Thanksgiving 2020

 I love Thanksgiving--for lots of reasons, but especially the reminder to reflect on the year and just be grateful. This year, I found myself feeling extra thankful for all the things I always feel thankful for--family, friends, faith, a job and colleagues I love, a comfortable house. 

But a few new things made their way to the top of the list as well. For example, I'm really and truly thankful that we have health insurance! Broken leg + ambulance ride + broken leg + surgery + hospital stay = $$$$$$$. Grateful. I'm thankful for our local library, and how they let us check out an obscene number of books and DVDs on March 14, which we then had for months through quarantine. When they reopened, it became one of the very few places we took the kids. DJ developed a love of reading. Grateful. I'm thankful for the precious times we did get to see family, especially for Nellie's musical right before everything closed down. So grateful. I'm thankful for our families and the many families and friends at school who helped us through Nellie's injuries with meals, books, running errands, and everything else that helped us get through. Grateful. And the list goes on! Thank you, Lord, for strengthening us and holding our hands as we weathered all the events of this year.

We had a lovely first-ever Thanksgiving at home with the seven of us! Kevin and I ran 5K, then the day was full of the parade, football, Zoom calls and trivia with family, cooking, eating, Christmas music, board games, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and The Mandalorian. There were only a couple of minor setbacks--like when I took out the chicken broth but reached for the apple juice that someone had left out and accidentally invented apple turkey gravy. It wasn't terrible!

The gravy ingredients 😬

The turkey and my best helpers

The table

The post-dinner nap

The long-awaited launch of the Christmas lights

All the fall fun

I've found that when a school year is particularly challenging, the weekends become these precious 48-hour windows to catch up on house and schoolwork, play, and rest. This year, with all its uncertainties and changes and underlying worries, we sort of dipped our toes into anything fun with some hesitation. Going back to school in a pandemic, we knew we had to be ever so careful and give up many of the things we normally enjoy. But looking back over the past couple of months, I am reminded of all the big and little moments we had to enjoy creation, enjoy each other, try new things, and carry on with some version of fall traditions.

We went camping on the coldest weekend of the fall--but we survived freezing overnight temperatures to enjoy warm days in the woods.

There was a trip to the Country Mill for donuts, cider, and playing on the playground. I took the kids to the pumpkin patch for the first time, which resulted in 116 lbs. of pumpkins and lots of angst for Mary Cate over picking the perfect pumpkin.

Annie ran cross country and DJ tried out soccer, and both were able to learn a whole lot of new skills, be active, make friends, and stay healthy and safe.

Most days while Annie was at practice, I took the kids to the playground. I learned that they LOVE the tire swing, but also that there is such a thing as too much tire swing (via two pukers in the van on our way home one day).

Annie did end up with 8 stitches over her eye, but that was because of a PE collision. 

We walked the trails at Fitzgerald Park with Lisa and Sarah and Alex's family--it was great to see them for the first time since summer.

I had the opportunity to help lead professional development in West Michigan, while Kevin took the kids to the U.P. I got to spend an evening on Lake Michigan, which was beautiful and refreshing. It took some convincing on Kevin's end, but I drove up to Sault Ste. Marie when the training was over to spend about 36 hours with them. It was worth it. We visited the best coffee shop in Michigan on our way to our favorite beach spot on Lake Superior, where we hiked a long stretch of lakeshore. Just two months after our initial summer visit when we picnicked and swam, this time, there was snow.

We celebrated Halloween with a front yard bonfire and pizza before some social distance trick-or-treating.

We raked leaves!

Kevin, Annie, and I ran the Woldumar 5K (Annie beat us), then we went back the next day and met Erin and the kids! Again, it was wonderful to see family after so long, even masked and staying outdoors. 

We took the shortest-ever trip to Gull Lake to visit Pam. We took a cold walk/bike ride and exchanged baked treats and gave air hugs before heading home. 💙

The Wernets started a fantasy football league...I don't have any pictures of that, but here's a screenshot with our current rankings! It's not looking so good for Mario All-Stars and Mom (Eddie and me).