attend -- or invite them to ours -- because my brother and his family are anti-vaxxers. We did see them a couple of weeks ago at an outdoor family gathering, but we won't do an indoor gathering with them.

DH lost his mom this spring, so he really wants to be with FIL on this first Christmas Day without her. We will figure that out, even if they aren't all vaccinated, because it's so important to him. FIL is vaccinated, and we all are, so even if some of the others are not fully vaccinated by then, we will have a measure of protection. I won't feel completely comfortable with an indoor gathering with all of them, but it will be important anyway.

Last year, we did not see any extended family for the holidays and just did Zoom and phone calls. I liked having a smaller celebration with just DH and the kids, though I missed seeing the other people I love. I didn't really expect that we would still feel uncomfortable with regular gatherings this year, too.

[Faith-manor]

2 minutes ago, WildflowerMom said:

This is awesome!!   If my friend's church does a trunk or treat or fall festival, I'm going to tell her about this!   Such a fun idea!    

It is a blast. And marshmallow wars are safe fun, and more kids will take those kits than will take the candy. We put three marshmallows in each kit, and then figured parents would be responsible for buying ammo. 

Plus, the whole physics behind the concept is worth exploring. Previous to that Halloween, we had held a county wide "Science of Medieval Warfare" demonstration with a catapult and a trebuchet dh made with the club that were large enough to launch pie size pumpkins, and then a smaller one that launched tomatoes. The one for tomatoes was used for a distance contest. So I did a presentation on how the technology worked, how it was sighted in, and then we did a demonstration with club members assisting. Kids who had signed up for the team tomato launch contest, then had a prescribed amount of time to assemble their catapults from the kits we provided. Each team of 3 kids had 3 tries to launch the furthest. We also had a target contest, and had a huge bullseye target on the ground, team with the most points after 3 launches, won. Thankfully one of the master gardeners donated a ton of tomatoes!

I then did a presentation on "Greek Fire", speculations on what it might have been, and dropped a several grains of pure sodium contained within a muslin packet that was dropped into a wading pool of water from a very safe distance using a stand and a rip cord. This allowed the spectacle of flames on water without injury. Then I oil slicked the water, and set it ablaze from a safe distance with some cheap, balsa would boats in there so demonstrate " burning the fleet". Again, very popular 4H leaders with an, at that time, very liberal program director who maybe didn't always tell MSU what we were up to at the time! 😂😂😂😂😂 I would post photos, but we aren't in 4H anymore and cannot use those pics without permission because many of them show some of the kids, and I no longer have media releases for social media.

I forgot to say that this Halloween, we are building a catapult for the back deck of the Bama house and launching tomatoes into the cove (uninhabited by humans) at the party. No one will ever be able to say we are boring grandparents!

[gardenmom5]

We dont' get trick-or-treaters.  Houses are too are far apart.

We do a trunk or treat at church.  Last  year - it was truly a "drive through".  (every one was masked.)  Kids remained in cars, and their parents drove them through the parking lot.  Afterwards they had a 'parade' with social distancing.  Kids walking down the middle of the parking lot so we could see them in their costumes. 

They did something similar for the "Christmas Party".  everyone drove through, and got their little Christmas bag with a Christmas message and a treat.

 

We stopped doing extended family Thanksgiving gatherings years ago.   (It took me five years to stop hating Thanksgiving.) So, just our immediate family who live here.  

[Syllieann]

My unvaccinated kids will do trick or treating with KF94S and no indoor gatherings.  We don't really do a Halloween celebration.  I hope my younger kids can have first shots at least 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.  If that happens my unvaccinated in-laws can visit from out of state.  If not, it will just be my parents here with us.  They are vaccinated plus mask and distance and should have boosters by then.  Christmas is up in the air because we should be in the midst of a long distance relocation.

Eta:  I forgot about our annual Christmas Party at a swanky hotel.  It was canceled last year but so far looks to be on for this year.  We are tentatively planning to attend.  We are fully vaccinated and I expect to be boosted 2 weeks before.  The current policy is attendees show vaccination or recent proof of negative test.  There are usually about 150 of us.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Syllieann

[gardenmom5]

12 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

It is a blast. And marshmallow wars are safe fun, and more kids will take those kits than will take the candy. We put three marshmallows in each kit, and then figured parents would be responsible for buying ammo. 

Plus, the whole physics behind the concept is worth exploring. Previous to that Halloween, we had held a county wide "Science of Medieval Warfare" demonstration with a catapult and a trebuchet dh made with the club that were large enough to launch pie size pumpkins, and then a smaller one that launched tomatoes. The one for tomatoes was used for a distance contest. So I did a presentation on how the technology worked, how it was sighted in, and then we did a demonstration with club members assisting. Kids who had signed up for the team tomato launch contest, then had a prescribed amount of time to assemble their catapults from the kits we provided. Each team of 3 kids had 3 tries to launch the furthest. We also had a target contest, and had a huge bullseye target on the ground, team with the most points after 3 launches, won. Thankfully one of the master gardeners donated a ton of tomatoes!

I then did a presentation on "Greek Fire", speculations on what it might have been, and dropped a several grains of pure sodium contained within a muslin packet that was dropped into a wading pool of water from a very safe distance using a stand and a rip cord. This allowed the spectacle of flames on water without injury. Then I oil slicked the water, and set it ablaze from a safe distance with some cheap, balsa would boats in there so demonstrate " burning the fleet". Again, very popular 4H leaders with an, at that time, very liberal program director who maybe didn't always tell MSU what we were up to at the time! 😂😂😂😂😂 I would post photos, but we aren't in 4H anymore and cannot use those pics without permission because many of them show some of the kids, and I no longer have media releases for social media.

I forgot to say that this Halloween, we are building a catapult for the back deck of the Bama house and launching tomatoes into the cove (uninhabited by humans) at the party. No one will ever be able to say we are boring grandparents!

That sounds like a blast.

My dad had a college friend that was a chem doc.  It was pretty common for chem majors of that era to throw bits of sodium into Drumheller Fountain.  aka: Frosh pond.  (dd did her chem undergrad elsewhere - but I dont' think I heard of her doing such things . . . )

[gardenmom5]

We were fortunate to have a parent at my kids elementary school that was a chem prof. He would do science demos at every science fair while his kids were attending.

there were a few mishaps.  One year - it produced lots of stinky gas.  Unfortunately, that was inside so people tended to clear out.

Another time it went wrong and the explosion was very loud.  The first thing he heard after he got his hearing back was "DO IT AGAIN!"  from the kids.

[Faith-manor]

1 minute ago, gardenmom5 said:

That sounds like a blast.

My dad had a college friend that was a chem doc.  It was pretty common for chem majors of that era to throw bits of sodium into Drumheller Fountain.  aka: Frosh pond.  (dd did her chem undergrad elsewhere - but I dont' think I heard of her doing such things . . . )

Also awesome by too pricey for regular folks is a frost theater. Dress up like a mad scientist, turn out the lights, and do the presentation under black lights with white crazy hair, glow in the dark paint on the coffee can which contains liquid nitrogen. (Very dangerous. So just don't do it unless you really know what you are doing!) The nitrogen is wicked expensive. But, you can flash freeze bananas and other things then smash them into shrapnel with hammere, and feed an 8 ft long balloon into that coffee can, and then watch it expand as you slowly bring it back out. Awesome science stuff. But ya, we had some crazy strict safety protocols. We made instant ice cream with the stuff afterward, and we had to let it warm up before it could be served because it is dangerous to eat at such low temp. Not an ice crystal in it because of the flash freeze. Best ice cream we have ever eaten. Wildly popular.

Those were the days! Sometimes I really miss it, but then remind myself how much it has changed, how little support or respect there I for the volunteerw, and that fleeting sentiment passes.

 

Anyway, there are a ton of fun things for outdoor Halloween activities besides some of the traditional stuff if you want to branch past candy and pumpkin carving. Theo from Popular Science published a book about ten years ago with some wild experiments that would be great for Halloween. They come with danger ratings based on skulls, and three skulls means "be extra careful". However, in reality, if you possess basic knowledge, safety gear, and common sense (I realize that in some places this might seem like a super power 😁), many of them are just fine to do as demonstrations or to let teens and older kids do with supervision. It makes for memorable Halloween parties.

[athena1277]

We will celebrate as usual.  We do trunk or treat with our church that we are around all the time, so not really concerned there.  My mom will come here for Christmas.  Thanksgiving and Christmas with dh’s family will be up to them.  They are way more Covid cautious than we are.  If they want to get together with us (we don’t wear masks unless mandated and 4/5 are unvaxxed), then we will.  If they would rather not, we won’t and won’t be offended.  

[Melissa Louise]

We don't do Halloween.

Christmas will likely be an outdoor affair with close family, all double vaxed. Unless it's uncomfortably hot, in which case I don't know, but it won't be indoors. 

[ScoutTN]

We are all fully vaxed, including all extended family. No kids under 12 and no anti-vaxers. 

Halloween - My kids are teens and will likely dress up and give out candy. Possible bonfire party for Dd sometime that weekend. Also a small 85th birthday celebration for my mom, using the private dining room at her AL place. 

Thanksgiving - We will eat at my mom's AL place, if they permit visitors. she is 85, in poor health and cannot come to my house. There may not be many more with her. Her place has a very good cook! This meal will be midday. We will swing by Dh's family gathering and hang out for a while too. I will still cook a turkey and dressing and make pies (on a different day), because we love TG food.

Christmas - Christmas Eve with Dh's family and church afterwards, for sure. Probably Christmas lunch/dinner with mom at her place. Not sure what we'll do about parties and other events. 

NYE - We don't ever make a big deal of this. Kids will be at winter camp and we will be driving to NC so that we can pick them up on NYD. 
 

[sbgrace]

We are doing a my side of the family (16 people) gathering for Thanksgiving spread over several days.  Everyone eligible is vaccinated and my parents have a booster. I have a public school neice and nephew unvaxed due to age, though I think my sister will test them prior to coming. 

I'm not at all sure how much the vaccines will protect any of us if one of us is contagious. I have a pretty small social circle and have received news of 8 break through infections just in the last few weeks. All sick/symptomatic, with some pretty miserable. It's discouraging. 

We have a trip, with plane flight, to the grand canyon just before Christmas. I hope we can avoid COVID going into and during that trip. We'll do good masks. I'm nervous about it. 

I have no idea about Christmas at this point, but I can't see either side of our family being ok with no gathering again this year.  My brother in law is anti-mask, anti-vax but not obnoxious to our faces about our choices. 

 

 

[historically accurate]

Halloween - I am working at the Trunk or Treat at the local library. Kids (vaccinated teens) are dressing up and walking around the neighborhood with some (vaccinated) friends. Depending on weather, maybe an outdoor movie.

Thanksgiving - don't know. I and DH have to work the day before in order to get holiday pay, so no time to isolate before. MIL wants us to come over for Thanksgiving, but I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. She obviously is, so we'll see. She is vaccinated, but I cannot convince her to get a booster. Her sister and brother in law just passed away from Covid last week, so she is feeling a little disheartened and morbid and wanting to see everybody "before she dies". 

Christmas - my mom wants us to come to FL to visit her, but I have to work the week of Christmas, so we're staying here. Oldest will come home from college. Maybe we'll host some vaccinated family. I haven't really thought that far ahead. 

[PeterPan]

I'm going to party, travel, hang with people indoors, etc as much as I can. I have the vax, the Merck drug is coming, and we still have the monoclonal antibodies. Time to move on. No one in our house is high risk and people who are need to make their own choices. 

[HSmomof2]

Halloween—we’re planning to have a little outdoor event with some friends (all vaxed).

Thanksgiving and Christmas we plan to spend with my parents and sister and her family. We’re all vaxed, all kids are over 12 and vaxed. Most of us will have likely had boosters by then as well. We’re within an hour of each other, so not traveling. 

[Tree Frog]

Halloween will be just dh and I, so we won't do anything. I have a bad habit of eating all the candy we buy for trick or treating. I'm not buying any this year, so we won't have any to hand out.

For Thanksgiving, 2 of our 3 kids will be home. We won't mask unless one of us is sick.

For Christmas, we're renting an AirBnB in dd's city and driving there. As of now, our previous exchange student from Germany is flying in and will drive out with us. We're all vaccinated adults and will mask in public, but not with each other. I'm eligible now to get a booster, but am planning to wait until the end of Oct to have increased effectiveness over the holidays.

[Spryte]

We live in a huge ToT neighborhood and Halloween is usually my favorite holiday. We do it big, with a firepit out front, chili in a cauldron and butter beer to pass out to neighbors and anyone who wants to join us after ToT. But I’m not comfortable with unvaccinated kid here, and all the wandering germs that will be out. 

So kids here have requested the same Halloween thing we did last year: party at home. I pulled out all the stops and we did a serious kid party in the basement last year. Planning the same this year, with some new games, one is an Alexa assisted Escape Room. I set up silly games, we have nerdy prizes and special foods, and the Switch Witch comes to drop off safe goody bags (SW comes to kids with food allergies and swaps out the unsafe candy they get ToTing with a bag of safe goodies, it’s just our normal thing). Then we will watch Halloween movies.

The jury is out on thanksgiving and Christmas. We will see if kids can be vaccinated by then.

 

[TechWife]

8 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I agree about the bucket of candy. Very germy. If you want to have fun, you could make a PVC catapult and !launch candy to the end of the driveway! 😁

Last year we made a candy chute - it was a big hit. We purchased two florescent light bulb storage tubes, secured them together and wrapped orange and black tape around them for decoration.  We made an "x" on the porch steps and put a sign out that said to put your candy container on the "x." We stood on the balcony and sent candy down the chute - it was a blast. We still have the tubes, but we need to see if we can get them cleaned up - they've been stored in the garage. We will probably do the same thing again this year.

For Thanksgiving we are getting together w/dh's family - all eligible people are vaccinated, so it will be low risk. Most of the family usually runs in a Thanksgiving Day 5K race, but I'm not sure if they are doing it this year - I haven't heard yet. They weather is usually pleasant, so everyone will be in & out of the house playing football, soccer and roasting marshmallows. It's my favorite family gathering.

Christmas will be just us at home as usual. My sister sometimes visits, but she will not be joining us this year due to her work schedule. We will decide whether or not to go to church Christmas Eve depending on how our local area is doing managing the virus at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

[klmama]

My immediate family is fully vaccinated and will all come together at Thanksgiving, regardless of what the extended family does.  The grandparents want everyone to visit them, and I'm sure that will happen somehow, even if the whole family isn't there at once.  

 

 

[TechWife]

9 hours ago, skimomma said:

A window fan?  Really?  My heating bill is through the roof that time of year!  I cannot even imagine.  Many days our furnace struggles to keep up without opening windows.  It is like the recommendation is ignorant to the fact that it is COLD for half the U.S. during the holidays.  

But for half of the U.S. it is not cold during the holidays - that's why they are making the recommendation. They aren't ignorant but are making recommendations for ventilation in a pandemic. In all honesty, they'd probably rather us stay away from each other for another few months, but since they know people won't do that, here we go making the best of a bad situation. If you don't want to use a fan, don't.  For some people, it may be the thing that helps them see family.

[Lawyer&Mom]

We plan to do what we did last year for Halloween, which is trick or treat the upstairs hallway.  Each family member had a turn to knock on all the bedroom doors and get a piece of candy from the family member behind each door.  (My kids are little, so they thought this was great fun.)  New this year will be in person school so they will get to see their friends in costume.

I’m in denial about Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I can’t think that far ahead these days. 

[dsmith]

We don't get many ToTers, so we will go lights out and watch a movie or something. We usually have stuffed orange-colored peppers carved to look like mini jack o'lanterns, and that is the extent of our Halloween celebration now that ds is an adult. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas will be us and local family, who are all vaccinated. Last year we were in shut-down and it was the first holidays without fil, but it was such a strange holiday season anyway, so it was different and weird without even factoring in his death, but also quiet and enjoyable. This year will be the first year we are all together without him, so in a way it's going to be more difficult than last year. On a positive note, I will finally be able to see my sister. She was afraid to get vaccinated and ended up with Covid. She was able to get monoclonal antibodies and thankfully had a somewhat mild case. She's just out of quarantine today and we are planning on having her over on our next homemade pizza night. Can't wait!! 

[Shoeless]

There's a place in town that is The Hot Spot for trick or treating. We're out in the sticks, so we always head into town. Buuuut...I am not feeling very safe about heading into town this year. There is a guy that stands on the corner across from the Methodist church and yells into a megaphone about damnation, salvation, devil worship.  And then tries to give the kids bibles and prays at them as they pass by. 🤨  It's just...a lot...and it almost turned physical one year because he ticked off the wrong dude that walked by.  

So, there's that and then with everyone's feelings about Covid and politics in this county, it feels rather fraught.  Like, I am not at all worried we'd catch Covid outside. I'm worried about a fight breaking out about politics, religion, or because a homeowner refuses to give a kid candy because the parent or child wears a mask. 

I've been told that the local college dorms hand out candy on Halloween. I'll see if kiddo wants to do that.  

Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here with just our household.  If DH wants to invite MIL, that's fine with me, but I doubt she'll come, which is a whole other thing entirely.        

[prairiewindmomma]

For those not wanting to open windows but who have air quality concerns—Amazon had their Levoit air purifiers on sale for $79 yesterday.