Thanksgiving is a holiday when families get to spend quality time together; whether they are eating turkey and mashed potatoes, watching football games, or participating in special traditions of their own. After last year’s COVID-19 lockdown, many TBS families were excited to resume their travel plans and spend time with family and friends this Thanksgiving.

“For Thanksgiving this year, I traveled to Las Vegas,” said seventh grader Jayden Cosby-Mosley.

“I went with my grandma who lives in California, and we did fun things like walking around the strip. One thing that made this Thanksgiving special was that I was able to see my Aunt Jerry. I usually don’t see her much because she has cancer.”

Like Cosby-Mosely, being able to see family also made this Thanksgiving special for sixth graders Beckett Yeary and Lukas Sluiters. 

“What really made Thanksgiving fun this year was seeing my brothers,” said Yeary. “Usually they are at boarding school, so I don’t normally get to see them.”

“This Thanksgiving I got to hang out with some of my friends and family, and it was really fun because we got to do fun things together,” said Sluiters. “First, we went cruising on the boat, then we had a big feast which was delicious. After that, we did other things like swimming and playing sports. At night, we made a bonfire and had s’mores,” he said. 

Others took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday by making new friends. 

“I got to hang out with an extended friend’s family, and I’ve never met them before, so it was nice to be able to see them,” said eighth grader Owen Olbers. “We had a nice Thanksgiving feast with delicious food. I also got to play lacrosse and other sports, and overall I just had a fun time,” he said. 

With the pandemic seeming to dissipate (despite the fears over Omicron), students are starting to visit more family and friends without social distancing and masks. 

“ I think that one reason that I had a good time was because COVID is finally starting to die down,” said Olbers. “It allowed us to hang out with a bunch of people, which we weren’t able to do last year.”