Yesterday, we decided to test out an idea for how to celebrate Thanksgiving with our son and daughter-in-law, safely. The two of them live just 15 minutes away from us, but we've only seen them 4 times in all of 2020. They are our only in-person social contacts, while we are one household of a couple for them. So, we want to make sure that nobody passes anything on to anyone else in our family.
Sharing a meal safely during this pandemic means eating outdoors for us. During the summer, we could spend time with our son and daughter-in-law with barbecues on the grill and cook-outs over a fire ring and feel safe.
For a couple of months, we've been brainstorming how to do the holidays. Our best thought was to simply have another cook-out. We held a dry run yesterday to see if this was even do-able in cold weather for us.
Our area has had a stretch of unseasonably cold temps, making this the ideal time to try this in weather similar to what we can expect at the end of November. It was 44 degrees F outdoors when I was starting the fire. The average high temperature for late November is around 48 degrees F. Of course, we could very easily have colder than normal weather or even wetter than normal. If that happens, we'll need to consider Plan B or Plan C.
What we discovered
It takes longer to get a fire going when the air is so cold.
We will need a larger fire than we might normally use in summer, so the warm air can reach further away from the actual fire.
A couple of us needed to go inside and add extra layers of clothing, including hats, and parkas.
In the end, it was warm enough to roast our hot dogs then sit and talk around the fire, so long as the fire was kept good-sized. I think this will be a possibility for us for Thanksgiving.
Some thoughts on doing our Thanksgiving outdoors --
- We'll need to be flexible about the day we get together, and choose the warmest and driest day of the 4-day weekend.
- We'll want to be eating about the time of day when we hit our peak high temperature, which means a mid-afternoon cook-out for our yard.
- Obviously, we'll be skipping the turkey this year and opt for sausages like bratwurst to roast over the fire. I can still make all of the traditional sides to a Thanksgiving dinner, including pumpkin pie for dessert.
- I'll keep a crockpot of hot apple cider going on the deck, using an outdoor electrical outlet. I can also keep an electric kettle filled with water and plugged into the same outlet for those who'd like a cup of tea. The rest of the Thanksgiving foods can be brought out to the deck table, and we'll eat around the fire ring on the patio below.
- We have several throws that can be taken outside. I'll wash 6 of them, so we each have one for our backs and shoulders. And I'll advise my son and daughter-in-law on the attire that worked for all of us yesterday. I wore a thick, long-sleeved tee, covered by a thick fleece jacket, then topped with my parka, as well as a knit hat for my head. It looked like we were ready for snow. When you're just sitting around, the body cools off quickly in 44 degrees F.
- I'll need to check our wood supply and move what I think we'll need into the garage for the next few weeks to keep it out of the rain. It was a little slow-going getting the fire to start yesterday.
