2020 Christmas Letter

Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Merry Christmas! We hope that you have been staying safe this year and have been able to do what you can to stay positive and have fun!

As odd and different as this year was, we tried our best to keep family things normal. We were even able to make some extra day trips with our unfortunately freed up schedule. One big freeing up was the cancellation of a trip to Disney World over spring break. They closed the park effective for the day we were to arrive. We rescheduled for early June, hopeful that things might change, but they were still closed as of those dates.

In the spring through early summer we made trips to several state parks for some hikes. One of the first things we did was make a run to Duluth to check out the lake for a bit while still so early. We also then ran up for a hike around Gooseberry Falls. Among other trips, we also hit up Itasca State Park to walk over the headwaters of the Mississippi. Steph had done this before, but was a first for all the rest of us.

In July, we continued with our annual National Park camping trips. For the most part, dealing with COVID was much easier than expected. Obviously being in a car and hiking keep you mostly isolated, but visitor centers, gas stations, and the like all were doing a good job of making it easy to access. We made many stops, but the highlights were Indiana Dunes National Park, several Lincoln stops including his birthplace and childhood homes in Kentucky and then his home and tomb in Illinois, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Hot Springs National Park, and Gateway Arch National Park. We also visited capitol buildings in Frankfort, Atlanta, Montgomery, Jackson, Little Rock. While it was hard to give justice at our breakneck pace, it was timely to also stop at some civil rights sites in Montgomery, Jackson, and Little Rock. The drive included driving along the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail and driving over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. While at Smoky, we camped for several days and took many hikes. We also ziplined and white water rafted just outside of the park.

We had a few times seeing family. In June we made a quick trip to Wisconsin to meet our new nephew, Everett, Josh and Amanda's son. We also spent a weekend at Tami and Curt's new place in August.

A couple weeks later, we made our way back up to Duluth for Nicki and Tyler's wedding. We had a nice time hanging out. The resort we stayed at was right on Lake Superior and the wedding itself was at a beach on the lake too. We were down in Sherburn a few weeks later to surprise Steph's dad for his 60th. On a sad note, we said goodbye to Steph's Grandpa Gary in November. We got to see him for a little bit at the birthday party. There was no formal reception, so we hope to do something more at some point next year. We already miss him quite a bit.

Steph and Ryan have not had too many changes in their lives. They both continue coaching (Steph - Cross Country, Ryan - Basketball and Robotics) and had a few races this year that went virtual, including Grandma's half again. Steph's job will continue to be at home once things are back to normal, so she is very excited about that. We've been working on building our home gym to make up for not having access to that this year.

Elisha turned fourteen this year, with one last year before high school! He got braces this summer. He still plays basketball any chance he can get. His 7th grade travel team had quite a run at the beginning of 2020 and were looking forward to using that momentum in the state tournament, but unfortunately, it was cancelled in the week leading up to it. We only got one tournament in this fall before sports were paused. We're hoping to get back at it in January. He played on a couple soccer teams this fall, including one with a lot of his normal Good Shepherd team. They postponed the school season to the spring. They still had cross country and he continued to run very well there. He is also doing robotics again this year which continues to be pushed out further  into 2021. No other major new things for him other than we rarely see him anymore. He now spends nearly all his free time playing Fortnite with his friends. It is pretty nice that he gets to socialize so easily in that way, but we sometimes feel like we've already had a kid move out!

Izzy is in fourth grade this year. She has gotten quite into messaging and video chatting with her friends through all of the lockdown this year. We hadn't really allowed it before, but it was practically a necessity and we suppose a good skill to learn and develop at home. Her 2020 travel basketball team turned out to be quite a little powerhouse. They wiped up on most other third grade teams and even held their own quite a bit against some fourth grade teams. They actually ended up placing 2nd in the state tournament. It was a really fun team and Izzy really enjoyed hanging out with all those girls. They have mostly the same team back again this year and also were only able to get in one tournament before the pause. She is also on the school team this year, fourth through sixth grade girls. She made a travel soccer team this fall and had a lot of fun learning more advanced skills for another sport. Unfortunately, Izzy broke her wrist toward the end of the season (which impacted basketball tryouts too). Fortunately, it was a pretty small fracture and she was only casted for four weeks. Soccer will pick up again a bit in the new year and more so next summer. She also ran cross country again this year, showing some great skill there. She started playing around with a ukulele during the lockdown. She's gotten pretty good at googling chords for songs and then playing them. Finally as an early Christmas present as school went distance in December, Izzy got a hamster, Smoky (in honor of her preschool class hamster). So far, so good although he is very shy.

Zeke is in third grade. He's starting to get a little busier, but gets to still mostly hang out at home or tag along to watch his older siblings. He was able to play flag football this fall with a few of his buddies from school. He also ran cross country this year. For those of you who know Zeke, you know he's not the quickest out there. He was a little discouraged earlier in the season, but kept working hard and was super proud of a PR and third place in the conference meet. He is playing basketball this winter. He started playing little bits on the piano during lockdown, but we also got him an early Christmas: a drum set. He's already starting to listen to things and trying to replicate what he hears.

Stay safe and here's to a better future in 2020!

Love Ryan, Steph, Elisha, Izzy and Zeke