Last year we didn’t do the usual holidays, with Halloween trick-or-treating being more distanced than usual, Christmas festivities being postponed and families being kept away for all holidays.

But with Thanksgiving, a holiday meant for seeing family, the separation was even more noticeable than with the other holidays.

Thanksgiving 2020 was undeniably different from a typical holiday, with COVID-19 restrictions and fears preventing families from spending the holiday together.

This year, however, with the introduction of the vaccine, families can once again get together to celebrate the holiday with the usual fanfare.

Freshman Nico Scarborough said that last year he wasn’t able to see any family outside of his immediate family, so this year it was nice to be back to the normal festivities of seeing everyone.

“We went to my grandparent’s house this year,” Scarborough said. “And it was nice to see my family and have the usual Thanksgiving craziness, even with the annual Thanksgiving arguments.”

Senior Hannah Colbert said that she was able to see her entire family together this year when she wasn’t able to last year when she effectively celebrated two separate Thanksgiving celebrations: one for each side of the family.  

“Last year we had to separate by family, but this year everybody was able to be together,” Colbert said.

She was able to see family she hadn’t seen in a year due to COVID-19 this year for Thanksgiving, including grandparents who had to travel from Florida.   

Seeing family who had to travel long or even short distances was new this year for other people as well.

Freshman Dane Fallis said he got to see his grandparents for Thanksgiving this year when they weren’t able to come last year, even though they only live a few hours away in Missouri.

And even if Thanksgiving wasn’t completely back to normal for everyone this year, it still felt like a step in the right direction.   

“Thanksgiving felt like we were getting somewhere with COVID-19,” Colbert said. Like we were making positive progress.”