By December 26, the world was eagerly and happily counting down to when the horrid year 2020 would be over. According to internet memes, 2020 was the year from Hades, and the general consensus was that it would magically all be better at the strike of 12 on December 31/Jan 1. As for us Savillians, our countdown went something like this:
Hiding under the bed.
Enjoying our Christmas presents by discovering the magic of an Instapot (Thank you Santa!)
"camping" in December:
One night, Brian and I had to discover the mystery of the piles of sand found throughout the house. We found one on the stairs, in our bedroom, and in our bathroom, all looking something like this:
After searching around, we found more on this bear, and this tiny hat in the corner of our room.
Earlier, I had let Gracie back into the house and she had run in with this camo hat cover (shown in the picture by the bear's foot). I had thanked her for bringing it into the house, but didn't watch what she did with it after that. Apparently, she felt the need to stash it for some unknown, possibly nefarious purpose later. We never were able to ascertain what the purpose was, and therefore, we slept with one eye open for a week. Nope, that's a lie. We laughed, cleaned it up, and went to bed, barely thinking of it again other than to call Gracie our favorite pet name, "Crazy".
Lea came over with a couple of her boys, and wanted to show us how they're growing. Here's 12-year-old Danny, same height as Lea, but with longer arms.
This doesn't bode well for Lea maintaining her height dominance over her third-born.
While she was there, we tuned in for Tucker's baptism via Zoom.
Gracie, who we can all agree could use some religion in her life, chose to remain a heathen, and slept through the entire proceedings.
On a serious note, we really were blessed to be able to join Tucker for his baptism. That is one good thing that came out of this pandemic: the ability to tune into events that take place across the country.
We finished the year with our sights on getting the kids rooms in better order. They looked like this:
and this:
The big goal was to clean up, organize, and make it better. Step one for 2021, since we didn't get it quite handled by 11:59 p.m. on the 31st.
We had our annual early countdown and toasted the new year with sparkling juice in fancy cups.
Then we put Gabe in bed and headed across the street. Our neighbors and friends, the Bertilsens, invited us over for some last-minute festivities. Our other neighbors, the Moyles, were also there. We played games, Marcus made us a non-alcoholic cocktail
There were a few more fireworks
And the Michael and Rachel got to stay up until midnight with all these girls.
We danced to Abba
Took some selfies:
Watched more fireworks being lit off around the valley, and then went to bed feeling blessed to have such great neighbors and friends.
2020 brought us some incredible gifts: 20/20 vision for me, my first ever girls' trip, a Disneyland Vacation with Nana and Papa (which included getting to be with my brother for his first Disneyland experience), learning how to make a sourdough starter, serving my community by making face masks, moving to a new home, meeting new friends, embracing new opportunities, designing a backyard from scratch, embracing new schools, starting new traditions, healing, going to Yellowstone with both sets of grandparents, finishing our basement, stretching, learning to rely on faith instead of giving in to fear, seeing the goodness of humanity after catching and recovering from the coronavirus, being able to pay it forward by serving some more, appreciating people and relationships more, appreciating the blessing of sitting in a chapel with other believers, treasuring the sacramental ordinance, and so many other things. Above all, seeing that God is still in His heaven, and He is still in control.
The world may have said "Good Riddance" to 2020 and try to forget about it, but I wouldn't trade that year away or wish it forgotten. We learned and grew so much, and I will always be grateful for the year 2020.
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