I wrote this in January of 2021, but I didn't post it because it didn't feel right. Now, I can see that it isn't bragging to say that you are lucky that you can count your blessings.
I can't say that 2020 was worth celebrating, but I don't want to forget some of the things that we were able to do.
We started the year off with a bang at Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
We now know how lucky we were to have gone to Florida right after Christmas. If we had waited to go during spring break, then the trip would not have happened.
Planning for our June trip to Nova Scotia began in February. Thematically, we ate breakfast poutine at the BeerStyles Taproom while we booked houses through Airbnb.
We were lucky that all the places we booked refunded our deposit money when the border to Canada closed.
Charlotte attended her first piano festival in March. Here a nervous pianist gets some support from Mom.
It was lucky that the festival was on the 7th. Things began to shut down a few days later.
Charlotte made this Easter wreath for our front door in April.
We were lucky that she was able to roll with the punches and not just sit around and complaining all day about missing her friends.
We brought Ellie home in May. Our two girls bonded quickly, and they are now best friends.
We were lucky to get a dog with such nice disposition.
We lost power for 18 hours, but other than that, we weren't really affected by the derecho in August. But in mid-July, we believe a small funnel cloud ripped through our neighborhood.
Quite a few trees were left with a "V"-shaped bite taken out of them.
You can see another tree like that standing behind the wood-chipper.
On August 25, Urbandale schools opened their buildings in a hybrid model, and Char was able to return to class in person.
She had to wear a mask, and only half of her class attends on "J-Hawk" days, but Char was just as excited and nervous as she was on the other first-days-of-school. I asked her when she got home, "How did it go today?"
Charlotte quickly replied, "It was great! We... and then we... our teacher... then we played... Ha! I love school!"
Daphne and I gave each other a high-five. We had been telling Char, "No, we can't do that," all summer long. We kept reminding her that our major goal was to keep ourselves as healthy as we could so she could go back to Karen Acres and see her friends again. We were lucky that it worked out for her for almost three months.
I was almost as excited when Flix Brewhouse reopened two days later. We were only going to stop by for some takeout on a Saturday afternoon, but the rest of the tables were empty, and the precautions Flix had taken were well thought out.
When they brought us our boxed lunch, we surprised ourselves by sitting down and eating there.
We only removed our masks to eat (and read).
The menu was limited, but I had them add tomatoes to their meat lovers pizza to approximate a supreme.
They did have Daphne's favorite salad.
Daphne and I each took our first bites and then looked at each other. I don't know who teared-up first, but it was Daphne who said, "This is how life is supposed to be." It was the first time we had eaten outside of our car or home in 165 days. I suppose it isn't too surprising that we got a little emotional.
I felt so lucky to be able to enjoy the atmosphere at Flix again. We went back for lunch several more times. The deal was if the dining area was busy, we'd get takeout. If the area was empty, we'd stay.
Sadly for Flix, it was almost always empty. The Urbandale Schools District moved to online learning the same week in November that Flix was forced to close their theaters again.
We are now back in our school buildings, so I am hopeful Flix can also reopen again sometime in 2021.
We reopened up the garage theater during Thanksgiving break. It was cool out there, but we were lucky to have Grandpa's propane heater to warm the space up before the movie started.
Here's where I taught school while UHS was confined to online learning only. I didn't enjoy working with students this way, but we did okay. I never thought I would get out of bed in the morning and walk past my school desk on the way to the bathroom.
We were lucky our internet held out, and we had enough data for three computers running Zoom all day.
We had a small gathering at Christmas, and Char was exited with her gifts.
It's lucky she likes to read so much. That will serve her well in the years to come.
For New Year's Eve, Char invited us to her movie party. Her goal was to stay up until midnight. She wanted to be there when 2020 finally said goodbye.
It's lucky we made it until 12:00. I mean that in more ways than one.
In this post I used the word "lucky" 13 times. That isn't because I do not have a thesaurus. Lucky is the word I have used all year to keep my spirits up.
I had to keep reminding myself that we were lucky to stay healthy. Not everybody did. We were lucky to have each other. Not everybody did. We were lucky to alway have food on the table. Not everyone did. We are lucky we stayed together. Not everyone did.
I know it's too early to celebrate the end of the pandemic, but it's never too early to count my blessings.
