Sitting in my living room trying to make a list of what snacks to buy for our “party’ tonight and I suddenly decided (after seeing David and Georgia Tennant’s silver linings video) to make a different sort of list and remember the good things that our family experienced in this year.

At the end of last year, we all looked forward to 2020, not the least of which was its looming roundness of numbers – Twenty Twenty. Barbara Walters, hindsight, leap year, THE election. It was going to be our year – all of our ours…

But it wasn’t quite, was it?

Our biggest blessings were living in New York with a competent state government and a governor who cared about New Yorkers; my husband and oldest continued working, the younger kids continued school, albeit remotely, no one got sick other than a normal mild cold here or there, and for the most part spending all that extra time together, we managed to not want to strangle each other more than the usual amount.

Honestly, we did good.

Here are some of our extras:

January
New toilet installed – who knew how important this was going to be this year!
Retreat house writing weekend when we didn’t know what “in-person” was going to mean yet. We even shared bathroom stalls and ate at the same tables.
Jumanji 2 IN THEATRES, Red Hats lunch, and Cursillo groupings.

February
Mass for our two Iwo Jima veterans.
1917, again IN THEATRES.
Husband and middle son went on vacation to Florida to see friends and Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World; my daughter and I had a staycation with shopping, Netflix that culminated in an overnight fancy hotel stay with a swimming pool and room service.

March
Onward – IN THEATRES, but this was the last one. I really thought we might go to a movie every month. Little did I know.
Haircut – extra short for the coming two to four weeks stay home order.
Everything was canceled but my church continued its weekly soup lunch for Lent – with contactless home delivery.
Census.
March was a month of lasts – last retreat, last interfaith meeting, last haircut, but it was also a month of learning, researching, reading, blogging, and writing. It was also the first of several therapy sessions by phone.

April
Facebook masses, weekly reflections, and weekly chats with Father.
Zoom retreats.
Parks & Rec Reunion.
24 Hour stay-at-home GISH (scavenger hunt)

May
Virtual Ultreya, Monday rosary for Cursillo. Friendship bread starter and baking. Church parking lot for a drive thru Blooms and Blessings – plants and holy water through the sunroof!

June
Our regular Chinese take-out place reopens as does our comic store!
Haircuts – FINALLY!

July
Hamilton!
Taize prayer on Facebook Live
The return of Umbrella Academy.

August
Writing group resumes outside in the park.
Actual family vacation to Niagara Falls (NY) following all state guidelines and safety protocols.
Weeklong GISH
Covid test for me negative!

September
School returns, remotely and hybrid, but relatively normally.

October
Supernatural returns
In-person retreat weekend

November
Election Day FINALLY
Thanksgiving with our immediate family
Mass in person on Mondays and Thanksgiving Day for me.
New refrigerator – long time coming and we love it!

December
My birthday
Wonder Woman 1984 (on HBOMax)
Tonight is in-person mass for the Solemnity of Mary
My son is scheduled to take the covid vaccine (he’s a first responder)

I am fortunate enough to be able to look back and see some special times with my family. It had some profound moments, but I also hope to have that amount of stress and anxiety for an entire year again.

Blessings and Good Wishes for 2021.