Y’all, 2020 is finally coming to an end. In an “unprecedented year” like we’ve literally never seen before, I’m sure many of us are ready to bid it farewell, in hopes that things will look different/better in 2021. As we all know, this has been the weirdest year of most of our lives, and although I am ready to see it go, I know that things will not magically snap back to “before” when 1/1/21 rolls around. And again, as strange and sometimes terrible as 2020 was, there were also some great moments too.
I’m so glad that I’ve been keeping this online journal for 2.5 years now, with the ability to go back and read random posts and relive those random days. I made recap posts like this one for the past two years, and not only do I love making these, y’all love reading these too. If you’d like to relive the past with me, you can check out the old posts for 2018 and 2019 here, and now we’ll get going on 2020!
Although there were a few days where I didn’t blog (due to website issues or pregnancy exhaustion), I always tried to make up for those days by posting twice the following day, which means I wrote a total of 368 posts this year! (And this is my 1,000th all-time post!!) People have viewed my blog from 55 different countries, with a little over 46,000 total views just this year! With a whopping 103,000+ all-time views!
So today, on New Year’s Eve, let’s wrap up 2020 by highlighting some of my favorite posts from each month…
♦JANUARY
Our family rang in the new year with a low-country boil.
We harvested hundreds of oranges from our backyard tree.
We took a short road trip to Jacksonville, shopped at IKEA, got rid of our old couch, and purchased/put together a new couch!
We travelled around the world at Growing Room.
The family met up for a big breakfast one Saturday morning.
I made a delicious tater tot breakfast casserole for church, and chili that night for a chili cook-off at work the next day.
My 32nd birthday rolled around, and I celebrated multiple times.
♦FEBRUARY
We had a family birthday lunch and Jeff & I went out for date night later.
Enjoyed playing at our local park at sunset all by ourselves.
Mama, Meg & I had a picnic lunch at my office.
Jeff and I sang together at our church Valentine’s Banquet.
Emerson visited the dentist for her first official teeth cleaning.
We had casual, family Valentine’s day together, and I hosted my fourth annual Galentine’s Day Tea party the next day.
Spent a regular ole Saturday with the triplets & the Grandparents.
♦MARCH
In early March, Jeff got sick, and then a day or so later, I got sick too and stayed home for a few days. (Actually, looking back, we think one or both of us might have had covid, but they weren’t doing testing for that here in town yet then. We want to get the antibody test, but haven’t yet.)
Megan & Bo threw a huge celebration for the triplets’ first birthday party, and they turned 1 year old the next day.
In just one day we: did a giant grocery haul in anticipation of potential lockdown, went to a birthday party, and found our new favorite taco place.
The first church service of the pandemic was moved to livestream only, with Jeff and I there on praise team & tech team.
We went on a 6-day trip from FL to MO for my cousins wedding: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6.
I dropped a machete on my ankle doing yardwork and had to go to the ER for stitches.
We had our first completely-at-home-never-left-the-house pandemic day. (We actually didn’t get many of those, since I still worked in the office a lot & Emmie went to school.)
Daycare closed after a covid exposure, so we did at-home daycare for a week: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5.
In March I also baked: artisan bread, & banana muffins.
♦APRIL
We spent time with the triplets, and I made homemade cornbread for the first time. (And then I baked a LOT more things for the next few months.)
We enjoyed a perfect Spring Sunday.
Emmie did some at-home egg hunts, and we spent Easter at home instead of at church, and that was weird.
I baked homemade jam-filled muffins & hopped on the dalgona coffee trend.
Our family took a trip to a blueberry orchard.
Emmie’s Georgia-cousins Libby & Andersen came to town, and we had lots of playdates with them: hammocks, tree fort, swings, yard work, beach day, family dinner, and park visit.
In April I also baked: chocolate chip banana muffins, unleavened bread, citrus pound cake, poppyseed muffins, lemon cookies, blueberry breakfast casserole, and bread,
♦MAY
We celebrated Jeff’s 39th birthday with a backyard campout.
We had a family dinner for Mother’s Day at my parents’ house.
Jeff had started WFH way back in March, but I finally started WFH on May 12.
We had a family pool day with babies in bikinis.
Nana cooked a Memorial Day Weekend feast on Saturday, and then on Monday we had a pool party at my parents’ house.
I reminisced on my high school cheerleading days.
We tried & failed to potty-train at home (even though she went at school all the time).
In May I also baked: blueberry muffins, zucchini nut bread, and patriotic poke cake.
♦JUNE
We started a challenge with my coworkers to walk on our lunch break every day for the month.
My first time making homemade Bolognese sauce turned out delicious.
We started our kitchen cabinet painting project (that took us FOR-EV-ER). Ten days later, we were still painting… And 14 days after that, we were attaching handles and hinges. And a few days later, we had all the upper doors re-hung.
Kept walking & painting.
Emerson loved water day at school every Friday during the summer months.
Emmie’s Texas cousins (Duncan, Declan & Daxton) came to visit, and we saw them a couple of times.
♦JULY
We had a family celebration for the 4th of July.
Worked on the kitchen cabinets some more… And some more the next weekend.
Emmie had her bi-annual cardiologist check-up, where he started getting concerned about the enlargement of her heart, & sent the numbers to a specialist surgeon in Jax.
Emerson turned 3 years old! And we celebrated with a big family dinosaur-themed birthday party!
Papa took Emmie on her first fishing trip.
We got the call from Wolfson’s to schedule her open-heart surgery.
I was proud of & impressed with myself for making homemade tomato soup.
In July I baked: banana chocolate chip cookies & a patriotic poke cake, a second patriotic poke cake, rosemary bread, a third poke cake, bread, and more bread.
♦AUGUST
We had a fun Mommy/Daughter day on a teacher planning day, when she finally started going potty in the toilet at home!!!
Nana and Emmie made a huge batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
We had a pool party for my dad’s birthday.
The triplets started school for the first time at Growing Room.
We made an “about me” poster for Emerson to take to school.
The whole fam had to get covid tests done prior to Emmie’s open-heart surgery.
And then began the 11 days surrounding Emmie’s open-heart surgery: day 1 – road-tripped to Jacksonville, day 2 – Emerson had a heart-cath procedure, day 3 – we visited a museum, day 4 – had lunch with some family, day 5 – shopped at IKEA for Emmie’s big girl bed…
♦SEPTEMBER
… day 6 – matching dresses & pre-op, day 7 – successful open-heart surgery, day 8 – post-op day one, day 9 – discharged post-op day two, day 10 – a walk in the park, day 11 – back to Tally.
And then began Emerson’s month at home out of daycare, where our whole family took turns taking care of her: Nana, Megan, Jeff, Grammy & Grandmommie, Uncle Keith & Grandmommie, and myself.
Emmie’s post-op cardiologist follow-up appointment went really well.
I enjoyed my final day WFH, and then had to return to the office full-time (not by choice).
Took an at-home pregnancy test first thing this morning, and it was positive!
Made a giant crock-pot of soup & hosted some of my family for dinner – and surprised them by telling them I was pregnant!
♦OCTOBER
Emerson returned back to school after surgery, for the first time in over a month.
We went shopping with Nana & had family dinner for Mama’s birthday.
Jeff and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.
Emmie had a cavity-free dental appointment.
The 6-week post-op follow-up appointment with the cardiologist went really well.
We replaced some old lights in our kitchen & hallway.
Our 3-fam took a weekend camping trip, which was Emmie’s first ever time camping, and the first time we’d been in 4 years.
Had a blast at the farm for Trough or Treat, dressed up as Wonder Woman on Halloween!
♦NOVEMBER
Had a nice lunch date with my Mama for the first time since March.
We had a Saturday morning cousin playdate. And another Saturday morning cousin playdate a few weeks later.
After forcing myself to keep it a “secret” from most people, we finally announced Emerson was gonna be a big sister!!!
I passed my 3-hour glucose test.
Over two days, our family put together 130+ Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, using monetary donations from church members.
We had our Thanksgiving church service in the parking lot.
I had my first high-risk pregnancy doctor’s appointment.
Officially entered my second trimester.
Indulged in two delicious Thanksgiving meals in one day.
And decorated our Christmas tree.
♦DECEMBER
My sister turned 30 and we had a big family dinner at their house.
I was having serious pickle pregnancy cravings.
Finished a 2nd reading of Little Women this year.
Grammy & Papa took Emmie on a 1-night getaway to Callaway Gardens for the Christmas tour & the butterfly garden.
Took myself on a solo lunch date. And then a few days later had a lunch date with Papa & Meg.
Had a candlelight Christmas Eve.
Celebrated with a loud & chaotic Christmas day.
I made a huge dish of baked ziti for the first time ever & the boys came to spend a week with us.
Belated Christmas with Jeff’s parents & the boys.
See? 2020 may have been rough (and there’s certainly no denying that), but there were also good memories too, and I wouldn’t want to let the “bad stuff” eclipse all the good stuff. Of course we’ll all remember 2020 as the year the global pandemic began, but I wanna remember all of this other stuff too!
♦TOP 10 MOST-VIEWED POSTS OF 2020
- Successful Open-Heart Surgery
- Miracle Recovery! (Post-Op Day 2)
- Scheduling Emerson’s Surgery
- Orange Popsicle (Post-Op Day 1)
- Heart Doctor & Taco Truck
- Jacksonville
- Heart Cath Procedure
- Throwback Cheerleading Photos
- Pre-Op, Cheetah Dresses & Family Time
- Jax Skyline River Walk
Worthy of note – 9 of the top 10 posts are of course all heart-surgery related. Which is no surprise, but it honestly means a lot to me how much y’all supported us during that time, in so many ways, physically, monetarily, gifts, food, messages, phone calls, videos, and even just viewing my update posts.
As always, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! for reading along with our family day in and day out. It’s fun for me to keep this as personal journal, but it’s also fun to share a part of our lives with y’all too.
So here’s to all the good memories of 2020, and let’s make some more great ones in 2021!