2020 "Newsletter"

A month-by-month recap of 2020:

January: One of our favorite families was with us to start 2020! The Wills and Wilsons went to SeaWorld, Gatorland, and the beach and had a great visit. Jack competed in a spelling bee. The girls and I committed to volunteering once a month for the entire year. And, I ended the month with a fun Harry Potter filled girls’ weekend with some Maryland friends. What a great start to what is sure to be an awesome year! There is some weird virus in Asia. But, whatever.

February: Kara turned 11. We went to St Augustine, Disney World, Busch Gardens, and a couple of Tigers baseball games. Another great month in the books. I sure love this year! That weird virus is spreading a bit, but we here in the US are fine. I signed up the older kids for their first ever sleep away camp. They can’t wait for August! Party on 2020!

 March: Another birthday month. Luke turned 6! We had an awesome Spring Break trip planned to South Carolina, where we were going to surprise the kids by meeting up with some Maryland friends (I didn’t realize how many friends we had in the Old Line State). But, we are going into “lockdown.” That virus made its way to the US. Thomas and I have started working from home and the kids are not returning to school for now. All the theme parks have shut down and the place we volunteered is closed. We have been enjoying swimming, bike rides and board games. We are starting to run a bit low on toilet paper and I used my last Clorox wipe yesterday, but I am sure the stores will have that back in stock soon. Everything still looks fine(ish). We can handle this lockdown for a few weeks.

April: Okay, things are a bit weird. There does not appear to be an end to this lockdown. Online school is kind of awful, I have not seen my family in a while (our main purpose in moving to Florida) and our house feels really small. On the plus side, Thomas and I like working from home. Surely, this will all be over by summer?

May: I miss restaurants and malls. We have spent hours entertaining ourselves building Jenga sculptures and making slow motion videos of bowling them down. There have been Lego challenges, more swimming and bike rides.  On the plus side, we have started ordering takeout. We even took our first out of town day trip and finally saw the Tilleys. We went to an amazing Gulf coast beach and kept our distance from everyone there. Kara had a drive-through, socially distanced graduation from elementary school. And, we had a visit with Kim’s family! Sea World is reopening. It seems as though things are getting back to normal. Just need to hold out for a few more weeks. I was able to find toilet paper, but those Clorox wipes continue to elude me.

June: Things are continuing to look a bit brighter. We are visiting with select people like my sister and her family but keeping our circle small. It looks like the kids are probably going to be home for the month of June. They cancelled the sleepover camp. The kids are disappointed, but I am so glad we are almost done with this virus. Disney is reopening! Surely by Fall everyone will be back in school and life will return to normal.

July: Okay, things took a turn for the worse. Cases in Florida have multiplied every day for weeks. Hospitals are full. We are taking our family back into lockdown mode. We are paying the older kids to babysit Luke, which is working out fairly well. Have I mentioned how small our house is? As to the future, even the Magic 8 ball is coming up blank. Oh, Thomas and I had birthdays. We got older. Yippee.

 August: School is back in session. We got to choose online or in person. The county encouraged all those who could, to choose the online option. We are keeping the older kids home, but Luke has got to go. He is very happy to be back in school and his teacher is amazing. We are venturing out again. We wear our masks without complaint and I finally found some Clorox wipes!

September: Another month. Whatever. We are hearing some weird noises in our soffits and occasionally the attic. Not sure what that is all about.  Oh, we bought passes to Universal Studios. I guess it is not all bad. We are still enjoying doing stuff outside.

October: Jack and Anna are now teenagers. Jack grew 7 inches this year and is taller than I am! We are going out a little more, but still not to restaurants, malls or movie theaters. We like visiting the quieter theme parks and are fans of the forced spacing. It is nice not to have strangers bumping into us in lines. Halloween looked a little different, but we still trick-or-treated, we just didn’t ring any doorbells. Jack’s baby costume was a huge hit and the neighborhood decorations were amazing.

 November: Biden won! Remember those strange noises we heard? Squirrels infiltrated our attics and roof. The surprisingly clever animals established nests in multiple areas and sought to drive us out with their scratching and running noises. After paying $1500 in eviction fees, we were able to reclaim our home. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a smaller group than in years’ past. Kara started a ballet and acrobatics class. Anna decided to try basketball and Luke has loved learning soccer. We enjoyed our first (outdoor, socially distanced) visit with my Dad and Maggie since March. The vaccines are looking promising. I think this time, there really is an end in sight. Our new normal feels pretty normal.  Is that sad? I can’t tell anymore.

 December: The year is coming to a close. It has been a roller coaster of emotions. We managed to have some good times and somehow stayed healthy. We have played a lot of games, gone on countless bike rides, annoyed each other with karaoke and tried to find positives wherever we can. We miss our weekend adventures, but being isolated in Orlando is not so bad (at least for 5/6 of us).  We still got to spend lots of time with people we love. We have a lot to be thankful for!  We wish all our friends and family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope to see many of you in 2021!

 

Love,

Thomas, Kori, Anna, Jack, Kara, and Luke