2020

Well, people keep saying that 2020 is one for the history books.  It was definitely quite an unusual year for many reasons.  The event that has had the most impact on us by far has been the coronavirus pandemic.  What started in March as something that we knew nothing about and was going to mean 2 weeks in "lockdown" continues 10 months later!  The whole world has been affected in many ways.  The best news, I think, is that our country and many others have approved several vaccines for the virus after a record-breaking development and testing process, and these vaccines are being produced and distributed as quickly as possible.  We are hearing that the last phase of vaccines (young healthy people who do not work in healthcare/Bob and me) should happen in the spring.  As of now, kids under age 16 have not been tested to receive any of the vaccines, but it sounds like that will change.  So, we will see!  I am also hoping that the number of cases drops drastically once most people get vaccinated, and that we can return to more of a sense of normalcy.  It has to, right?!

We are thankful that this has not affected our jobs, home, etc.  Bob has been able to spend every Saturday and Sunday since the end of March cooking and distributing 200+ meals each day to a community in need, and he has enjoyed that quite a bit.  The kids did school from home from mid-March to the end of May, but were able to return to school in August wearing masks, with smaller class sizes and desks spaced apart, no lockers, no switching classes, lunch in the classrooms, etc.  It seemed to work well, because I think that only 3 adults and one child tested positive between August-Christmas break.  I was able to get my first "on the books" job since November 2009, delivering hot lunches to the classrooms.  That has been a lot of fun and great exercise too!

The kids were able to continue with their activities, though modified.  Dance was all virtual (classes over video that they participated in from home) from April-May, and the recitals were canceled.  Erin's ballet summer camp was moved to virtual.  Anna's summer dance class was shortened from 8 weeks to 4, and then made virtual.  Erin's piano lessons moved to virtual in the spring, as well as her recital.  Anna started soccer in August, which was able to happen more-or-less normally in the fall.  She then tried indoor soccer for the first time in November and December.  That was good, until the Y decided to make them wear masks while playing for the second half of the season.  Boo!  I have been doing cycle classes outdoors at the Y - first in the parking lot, and now under a picnic shelter type area, which is much better - it's covered from the rain, and they recently added outdoor heaters.  The gym is open, but they require masks to be worn indoors at all times, which I am not too excited about doing.  We watched church on TV only for awhile, then did TV mass plus drive-up communion in the parking lot, then daily mass only with TV mass on Sundays, and then finally mass in person but wearing masks, spaced apart, no touching, etc.  Two of my book clubs have not happened since last winter, and the third was virtual for awhile before resuming in person in September.  Bob's Knights and parish finance council meetings have been a mix of virtual/video calls, outdoors, and spaced out in the church lobby or the chapel.  The second and third fish fries were canceled in 2020, much to Bob's dismay...but plans are in the works to offer a modified drive-through option this coming Lent.  The neighborhood pool was opened without furniture or floats and with sign-in required to maintain low numbers.  We didn't make it to the Y pool because they did not allow guests (the kids) this year.

So, all of our regular activities have been drastically changed.  We have not been able to celebrate birthdays and holidays with family, which has been sad for all of us.  We have gotten good at Zoom calls/group FaceTime, and Google Meets!

We had planned a spring break trip to Aruba that was postponed to July and then canceled by the hotel/airline.  We had also booked a trip to Banff in early June with Grandma A., which was also canceled.  Luckily, we got all of our money back in some form or another for both trips.  Instead, we went to Hilton Head twice (once just ourselves and once in August with cousins and grandparents) and Rocky Mountain National Park.  These trips were lots of fun, and we had a great time!

I have spent a great deal of time griping about the pandemic and its effects to anyone who will listen, though I keep seeing people on social media who are trying to look at the positive side of it.  Being positive about it is not always easy for me to do, especially when we watch/read local or national news that seems to stretch the truth or present conflicting information such that we don't know what is really happening.  However, we are truly fortunate that Bob's job has been stable through all of this, the kids have been able to continue learning, and we have our home.  We have learned a lot about technology!  

Speaking of home, we definitely made a lot of home improvements in 2020 - partly out of necessity, and partly because we were home so much that we had the time/motivation to do so.  Highlights include: a new stove/microwave combo, curtains in the living room/kitchen, new window films on the front of the house, a new-to-us sectional in the bonus room thanks to Dale and Maria and Grandpa A. for delivering it, new mattress for B&G, new refrigerator, new-to-Anna bed and bedroom wall color, and a new washing machine.  These have all helped spruce up the house a little bit, along with the never-ending purging of old stuff.

Aside from Covid, other events this year include some racial tensions in the early summer, the presidential election, and a bunch of random freak things that kept prompting people to say "that's so 2020".  We also saw Msgr. Staib retire and welcomed Fr. Chris to our parish over the summer.  It was quite the year...we sure are thankful that we did not have to attend nearly as many funerals as we did in 2019, and there were some really great things that did happen in 2020, but we sure do hope and pray for a return to normalcy sooner rather than later.  After all, I don't know how much longer my "favorite face mask" is going to hold up!!  That's SO 2020!