These grandparents are going viral for sending cardboard cutouts to Thanksgiving

Missy and Barry Buchanan are proud grandparents and this week they also became a viral hit and the comic relief we all need right now.

The pair would love to spend Thanksgiving with their grandchildren but can’t due to COVID-19. So they sent cardboard cutouts of themselves instead, just in case the kids were really missing grandma and grandpa.

“Yep, Barry and I had a life-sized cutout made and shipped to our kids/ grandkids in the TX Hill Country and in California because we decided that Thanksgiving dinner with the family was too risky this year,” Missy, age 69, captioned her now-viral Facebook post.

She continued: “As COVID19 numbers continue to rise, we wanted to show that you can have fun and help keep everyone safe, too. I have so many friends who have been impacted by COVID19. For us, it’s an act of love. And our kids and grandkids are having such fun with ‘us.'”

In an interview with TODAY Parents, Missy explained that her grandchildren are having a lot of fun taking the flat versions of their grandparents everywhere they go (they’ve even dragged her out to a chicken coop) and that while she wishes she could be with them in person, that this was the right choice for Thanksgiving 2020.

“We decided that we didn’t want to risk getting sick,” Missy told TODAY Parents. “Then I started thinking, ‘How can I still make it fun?'”

She says: “Grandparents can lead the way on this. We can show others how you can be safe and still celebrate.”

Missy predicts her grandchildren will be giving her stand-in a makeover soon and expects the cardboard Grandma will be fully decorated by Thanksgiving.