Well, this is one way to deal with not being able to see your family during the holidays.
Out of concern over Coronavirus, Missy and Barry Buchanan decided that they would not spend Thanksgiving with their children and grandchildren this year. But they didn't want their absence to put a damper on the holiday proceedings. Missy wanted to bring joy to her family, even if the couple couldn't be present.
"I just remember thinking, 'you know, I want to do something that'll be funny and unexpected... Now that we're not going to go, what can we do to make it fun and not make it a sad time, because there's just so much so much sadness and chaos and uncertainty in the world," she remembered thinking.
So, Missy decided the perfect lighthearted gift to her family would be to create lifesized cardboard cutouts of her and her husband and ship them to her family so they could "be there" for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Matthew Buchanan said his children Quintin, 12, Oliver, who turns 10 next week, and Clara, 6, have enjoyed posing for photos with their grandparents cutouts in different spots around the house and out in the yard with their chickens.
He said he and Oliver "basically fell on the floor laughing" when they opened the box and saw Ama and Poppi's smiling faces. They quickly set up the surprise before his wife came home with Quintin and Clara.
"Everybody was sort of confused and laughing, and it was a funny little scene," he said.
Heartwarming and hilarious, this family seems like they know how to have a good time together, even when they can't all be together. Mrs. Buchanan has a hopeful message for all of us this Thanksgiving season:
"I just think we should be in the mindset of just, trying to make the most positive thing that we can out of it because it doesn't do any good just to complain and be miserable and gripe," Buchanan said. "We can still have fun. It's just going to be a different kind of fun. And knowing that it's not going to last forever, and we all will be back together again, hopefully soon."
Here's to hoping we won't all be spending Christmas with cardboard cutouts or Zoom.
