The End of 2020

It is New Year's Eve and I thought it might be nice to reflect on the word of the year for 2020 if I could only choose 1. 

The nominees are:

Pandemic, Turbulent, Home-Centered, Turmoil, Isolation, Exhausting, Sad, Lonely, Unbelievable, Mask, Protest, Unprecedented, Gratitude, Service, Sacrifice, Quarantine, Change, Home, Resilience, Together, Equality, Divisive, Politics. 

The finalists are:

Pandemic - This was the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster. On March 11, 2020 it had an increase lookup over the prior year of 115,806%. It certainly has been the one thing that more than any other impacted every single person this year in the entire world. There is not one corner of the earth where people were not impacted by COVID-19. 

Quarantine - We personally have officially quarantined just a couple of times this year. Of course overall we significantly limited how much we left the house to decrease the spread of COVID-19 that were not official "quarantines", but still kept us home for long stretches. For these purposes, I will just talk about our official quarantines. We quarantined for 14 days in July after we came in close contact with Kayla Barclay who tested posted for COVID-19 after being sick just two days after spending a day with us. We quarantined to help protect our friends and neighbors and keep them healthy. We also quarantined starting in early December so that we could go to my parents house for Christmas and spend time with them and also keep them protected. Many others of our friends and family quarantined throughout the year as well. 

Unprecedented - This is a word that was used often to describe the current circumstances. The most recent pandemic was in 1918 with the spanish flu. However, this differed significantly due to the global nature of the world. It took just 3 months to span the globe and has been difficult to contain and damaging to the global economy. In addition, this pandemic also took place amidst turmoil related to equality in America specifically equality for black people. There were protests and in some instances riots all across the country. In addition, political divisiveness seems to be at an all time high. 

Mask - Our world definitely became different as we had to start wearing a mask every time we left the house. Before COVID-19 you would never leave the house without your cell phone and wallet, and now you would add your mask to that list. Even if we don't plan to go somewhere we would need a mask, we always grab it in case we have to go into a store or do something we are not planning on. There has also been a lot of divisiveness over mask wearing. For me, it was always a way that I can show other people that I care enough about them, and their life and their families to do my part to keep them safe. It also became so interesting as masks started to add style/fashion. One day Shantel even found matching shirt and mask combos in Wal-Mart. 

Resilience - This is such a great word. In a lot of ways, being happy in these circumstances has to do with being resilient and continuing to do your best each and every day. 

Gratitude - There have been stressful things this year, without a doubt. Especially early during the pandemic when it was difficult to buy food and you did not know if we would be able to get more food in the next weeks and months. In the midst of that and all the things noted above, we had such a great year. We were so well cared for and have so much to be grateful for. I was able to have multiple opportunities at work that are helping my career. Lydia and Austin have had a great year of school and our thriving. Caleb and Lucy are healthy and growing well. We were able to (mostly) finish our basement. None of our family members have had severe illness due to COVID-19. The list could go on and on. I am grateful that we have had God with us this year. In the good and the bad, he is aware of us and we have been blessed with so many good things. 

Okay- after much deliberation, the Peaden Family 2020 word of the year is:

Gratitude. In the midst of trial and turmoil, there is not any medicine better than gratitude. By focussing on the blessing we have, not just the ones we want, we have been able to feel peace, joy and happiness. We will continue to try and find gratitude for the challenges that are coming in the years to come. In 2021 will have more mask wearing, perhaps more quarantines. It may be unprecedented, but we will try and be resilient. 2021 - Here we come. 

New Years Eve, Walker Style

It was the end of September when I first noticed "Happy New Year" merchandise starting to appear in stores. David and I joked that people were going to celebrate the New Year with a significant increase in enthusiasm after such a rough year. (2020 has often become synonymous with "awful" and is sometimes simply used in context as the explanation for difficulty. "It makes sense, you know... 2020." or "Our car broke down. #2020". It's almost hilarious, and humor is sometimes a coping mechanism. I have to admit, even though our year has looked different than what it normally might look like, we have been blessed to have a really great year. We've been blessed and we've been happy. But, we were still excited to celebrate the coming of a new year. My mom was laughing all day about a video we watched where the main lady keeps saying "2021 will fix it!" 

We don't expect that everything will be better on January 1, 2021 - but we do look forward to the future with optimism and hope. 

And we love any excuse to throw a party. (If by "throw a party", you mean "realize that you have children and you should probably do something for new years, so 5 minutes prior take a sharpie marker and some extra paper plates and pull off a few activities to make the night feel festive." I'm not a big party planner, but I hope my kids will remember my efforts to make their childhood fun and filled with simple, special memories. 

We made cotton candy, played Risk Jr., played the wii, drank rootbeer floats, made goals, and talked about the new year - then watched an old year of the ball dropping to celebrate! 

After the kids were in bed, we played a massive game of Carcassone with every expansion that we own. It took us three hours. Then, because tensions were heated and we weren't ready to go to bed, we decided to play a speed round and played another round with all of the expansions but as fast as we possibly could and we did the whole thing in only one hour! It was the best. Laughing as we ran to and from the counter, grabbing pieces over top of each other. Racing to finish the most cities. 

And then everyone went to bed by 11:30. We'd stayed up until 2 almost every night that week, so everyone was pooped. David and I stayed up and read our books on the couch until the fireworks started going off outside and we happily welcomed the new year. 

Walker - Post Christmas

Immediately after leaving the Peaden Home, we drove straight to Morgan to continue our celebrations. We weren't able to see them at Thanksgiving or earlier in December because we were being so careful not to risk getting the Peaden's sick - so we were SO ready to see everyone and celebrate together. We spent the whole week hanging out. It was reminiscent of our college days when we'd take the two-week college break to come and visit family and just stay the whole time. After a year of being socially distant from almost everyone, it felt crazy to have so many people around for so long. But everyone had been really careful prior to Christmas and thankfully, no one ended up being sick. (Covid is tricky, because you can be sick and not know you're sick. And even if you're asymptomatic you can still get other people sick. Holidays are a concern because if big groups gather, it can accelerate the spread. However, I'm writing this post after the fact - so I can report that none of us got sick from being together and I'm grateful that is the case.) 

Austin's cotton candy machine was a big hit with the kids AND the adults. Of course, Kid pancakes had to be on the menu (the kids love making "kid pancakes" with Grandpa). 

Games with my siblings. 

Lucy loves Rugby like Lydia loved dogs at her age. Rugby is bigger than she is but she's not afraid of him and she's happy to rough and tumble with him. He's such a good dog and although he likes to play with her, he's never actually rough. 

I'm surprised I don't have pictures of Lydia and Rugby, because she's the one who really adores him. 

My dad and his retirement chain. We are counting down the weeks!

My dad volunteered to take Lydia driving. She was thrilled. I remember getting to drive on my Grandpa Walker's ranch. Lydia just went around the church parking lot. 

I love this Lucy-girl. 

My dad and brother Matthew have been learning how to make cheese. They made their own cheese press and have their own cheese aging station in the basement. It's funny, but they are actually really good at it! One of these days I'm going to make them get a YouTube channel going. 

More hanging out. 

Juniper and Lucy are only two months apart and look like little twinners hanging out. We love them together. 

David being the kid-hero and Caleb and Sadie, thick as thieves. 

For Christmas, my dad got a FORGE. He's been blacksmithing his heart out and he let Caleb come out and make a little piece of metal with him. Caleb has been talking about making a knife like grandpa's ever since. 

The babies hanging out in my mom's bed watching baby songs on her projector. 

(plus a house I loved when I saw it on our drive)

We went on a hike up East Canyon. My dad brought hot chocolate and a little flame stove. We hiked, we drank hot chocolate. We made snow angels. I even convinced the kids to play one round of "freeze tag" with me. This was definitely a highlight of our week. 

We ended our week with the Walker's with a New Years Eve celebration, then packed up and went home the very next day. But I'll post New Years Eve in another post. The best week to end the year!