Christmas Letter 2020

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week we started doing a little Advent devotional time with the kids. Pajamas on, teeth brushed, kitchen clean, all the lights off we gather around the table. We strike a match and light our first beeswax advent wreath candle and say together “Jesus Christ is the light of the world!”

On the first night, we explained that Advent is about waiting. Evan asked the kids if they had ever had to wait for anything they really wanted for a long time. After a beat when they said nothing, he suggested that perhaps Jackson had waited a long time for his recent 5th birthday. But Jackson said “no, I’m waiting for the end of the virus.”

Aren’t we all?

Of course this year has been most marked for us, like you, by waiting for the end of virus. At times, the kids’ flexibility and resilience surprise me, how easily they have taken to putting tiny masks on or being told that we can’t do something that before would have been a regular part of life or how good they have gotten at washing their hands. At other times it surprises me to hear the words “social distancing” and “the virus” coming from tiny lips.

Evan

Evan shouldered the brunt of pandemic restrictions and changes. His school went virtual in the spring (the week of his 36th birthday), although he still went into his classroom everyday to teach on zoom. And then students have been back in person, five days a week, this fall with masks and social distancing and cohorts. We are deeply thankful that he was only teaching his regular social studies classes this year, no new classes or extra English classes (although he is proud of how the one he created for last school year finished in spring), but of course there has been a lot of extra work making school happen. The hardest part of the year was missing seeing our Maryland family; we had a trip planned for spring break. We did manage to have some lovely new hikes and Lake Michigan beach trips this summer, and he’s still enjoyed doing lots of reading and watching his English football team Liverpool win the league championship (for the first time in 30 years!). His best books read this year were: Lonesome Dove, The Long Ships, The Wednesday Wars, The Writer’s Map, and The Boys in the Boat. He and the kids also camped out in our backyard twice this year, and we’re hopeful we can venture slightly farther as a family next summer.

The kids and I have mostly been able to carry on with our usual home life, missing birthday parties and inside playdates, but seeing friends at the park as much as we can. We started doing homeschool 4K with Jackson, about a half hour a day, most days. He loves math and wants me to give him adding problems all day long, and his writing and reading are coming along really well too. It’s a joy to watch him learn! And two days a week my mom, Grandma Debbie, does music lessons with the kids via WhatsApp. It’s amazing to hear their little voices singing solfege and songs to themselves as they play.

Jackson

Jackson turned five on Thanksgiving day. We had pancakes and bacon in the morning, cake after lunch, and Thanksgiving food and pie for dinner. It was a celebration of epic proportions. He loves Disney’s Cars, playing board games inside and soccer outside with Evan, playing stuffed animals and hide and seek with Lily, and reading books and doing special school time with me. His favorite book is One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey, although a close second is all the Marc Brown Arthur books. His favorite longer read aloud this year were 26 Fairmount Avenue, Bill Peet: An Autobiography, Tumtum and Nutmeg, Trumpet of the Swan, and Gooseberry Park. He’s obsessed with telling time, mostly digital but some analog clocks as well, and is starting to learn our daily schedule and announce to me when we’re late or when we are early for various bits of it. He loves mazes, coloring, cutting and pasting, card games, marbles, singing, scootering, his balance bike, running fast, and seeing his best friend Eli.

Liliana

Lily is 2 1/2 and is, as Jackson puts it, “a girl full of ‘pinions.” It is not unusual for her to see a new book and declare vehemently, “I don’t like it!” only to finish it three minutes later and announce “I like it! It’s one of my favorites.” She has continued her radical devotion to her baby doll “Baby,” although her other treasured possession is probably Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. Her other favorite books include Picnic, DW All Wet, Little Blue Truck Christmas, The New Adventures of Curious George and the original Where’s Waldo. She is also a big fan of everything Jackson does, including scootering fast on her purple scooter, swinging on a big kid swing, going down the firepole, giving things silly nick names (banks = blanket and cooks =cookie) and climbing really high on the ropes at the park. She loves ducks, songs about animals, trying out new board games for 90 seconds, coloring, explaining things to me over and over again, trying to peel her own banana, and her cousins.

Amy

I have had a good year, all things considered. I’ve been able to get up early and write most days this Fall, which has been awesome. I still get to see two of my closest in-person friends on a semi-regular basis: Gwendolyn and Candace. I started doing kettle bell weights three days a week during naptime, and I’m feeling strong. I also love listening to podcasts (my favorites are The Bible Project Podcast, Office Ladies, Ask NT Wright Anything, Sorta Awesome, The Whole View and Out of the Ordinary), Marco Poloing video messages with my best friend Kelli, weekend naptime dates with Evan, getting outside for long walks with kids every morning, and trying to get us to eat different kinds of vegetables, and often get to call a good friend on Sunday afternoons.

I read some great books this year; the longest was Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, the best parenting one was The Soul of Discipline by Kim John Payne, the most inspiring was Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings by Diana Pavlac Glyer, the most comforting was Anne’s House of Dreams by LM Montgomery, the funniest was Food A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan, and the most interesting were Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester and The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson.

We are so glad that last Christmas we got to travel down to my parents in Arizona for Christmas and see our dear friend Heidi in Phoenix on the way home. And we are hoping that perhaps we are going to be able to get out to Maryland by the summer, but holding all plans loosely. Texts and zoom calls and emails and video messaging has helped us stay connected, but of course we miss our friends and family so much.

I hope that as you wait for Christmas, as you wait for the Light of Christ, and as you wait for the end of virus, you are filled with hope and love and patient perseverance.

We love you all deeply and miss you.

Love,

Amy, Evan, Jackson and Lily

P.S. Below are a few more pictures from our year, and here are some other posts from our 2020 adventures: Muddy Soccer Fields, Potty Training, and Flat Tires: A March 2020 Corona Diary Entry, Holy Week at Home with Toddlers, Cheers to Thirteen Years! An Anniversary Toast, A Comfort Reads List, Writing & Young Motherhood: What’s Working for Me Now & An Ordinary Fall Day: Hour by Hour Pictures 2020.