2020 A Look Back

What a crazy year to say the least! One thing we will always be thankful for is the time that we were able to spend together. It made the small outings and littlest things all the more cherished. Wishing for a better year ahead, but thankful for the memories that were made.

 

Christmas 2020

 Aside from not traveling or getting to see anybody, our holiday season this year didn't feel all that different and we were very blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with good health, good food, and of course great gifts! I was pretty impressed because we didn't get to actually visit with Santa this year, but I'm thinking he must have received my letter because I made out pretty well this year!

Our season leading up to Christmas was filled with our traditions. We started with adorning the outside of our house with lights and decorations followed a week later by the indoor decorations including our Christmas village and Christmas tree. Cora and I put all the ornaments on the tree ourselves this year too and I think the tree looked beautiful! We baked lots of cookies, decorated lots of cookies, watched many Christmas movies, enjoyed a night with the symphony and drove through the Nights of Lights throughout December. 

Christmas Eve was different in that after our dinner of Spaetzel soup we had Christmas Eve mass in the family room watching St Patrick's Cathedral mass on TV. After dinner, we enjoyed our cheese and pepperoni listening to Christmas music followed by opening a few gifts. The best gift was the last - Mom and Dad set up a small scavenger hunt for Cora and me. We started by opening a card with a poem that gave us a hint to look in the mud room for a gift. We opened that gift which was a bell for a bicycle. The next clue led us upstairs to Mom and Dad's closet where we found new bikes! Wow, we were surprised! Another different thing we did on Christmas Eve was the Cousins Christmas show. Cora, Saige and I all had the opportunity to show off some of our talents for the family on a Zoom call. Cora played the piano, Saige danced and I was dressed to the nines in my suit while some of my prerecorded magic tricks were being shared. 

Christmas day was nice. We were able to see family on video calls, show off our presents from Santa and open a few other gifts from our grandparents. I think this year my favorite gift was definitely the football helmet. Mom was surprised that when I first made my Christmas gift all I had on it was books, but as Christmas approached I thought of a few more things I wanted and at the last minute, added them to my list! It was such a nice holiday - for a moment we almost forgot about stupid COVID as I like to call it. 

A Quiet Thanksgiving

We commemorated our first Thanksgiving in our new house this year. Bonuses of our quiet Thanksgiving: first time we bothered to break the wishbone, no one was sick, no delayed flights, no long car rides although all the video chatting does not replace hugging everyone in person. Fortunately one thing that we could look forward to this year was Dad's 40th birthday soon after Thanksgiving enjoying a smoked prime rib (compliments of Dad and his smoking skills) and relaxing fire side. Mom and Cora made him a cheesecake - my first time ever eating it. It was pretty good. After all, I have become quite the dessert eater - it is something I never miss, even if it is just something small!

Halloween 2020

 Halloween this year wasn't a total bust thanks to people being flexible in how we did trick or treating. I dressed up as a football player (big surprise) and we experienced our first Halloween in Hi-Mount. Everyone had the candy setting out by the curb so it was easy to just walk up the street, wave to neighbors and grab candy. Just in the Mial (1 mile) loop, I had to quit getting candy at the halfway point because I had gotten so much! It was fun seeing all the people in the streets and feeling like something was normal for once! It was overall much better than I thought it would be because at first I wasn't even planning on trick or treating. I'm glad I was convinced to go! One of the best things we saw was a man dressed up as a snail blowing candy out of his shell for kids to catch from a distance!

A Mid-Semester Break

With virtual school and not going many places, things get a bit mundane. Fortunately, Mom and Dad were brave enough to rent a place at the beach for a long weekend at the end of October to just get away and change things up a bit. We had the most perfect weather to enjoy our long weekend at Emerald Isle! It was so warm that we could enjoy the swimming pool and not be bothered by jumping over waves repeatedly in the surf of the ocean. The place that we stayed was pretty spectacular too. It was up on the 7th floor right along the beach. Cora and I had our own king bed and bathroom with ocean view! It was so nice to get away, relax with long walks on the beach and be away from Google Meets for a bit!

Pandemic Shenanigans

Mom and Dad are really impressed and proud of how well that I have been able to adjust and keep a positive outlook given our circumstances this year. I'm still able to joke around and keep an active imagination while I entertain myself since interacting with others isn't an option. During our brain breaks and lunch hour in an attempt to have a recess of my own, I spend a lot of time outside in the driveway by myself. What started as just tossing my Nerf football to myself has turned into an all out football obsession. I love creating my own football games in the driveway. It has greatly improved my throwing and catching skills and I've had to get a better understanding of the game itself. Fortunately, the football season did start in 2020 so I was able to pick up some of the rules and gameplay of football which has helped. To really make things seem real, I started dressing for the part and created my own football uniform using my Penn State jersey, bike helmet and Cora's elbow pads shoved into my shirt for shoulder pads.

Spending so much time at home and with each other, we tend to get a little crazy sometimes. In order to pass time and entertain ourselves I will do just about anything. 

First Day of School!

 We knew that going back to school this year would be different, but we made the best of it. We still did our first day of school pictures and as an added bonus Dad and I set up an office space where I could do all my learning so it would be like I had a classroom. The Google Meets weren't too hard to get used to, and with my new computer I had everything I needed to learn in this surreal, crazy school year!