2020
20 Hard things about 2020
1) The Covid.19 pandemic. When it began and things began closing it was almost unbelievable. I was shocked when the schools and the recreation center (where I spend a little time almost every day) closed.
2) Being stuck home because there was nowhere to go.
3) Earthquake: March 18, 2020. 7:09 am. Roy and I and may others were awakened by shaking. I looked at Roy and said, "What the heck..." We both went to the window, which was kind of weird. I don't know what we expected to see.
4) Political unrest
5) Greater polarity and division in our country: Jeffrey R Holland has said, “We are witnessing an ever greater movement toward polarity. The middle-ground options will be removed from us as Latter-day Saints. The middle of the road will be withdrawn… Choices have to be made. Not making a choice is a choice. Learn to choose now.” It seems that we can distinctly see two sides--religious and irreligious, good and evil (which many people mislabel).
6) Riots and violence in the cities, even Salt Lake City.
8) Defunding of police in various states around the country
9) Some disunity in our family that we haven't experienced before (because of isolation from each other and differing opinions about social distancing etc.)
10) And, further from home--hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.
11) The inability to go to the Temple on a regular basis
12) Because of the above, we were unable to share the joy of Caitlyn's sealing with anyone outside of our immediate family.
13) Only a select number of people could attend baptisms and baby blessings
14) Masks
15) Extended family members that contracted Covid 19: Cynthia Nelson and her family, Liz Cook (who is still struggling with the after-effects), Corey Cook, Heather Cook (Adam?) Grant and Jacob Nelson, and Nathanael Christensen and his family.
16) Lack of toilet paper (actually, we had plenty).
17) Travel plans were interrupted. We missed Iceland, Mexico, Cedar City, and Los Angelos (we had tickets to see Hamilton).
18) All live theater was cancelled including at our local theater where we have season tickets, and the Shakespheare festival.
19) The impact on businesses and people's livelihood. It affected Roy's business--people were afraid to close deals and sign on with his company.
20) Thousands of business have had to close and most will never reopen.
20 Great things about 2020
1) More time at home to get things accomplished
2) I didn't have to put on makeup (partly because of masks, and partly because of my limited social engagements). This is the one reason that masks are also a blessing.
3) Harvey was born!
4) I was able to see Elise and her family four different times this year. The first of March, before everything started closing down, Caitlyn and I went down to visit her just for fun. Harvey was born in April. Roy and I considered not flying because of the pandemic, but Elise's need for a babysitter was great (since Andy couldn't leave the hospital once he went in, or he couldn't return). Roy and I went to Georgia again in October to help Elise through gall-bladder surgery. And lastly, Elise and Harvey came for just a few days to attend Caitlyn's sealing.
5) Harvey's baby blessing: It was a great blessing to be able to attend the baby blessing virtually. Otherwise we would have most likely missed it.
6) Virtual attendance at many meetings and events. Technology has been a great blessing in a way never anticipated.
7) Oli was baptised.
8) I have listed above that the guest lists for baptisms and baby blessings were limited, but it was also a great blessing for several reasons. The spirit at the baptism was very strong. Everyone and everything was focused on the ordinance only. I think it was Dan that mentioned that the baptism was closer to the guidelines in the handbook than it was previously.
9) Our family has learned to come together even when things aren't easy.
10) The opportunity for introspection. How are we doing spiritually? Physically? Emotionally? Do we have enough toilet paper? Where can we improve? It has required self-discipline to continue to improve in all areas in our life, especially in our gospel study.
11) President Nelson put into place the Come Follow Me program just in time for this pandemic. We were already following his directive for home study, but the importance became clear and we were able to improve our ability to follow the prophet. This was also true with his directives to be more open to receiving and recognizing personal revelation.
12) Home church and virtual church!
13) More appreciation for the times we used to be able to get together. Also more appreciation for the few times we have met as a family this year. We have been able to see how blessed we normally are to have a temple in our midst and to be able to attend church each week.
14) It was a blessing when, in May, the recreation center opened back up. I exercised when it was closed, but it was fun to get back to teaching water aerobics and skating, which I love.
15) Roy works at home now. At first, it was a temporary change, but as it became clear that it worked well for nearly everyone in his company, he was able to downsize his office and make working at home permanent for himself and for the employees that wanted it.
16) Camden's birth. Sara has some issues and so they have taken her babies early (except Ori). Camden was nearly a month early, but he had a good birth weight and was healthy.
17) Caitlyn's endowment on November 20: We hadn't been to the temple since the night before it closed (March 11). Caitlyn's endowment was a double blessing--one that she could go to the temple, and two, that our family could all go and participate in a temple session.
18) Yuli's birth: We were a little worried that she might be really small, but, though only 6 lbs. 2 oz. she was born perfectly healthy and is so beautiful.
19) Caitlyn's sealing: We weren't able to include a lot of people, but again it was wonderful that the focus was on the ordinace and not the festivities.
20) Christmas: Again because of the lack of extra parties and engagments, we were able to relax and focus on the true reason for the season, our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was amazing to watch our grandchildren put on the nativity for us. They took it seriously (even though I don't have great costumes--I need to work on that), and were very reverent as they acted out their parts.
There are many other blessings that have been apparent as the year has progressed. I love that we have a prophet and other leaders who have guided us through this year with messages of love and hope. The two virtual General Conferences for 2020 were amazing, and many things were shared to help us with any trials we may have been experiencing.
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Christmas was different for us this year. We usually have our big family get together on the 24th, but this year, as stated in previous entries, we departed from tradition and had the party early. Since we are now empty nesters in the truest sense of the word (it's quiet around our home), we were able to accept Crista's invitation to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in Logan with the Vances. They had a great evening planned for us, treating us to dinner from a nearby Sushi restaurant. They did pick up for the food and apparently the restaurant was slammed--I didn't know so many people ate out on Christmas Eve. We watched a couple of short Christmas videos--the "Christmas Dress" and "Frosty the Snowman" which was made in 1969. It was on Youtube and I've never seen so many advertisements to interrupt the programming. The cartoon was a stark contrast to the animation of today, but the girls seemed to love it anyway.
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| Watching Frosty the Snowman on a floor mattress |
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| Christmas Eve dinner |
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| Berries and Cream with Crista and Matt |
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| Roy, Catharine, Ruby, Greta, Bridget and Crista |
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| Greta on Christmas morning |
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| Jordan celebrated his 24th birthday on the 20th of this month. |
The day following Christmas, Dan's family came over to "hang out" and have dinner. We gave Dojin his birthday present (his birthday is the 27th).
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| Dojin opening his present |
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| Yuli. Her cute little outfit had a tail on the back. She didn't fill out the outfit very well. |
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| Dojin is on the way out. The hat used to be Hyeji's. I also made him a Spider Man pillowcase, but he was less interested in that. |
