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Why Nobody Mentioned Trump at Our Holiday Dinner

He didn’t invite me to his table, and he wasn’t ruining mine.

Bebe Nicholson
Publishous

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The tables are set and ready for guests, but politicians won’t be there. Photo by author

At the last minute, I shoved my second turkey into the freezer. My youngest son had texted that his wife, battling cancer, had a 103-degree fever, and they wouldn’t be coming for Thanksgiving. We didn’t need two turkeys.

I felt a pang of disappointment, but worry overshadowed everything else. A high susceptibility to infections is one of my daughter-in-law’s symptoms, and when my son said she was really “out of it,” my fears ratcheted up a notch.

It wasn’t until later that night, after contacting her and discovering she was better, that I heaved a sigh of relief. But she was still too ill to travel, and her kids, who had been excited about coming, were as disappointed as I was.

Despite concern for my son’s family, the rest of us forged ahead with our holiday plans. Our numbers were reduced from 22 to 17, but this was still a sizable crowd. It would also be a diverse crowd. Even with my youngest son’s absence, Harris supporters and Trump supporters were coming for dinner, and we were divided right down the middle.

More exciting than politics

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