Wow- what a year! I don't think anyone expected 2020 to go the way it did, and yet, it did. A global pandemic, school cancelled and home schooling, stores out of basic necessities, a very ugly presidential election, everyone wearing masks. Not at all the year we had pictured a year ago. And yet, here at home, one of the sweetest years we've had. Hard, but sweet. The top highlights of our year:
With no question- the highlight of the entire year was adding Miss Lila Carly Hugo to our family on February 19, 2020. She's the sweetest girl in the world and we can't imagine life without her now.
2. We spent the summer at the pool! This was from the 4th of July. In a summer where so many options were closed, it was amazing to have the pool close by! All three boys are total fish, and Lila learned to tolerate it.
3. Our camping trip in July. Camping with a new baby and three other kids is no joke, but it was absolutely beautiful and absolutely worth it (and also absolutely exhausting).
4. The boys got to start back to school in person in the fall! At first it was only two days a week, after one month it progressed to 4 days a week (which is the plan through the end of the year). After our experience in the spring, we won't take school for granted!
5. Our family trip to Bryce Canyon in September. This is such a beautiful spot and we loved exploring it and getting away as a family!
So many beautiful memories in 2020, along with some hard ones. This was a year of a lot of family time. The chaos in the world mandated that we spend more time at home with each other and I will always be thankful for that time. I saw my big boys grow in their relationship with each other, and grow in their relationship with Davis. Everyone got more time with baby Lila. Ben got to work from home for a big part of the year. While the world was falling apart, our family was growing closer and stronger.
I also witnessed so much GOOD in people. Unprecedented times made a lot of people focus on their blessings and focus on others who needed help. We watched our community rally after a crazy windstorm. We watched them rally around people in heartbreaking circumstances. Our little family was the recipient of so much love and thoughtfulness. I'll never forget in the first weeks of the pandemic when groceries and other goods were hard to come by, and I had a brand new baby at home and didn't want to go out to stores. Not a single day passed without a neighbor texting me to see if I needed anything, reminding me that they could easily run to the store for me. People came together to help one another in a beautiful way.
Our theme scripture this year was "Search diligently, Pray always, and Be Believing and all things shall work together for your good. D&C 90:24" This described our year in the nutshell- we did a lot of searching. Both emotional and mental searching and spiritually. We read the whole Book of Mormon as a family. We studied the words of God! We prayed a lot. And we believed things would work out. They did. Maybe not everything the way we'd hoped, but it has worked out and we've become better through it.
We rang in the New Year at home. Ben made us a delicious Korean dinner, which the boys loved. We made homemade ice cream and watched an Avengers movie. We celebrated East coast new years and put the boys to bed at 10:00. It was quiet and simple, but still sweet in it's own way. While most people were saying "Good riddance 2020!" I was feeling grateful for the gifts it brought me- a new baby, a closer family, better perspective, added strength that comes from trials, and a hope for a brighter future!
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