A Short Note on Thanksgiving Day
Posted on November 26, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 26 Comments
Notwithstanding the existential trash fire that 2020 has been on a global and national scale, I can say that on a personal level I have had a lot to be thankful for, and that today I am going to set aside a little time to reflect on that, in between, of course, stuffing myself silly with food. I hope that you also have had things to be thankful for in 2020, and that you set aside a little time to reflect on them as well. And also stuff yourself silly.
Have a good Thanksgiving, folks. See you tomorrow.
— JS
Thanks to you and Athena both for having made this year more bearable.
Our 2nd child, in April. Otherwise, 2020 would be a complete write off.
Thankful that I didn’t have a worse case of Covid and am now back to work. Happy Thanksgiving John to you and your family.
John and family:
I’m grateful for your work, the fiction, the blog, the commentary, etc. And thankful too, of course… for all the Internet information and commentary, which has made the self-quarantine much more tolerable.
I would be crazier than I already am without the social interaction of the innertubes!
Take care, be safe!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
For all that 2020 sucked, it’s clear to me that a new world – a more equal and just one – is struggling to be born. Birth is never easy; and I’m grateful to all the activists, organizers, and social justice workers – and the young people, especially – for showing us the way.
Also grateful for this blog, that I learn so much from!
Today I am thankful for the fact that Drumpf is no longer a stain on this world. That said, this day was not celebrated by the Native Americans. This day is a celebration of white supremacy. Any of you who are at a meal should bring this up.
I am thankful to be living in New Zealand. (And it gives me no pleasure to be witnessing the dumpster fire that is the response of many countries to COVID19. It is heartbreaking to know that hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been prevented.)
Just heard that my nephew and his partner are expecting a baby next year. First member of that generation on my side of the family (my wife’s niece had a daughter a couple of years ago.)
We’ll be doing a family zoom in a few hours, and I’m hoping my brother will be able to get something working for my mom to see it on, or else we’ll have them join by phone.
For me this year has been bookended by knee replacement surgeries. Left one in January, and right one in 1.5 weeks. I hope by the midpoint of 2021, I will regain the mobility that I have been deprived of for 20 years. I am thankful that I am in the position to access medical care that makes this possible, and for the technical research and development that goes into my new knees.
A thing I have only started to observe this year: having already celebrated Thanksgiving at a reasonable time 6 weeks ago here in Canada, I am thankful for this second opportunity to examine my life and find things to be grateful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to the entire Scalzi clan.
Grateful that slightly less than half of the politically active portion of the electorate is openly bigoted and resentful. And that the novel coronavirus is not mutating rapidly, to date. And for many other things.
I’ve already eaten too much. Pumpkin ravioli, capellini with eggplant, and salmon with risotto. Pumpkin pie to follow, eventually.
Stressed/busy from Work/too much cooking, we ordered T-Day eats from Kroger/QFC.
What We Expected – their deli would cook it?
What We Got (https://twitter.com/LeeStevens2000/status/1332108199848079361)
🤣🤣🤣!
So 2020!
T-Day Memories should be of laughs!
We’ll NEVER forget 2020
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to the Scalzis and everyone here. I live in a town that sits on the traditional lands of the Piscataway. I am thankful that more attention and honor is being paid to marginalized people in this country.
Good wishes to you and yours!
I’m thankful that the 2020 stress test of relationships has found my marriage to be even more solid than expected.
Happy Thanksgiving Scalzi Family!
Still alive, still employed and able to work at home, still have kids and everyone in my family is ok (or as ok as they can be). There is hope for me, both that the chief malignant narcissist will have to find something else to wreck in two months time and that there will likely be COVID vaccines available soon. 2020 will likely be the year of “well, this sucked, but it could have been much worse” for me.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I texted a friend Thanksgiving morning that my plan for the day was:
1) Pie for breakfast
2) Christmas music all day
3) Turkey and more pie in the afternoon
I’m glad to say that for once my plan was executed to perfection!
I’m thankful for a family who understands the seriousness of covid 19 and so kept their Turkey Day celebrations small and local.
On a side note, most of the family shares Candice’s attitude toward the holiday and just use the day as an excuse to cook and eat vast amounts of fattening food and goodies.
In any case, as food lines across the country extend for blocks, I remain thankful for the ability to afford decent meals.
I don’t eat everything the household does, so I always make a substantial contribution of things I like to the spread.
I made spinach and bacon quiche, broccoli and bacon quiche, roasted garlic and herb red /yellow potatoes, green bean casserole, oven roasted spaghetti squash, chicken herb stuffing muffins and sweet potato pies.
The relatives/housemates prepared a ribeye roast (I didn’t touch that), greens (I won’t touch those at gunpoint), yams (not especially fond of those outside a buttery and flaky pie crust), mac & cheese(this is a family recipe and one of the few things I’ll touch), yeast rolls (another thing I love) and French silk pie (a big hit with me).
So many are cold, hungry and on the streets this year (even more are either lying in the hospital, caring for and/or wringing their hands over infected loved ones or working their hearts and bodies half to death on the front lines of this crisis), and I did feel a bit guilty for enjoying this bounty in the midst of such profound and widespread suffering.
I wish I could have taken food to the nearby hospital so that the staff could have something to eat between patients, but that wouldn’t be safe for anyone. Sigh.
At any rate, aside from our governor’s recent covidiotic behavior, many Californians appear to have done their part to A, prevent more infections and deaths and B, make life a little easier for the already beleaguered healthcare workers who get to spend this and the remaining holidays caring for those who either could not (some people just don’t have the option of avoiding work or essential outings) or would not do the smart or safe thing.
It’s nice to know that you’re not alone in a world gone mad, but kinda sad, too. Misery loves company and all… but a sense of humor and intelligent thought go a long damned way when you’re drowning.
It’s been fun reading your stuff the past year and change, and I’ll be glad to read much more. Hope everyone had a safe holiday, the fights were minimal to non-existent if you had an extended family event, and that the turkey sandwiches stay moist and flavorful today.
Hmm… that sounds good for late breakfast, actually. Gonna get that spicy mustard and go to town now… mmm…
2020 has made me thankful for a lot of things I took for granted in previous years: life, liberty, etc. This year has shown how life can turn on a dime on the macro scale. Life on the other side of the pandemic is going to be very different, and a lot of people aren’t going to make it to the other side.
But I am also particularly thankful for whoever invented laster pointers, and whoever realized that these would be great for cats. We got a new kitty a few months ago and she wants to play ALL THE FRICKEN TIME. She’s roughly 4 but must have had a deprived kittenhood.
She got tired of Da Bird™, Die Fledermaus (a stuffed mouse toy on the end of a long piece of string) and the Shoelace Monster (a bundle of now-shredded shoelaces on the other end of that string) and everything else physical we came up with. She’ll play by herself if she has to but she is very persistent. And the way she says “I want to play” is that she starts nibbling on your lower leg.
I didn’t want to get a laser pointer at first because I thought she would get frustrated by never catching it. Nope, she’s smart enough to understand how it works, she just enjoys playing with us. So now we can be our lazy selves while she does all the work.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.
“Not what we say about our blessing, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” — W.T. Purkiser
My reasonably cautious two-person household visited at my sister’s reasonably cautious three-person household, with masks except while eating (which may have been the entire three hours) and separate serving dishes and social distancing at two ends of a maybe ten foot long table on the sunporch with good ventilation. We had a wonderful time. Now we just wait to see if anybody gets sick.
My partner, the most immunocompromised of us, wanted to go, and cancer makes waiting for next year not exactly certain.
Also, hope everybody’s Thanksgiving went well, and that everybody has things to be thankful for!