We survived 2020 which at times felt like it was crawling along and other times flew along. There was stress and anxiety we experience the worldwide pandemic. The fight for Black Lives Matter. The stressful election.
I started the year with trips to Flagstaff for a press trip of the 9 breweries of Flagstaff and then Disneyland for the Food & Wine Festival. I was focused on making changes that travel would be a bigger part of my life and had at least 1 trip planned for each month through the end of 2020. But then the world started to shut down right before our spring break to Paris and London. I was crushed – I was looking forward to taking B to Europe for his first international trip. I was in Southern California the end of February through early March.
Disneyland was crowded as normal despite news starting to spread about the Coronavirus. But when I flew back to Phoenix, I noticed the off-site parking lot was half full which was not normal. I made a stop on the way home at a normally packed store and it was empty. Something was different. In the next two weeks things escalated. We canceled our trip to Europe. Spring break was extended an extra week and eventually going virtually for the rest of the year.
B had just made the 8th-grade baseball team. He pitched the entire game giving the team their first win. They played one more game before the season was cut short.
Facemasks became a part of our everyday dress and we used hand sanitizer constantly. We scrambled to find hand sanitizer and Lysol at the stores along with some unexpected hard to find items such as toilet paper, yeast, and flour.
Easter came along with friends’ birthdays and we figured out ways to celebrate at home and virtually with friends and family
- 13 Ways to Make Easter Fun at Home
- 10+ Ways to Celebrate Mother’s Day at home
- 15 Ways to Celebrate Birthdays During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- 9 Ways to Bring Joy to Your Neighborhood
B finished 8th grade virtually and we experience our first major virtual event as we watched the 8th graduation ceremony online.
- How to Celebrate Graduation during the Coronavirus Pandemic
- 14 Ways to Celebrate 8th Grade Graduation
- 8th Grade Graduation Gifts for Boys
We spent the summer at home mostly in our home or the pool as Phoenix experienced a record number of days over 100 degrees.
- Summer of Fun, Backyard Toy Guide for Teens
- The Best Pool Toys for Tweens and Teens
- 50+ Things for Teens to do this Summer
B started high school In August virtually and in October changed to in-person through Thanksgiving and then switched back to virtual. One positive from the virtual learning education is how tech-savvy the kids are becoming more along the lines of business skills and not just the gaming and social media.
The kids kept in touch with Facetime, Discord, Snap Chat, and gaming chat rooms. Among Us become the newly popular video game
The past few summers we have traveled to NYC for the Toy Insider to learn all about the hot new toys for the holiday season. With large in-person events canceled, The Toy Insider was switched to virtual and was the most impressive virtual event I attended for 2020. We shared some of our favorite toys in our many gift guides.
While I’m sad about the trips we didn’t take and the experiences that B missed out in his final year of 8th grade and then freshman year, it was great to slow down from our over-scheduled lives and to have the opportunity to spend more time with B. I think we have all learned from this forced slow down and more time at home and in many ways our lives will not return to home.
With the vaccine starting to roll-out and inauguration day, this will be a year of change. I’m hoping to resume travel more by car exploring parks and open space and I’m hoping to spend the end of 2021 in NYC but we will see.
2020, what a year
A few of my wrap up posts:
