Thanksgiving 2020: Just Us
We started the tradition of hosting students for Thanksgiving in 2009. Benjamin was born in November of 2008 so we weren’t going to do much traveling, and decided that we would visit family during the Christmas holidays. So our first gathering was small in 2009.
The next year, the local NBC affiliate in Little Rock heard about the gathering and did a nice story.
By November of 2011, I had announced that we were moving to New Orleans. We had students over for dinner as usual, but the memorable event that year was Damaris and Chris, 2 current Philander students, getting married that week.
We brought the tradition to Dillard in 2012, and have had anywhere from 10 to 20+ students over for Thanksgiving dinner.
Last year our special guests were the president of Virginia State University, Dr. Makola Abdullah, and his family. They were in town for the Bayou Classic (and to see the Pelicans vs Lakers).
But this is 2020 so everything is different. And we’re being responsible as well- its just us for Thanksgiving this year. Definitely a different feel, but after 11 straight years we can appreciate the break- especially since this is a year where Adria’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving.
So the four of us, and our 6 month old French Bulldog named Ghost (after the character on Power) had a COVID Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of food, and Benjamin is teaching us how to play NBA 2K21 for our family tournament.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Prez
