Thanks

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 4, 2021 by Baseballandhockey

[Faith-manor]

I think you have a solid plan. The only thing I cam think of is to eat in shifts and in different rooms so that the highest risk individuals do not have their masks off at the same time as everyone else or in the case of babes/tots, feed them first before any of the adults get their masks off along with a fully vaxed adult who can then take them to a play room with a HEPA filter while the others eat. It might lower any viral load exposure. 

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 4, 2021 by Baseballandhockey

[mommyoffive]

Here is what we are doing for Thanksgiving.  It is small group of people us 7 and 4 others.  The 3 of the 4 others are over age 75.  They are all vaxxed and boosted this month.  Dh and I are vaxxed and boosted.  My 3 younger will have only had their 1st shot.  My two teens were vaxxed in June.  We are all going to test before we get together.  I think I may have my younger kids wear masks while inside, but I think that is it.  I had read that if everyone is vaxxed you could do it like 2019.   Testing is our second defense on that.    I haven't heard of my family doing anything else. 

[happi duck]

Is a full length meal an important tradition?  I'm thinking in terms of a shorter meal time would mean less time unmasked and perhaps shorten the whole event.

[BusyMom5]

I think you are *way* overthinking this.  Enjoy your time together and please stop stressing about Covid.  Almost everyone except the babies are vaccinated!

The place I feel most likely to pass germs would be serving food, so I could maybe see having 2 or 3 people, masked, serving the food- think lunch lady style- so that everyone is not handling the same serving spoons.  

 

[Terabith]

I don't know if it would be practical with everyone wanting to get tested for Christmas, but I'd try to PCR everyone with exposure 2-4 days before and do a binax test just before the gathering?  

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 4, 2021 by Baseballandhockey

[Mom_to3]

8 hours ago, Terabith said:

I don't know if it would be practical with everyone wanting to get tested for Christmas, but I'd try to PCR everyone with exposure 2-4 days before and do a binax test just before the gathering?  

This is what I'd suggest. And perhaps have the school kids without a booster eat in a different room.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 4, 2021 by Baseballandhockey

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 4, 2021 by Baseballandhockey

[freesia]

10 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

Are you thinking that a child who received their second dose at the very end of Nov. is more of a risk of transmission than an adult who received their third dose earlier than that?  It's possible, I just don't know.  

I would think young children who received their second dose at the end of November would be the absolute safest guests. 

[TheReader]

Some things we do:

either have one person serve the food onto plates, so no one is using the serving utensils; OR, one person from each family, and one family goes through the line at a time (just the one person from that family, who makes all the plates for that family unit); OR color-coded serving utensils for each family unit although with something like Thanksgiving where there are multiple dishes to serve from, that might be the trickier option. Have hand sanitizer at the start of the serving line. 

If "eat on good china" isn't important, do disposable everything. If it is, and the person cleaning up is worried, have them wear gloves to wash dishes, OR have an empty dishwasher ready and have each family load their dishes right into the dishwasher. (we just do disposable)

For drinks, although pricier, have individual containers (i.e, bottles of water instead of a large pitcher; cans of soda instead of a 2-liter) or have each family bring their own.  

With the bathroom, we keep one bathroom for the host family to use (so maybe everyone from the household that is hosting uses the master bathroom, for ex), and one for guests; if we have a high-risk guest, we (presuming sufficient bathrooms) offer one for them only. In any case (however many are having to share), have the exhaust fan on in the bathroom while people are in there.  Have paper towels next to the sink, instead of a shared hand towel.  Have hand sanitizer &/or cleaning wipes outside the bathroom door/inside so that people can, if they want, wipe down the surfaces before they use the restroom. 

If you can't designate a different bathroom, but maybe have one that has 2 sinks, designate separate sinks for various groups. Or provide both hand sanitizer, wipes, paper towels, etc. so each family can clean/sanitize to their comfort level before using a shared bathroom. 

All of that might be overkill now that we know surface spread is lower than first thought, but we've gotten into the habit of doing it this way and it's fairly easy, so....I will say that these are things we do when mixing vaccinated and unvaccinated, masks and no masks.....we've been having a small group of teens over 2x/month since......summer 2020?....with these measures, well before everyone in our house was vaccinated, and we've had no issues so far. The teens hang out upstairs (6 feet apart, but no special air flow measures) for 6 to 8 hours, and so far, so good. 

[73349]

I would ask people to stay home after getting the test, so they don't pick it up on, say, the 23rd.

Have a hand-washing plan for when people enter (at least sanitizer) and before eating. I've always given people a three-minute warning to wash hands before the meal so people can take turns at the sink.

[Dianthus]

Hm, I think your risk is incredibly small since basically everyone is vaxxed. Have those you're concerned about take a rapid covid test the day before.

I'm concerned about my Thanksgiving. Supposed to go to my brother's home. There will be at least 14 unvaccinated non-maskers there, unless there are more guests I don't know about. I would say a max of 20. They are ultra offended we won't do anything with them.  And they think covid is not a big deal.  They have been very sick with what they think is covid but won't get tested. My brother used to talk to me nearly every day, but we haven't spoken more than 10 times since March of 2020, and it's just so weird. I do not want to go. The highest risk of my family are vaxxed but my 3 youngest are not. My husband and I aren't eligible for boosters yet. I don't think we'd have serious covid issues at this point,  but I hate getting sick and I especially don't want to quarantine. I'd miss my dr appts the next week and the vision benefits (glasses) for 4 people for the year. I would be so annoyed.

Anyway, this is so tricky to navigate and my kids want to be with their cousins and feel like they're missing out.  The family would roll their eyes and probably decline even if I just asked that everyone hand sanitize before dinner. And it's not my house, I can't ask anyone to do anything. I just dread thinking about the whole situation.  It is just so weird. They are not dirty people and they get other vaccines, though I don't think they typically get flu shots. They used hand sanitizer prepandemic, but with covid seem to rebel against any precautions.  I told my husband before we got the invite that I wanted to plan a trip out of town so we wouldn't have this issue.  My SIL sent out a super early invite and since then we've gotten a covid surge. 

I hate being in this position and feeling like I'm the bad guy.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Spirea