Christmas 2020
The Christmas tree is decorated, and there are even presents under it. A wreath hangs on the door. The nativity set is out. The holiday season is here even though it feels different. What a year this has been!
We had a couple of big events planned for this year — events which still happened though not in the way we had originally thought.
Paul planned his retirement for this year — in July he celebrated 35 years being with Mayer Brown LLP and decided that he was ready for retirement at the end of that month. He was asked to stay on a few more months and so retired at the end of September. He started working from home in March when everything was shut down and never went back into his office. He hasn’t missed working though he missed seeing his colleagues in person before he retired. He has spent his time since continuing to work in the yard, work on his genealogy and writing up family histories.
Gail’s mother celebrated her 90th birthday in July. A big birthday celebration was planned for the weekend which had to be cut back — but kids and grandkids made it to Cape Cod to celebrate in a socially distanced fashion with a catered dinner on her deck.
Our daughter, Kristin and her fiancé Scott Baranowski were set to be married October 10 at a wedding venue in Chicago. Again, plans were changed and the wedding reception has been pushed into next year. However, Kristin and Scott wanted to keep their original wedding date, 10/10/2020 so got married in our backyard, with immediate family and some close friends present. Kristin’s cousin, Anna, who is Lutheran pastor, married them.
We managed a few trips this year but not as many as we had planned. We traveled to Destin, FL and New Orleans in January and were thankful to be somewhere warm in the middle of winter. We enjoyed the ocean and the French Quarter both. In August we visited Joy and Dan at their home in Michigan and sipped wine among the vines. We traveled to Colorado in early September and experienced the mountains and many new places. We took a jeep ride into Rocky Mountain National Park over 12,000 feet, past the tree line, and came back to find a herd of elk on the grounds of the place we were staying. In October we traveled back to the Cape to visit with Gail’s mother again. We ate outdoors at restaurants as much as we could (the weather did cooperate) and enjoyed the fall foliage on the drive there and back. Many of our trips planned for this year have been pushed to next year — hopefully with a vaccine we will see progress towards ending the pandemic.
We are enjoying our retirement — have not gotten bored yet. We spend a day or two a week with our granddaughter, Xochitl, at John and Sasha’s house helping with childcare. We are fortunate to have both of our kids living in Chicago - not too far away. We are finding things to do around the house — going through old pictures and family letters, reading and enjoying our backyard.
We wish the best for all of us in this coming new year! Here’s hoping that we will be able to get together in person soon!
Peace,
Gail and Paul