Recapping 2020

 Oh what a difference a year makes! I just read through my 2019 recap, and then my 20 goals for 2020 and, like everyone, the world had a different plan for me. Our family was very, very lucky in how the pandemic affected us. The people close to us who got sick got better, we were able to keep our jobs and go to school (mostly in-person, even) and our village really stepped up and (metaphorically) held us up. Although we had a lot of changes in the plans we did have, I thought it would be nice to reflect on 2020 and bid it adieu (like, thank you see yourself out and lose my number, thanks). 

January: We rang in the New Year a little too hard and started our first Sobery January, hitting the reset button if you will. I spent time reading, hitting the gym (that time I took a Twerk 101 class dead sober) and soaking up some really sunny winter days with the girls.

Playground time in January.

February: We took my Mom on a Disney Cruise and spent some time in Florida, all while little pieces of news came in about some virus (yes this all still blows my mind that we were doing both of these things). We just had to use extra hand sanitizer on what was one of the very best vacations...and the last time we would see the inside of an airplane until....well we still haven't since. 

All aboard!

March: Shit got serious. School shut down, work went remote and they cancelled the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Boston. Three indicators that this was a big deal. So we had one last hurrah on the sidewalk (friends who bagpipe for the win), we hunkered down, and had what we thought would be the only birthday parade ever attended for Annie as she turned 5. So long birthday party at the zoo, hello class singalong on Zoom.

St. Patrick's Day and Remote Learning.

April: As the shutdowns became more widespread and school remained remote, we started adapting to a new way of living. Recess, track, dance, mass - everything was now online or in our hands to replicate in a safe way outside. We celebrated Easter on what was, thankfully, a beautiful sunny day with baskets full of sidewalk chalk and bubbles and everything else to keep two kiddos happy without leaving the front of their house.

Easter dresses even without a place to go.

May: I turned 38, ran 3.8 miles to celebrate and enjoyed the loveliest sidewalk serenade from my friends. The inability to hug them all was really sobering and I hope I never, ever skip on the chance to do it (once we can again). I also celebrated Mother's Day, ran my first virtual race (sub 8's for 5 miles!) and DRC hosted an amazing virtual relay race that made my heart swell in pride for our neighborhood (yet again).

This is 38.

June: After the May 25th murder of George Floyd, we began to talk to the girls more about social justice and how we could support our black and brown friends who were feeling a tremendous amount of pain. Maddie and I attended a Black Lives Matter protest and we started talking even more about what we say, how we say it, where we choose to spend our money and what we can do to work towards antiracism (like by reading this book). 
Remote school also wrapped up and after two end of the year parades we escaped to the Cape to have a change in scenery and get some fresh air on the beach in Harwich Port and then spent some extra time at the Sea Crest with our friends. 

Proud to support our friends. 

July: We spent as much time as possible near the ocean, went to our first drive in movie as a family and then spent an amazing long weekend at a friend of a friend's lake house where the girls learned to kayak and we almost forgot there was a pandemic raging outside of our little bubble of not seeing another person. We wrapped the month up with our favorite person celebrating a very young 70th birthday over the largest lemon meringue pie I have ever seen.

Lake life!

August: We spent an entire week in Maine, with our favorite family, in a house overlooking a lighthouse. As many hours as possible were spent on the beach and soaking in the sun. I threw a bday cabana pool party for by bestie and we wrapped up the summer back Falmouth at Sea Crest with our pals. It was the end of a very different summer and yet we spent so much time together, on the beach, and outside that none of us could say it was not a really good season for our family. 

Breakfast to dinner beachside is how we roll.

September: School started (in person!!) which was just what we needed (shout out to our school for doing an amazing job making it safe and possible). Maddie made her First Communion (delayed from May) and most exciting of all, my Mom was able to be here for it and to spend time with us for the first time since our cruise, which seemed a lifetime ago.

So happy to have Gramma here on her day.

October: Usually a favorite month, this one hit us with a lot of setbacks. The school was closed and we had to figure out remote learning again, COVID finally hit someone in our family who was too far away for us to help (and yet what could we do with a virus that keeps us all apart?).
But then there was the upswing: I spent a weekend becoming a certified run coach and we threw what may have been the best Halloween party ever despite it having to be outside and with masks that were not necessarily part of a costume.

Remote learning for Coach Mama.

November: We had an election :) My sweet Maddie turned NINE and we had a relaxing Thanksgiving with just us Boston O'Sheas where we had so very much to be thankful for (including a return to in-person school). We missed a full house with lots of running around and Christmas tree lightings and choir concerts but we (I) also learned the joy kicking of a much quieter holiday season. 

This is nine.

December: Aka Christmas month. Like every holiday since March, we went BIG. We got our tree early, decorated inside and out with every sparkly thing we could find, watched all the Christmas movies, dressed up either in sparkles or matching pjs to sit on our couch and had ourselves a very, Merry Christmas.

Merry, merry, sparkle, sparkle. 

We wrapped up the year with our party of four, ringing in the new year with fancy bubbles, good food, board games and 3/4 of us awake to say farewell to 2020.  

We are oh so lucky to have experienced this year as we did - healthy, finding pockets of fun and without worrying about where our next mortgage payment or meal would come from. I tried to give back and help out as much as I could knowing how different our experience was and I intend to continue that into 2021 even more so as science and reason take the wheel.

Happy New Year, y'all. May we thrive instead of survive this year.