Thanksgiving 2020

I was planning to post photos from our first Christmas celebration today, then I realized I never made a post about Thanksgiving! So let's start here... In their usual cute fashion, the kids created an amazing Thanksgiving table for all of their furry friends, including Ginny!

While many families were not able to gather for Thanksgiving, we were fortunate that we have Granddad and Sujata so near, and that the weather in Florida was warm enough that we could enjoy a socially distanced celebration together outside. We all enjoyed a good meal (Tofurky, of course!) and conversation. It was the first fully vegan Thanksgiving we've had as a family, which was nice.

Normally we'd spend Thanksgiving with Papa and Nana and Aunt Amy's family. This year we were scheduled to go to Indianapolis, where we could have spent it with Grammy too, but then COVID hit. But we did our best to connect. Aunt Amy had a great idea to set up an online game that we could all play together after Dad and Sujata left. The kids really got into it, and it was really fun!

Just before Thanksgiving, we got another wonderful surprise. Brielle's first best friend here, Evelyn, moved away over two years ago. A few days before Thanksgiving I received a text from her mom, with a photo of someone in a dinosaur costume, saying "Evelyn is in St. Augustine"! They were visiting from Idaho and staying in the same house they had in our neighborhood (owned by the grandparents). They came for Thanksgiving and for Evelyn's older sister's college graduation, so they were going to be staying for almost two weeks. I received the text when Brielle was at school, so we decided to surprise her when we picked her up from the bus stop. We took her to the park, where she saw someone waiting for her in a dinosaur costume. She had to wait to hear her voice to realize it was Evelyn! I wondered if the full dinosaur outfit was an attempt for them to be able to actually hug, but I still wasn't sure about how secure it was (their family had passed through airports, and we were going to visit with Granddad and Sujata soon), so we still had them wear masks and keep a distance. That was a little sad, but they were still SO excited to see each other again. We arranged various outdoor play dates with masks, and took a trip to the pier that was pretty magical.

Not only was it special for the friends to spend time together, but we saw more animals than we've seen in a long time. Several dolphins played about 50 yards from the pier.

We also saw several beautiful varieties of birds.

Evelyn and Brielle had a wonderful visit together. It ended with her sister, Emmaline's, graduation from Flagler College, which we were able to watch live-streamed on TV. Emmaline was also their beloved babysitter. Since they were all flying back to Idaho the next day, Emmaline gave Brielle the gifts she couldn't take with her on the plane.

 

 

During the month we also had a nice outing with Kraig and Ronan's Cub Scout troop. It was a nature walk adventure at Anastasia Island State Park.

 

It was so nice to get outside in nature, and we learned some things from the placards along the way. Kraig was a great leader and did his best to keep the kids (who weren't siblings) socially distanced as we took in the sites.