It’s hard to imagine that this is the last time (maybe for a long time) that I will be writing a monthly recap from California. It’s been such a beautiful respite for us while we tried to ride out as much of the pandemic as we could. Now it does feel like the right time for us to return home and continue our life in the big city. Until then though we had one full beautiful month left in California and we enjoyed it with a week off, some furniture shopping, and the start of another cross country move.

And like that we’ve moved from 2020 to a new year. And although nothing has really changed from year-to-year, it does feel nice to have said goodbye to 2020 even if it was only symbolically. And so the new year is here and with it brought terror, hope, and a lot of work.

And like that we’ve moved from 2020 to a new year. And although nothing has really changed from year-to-year, it does feel nice to have said goodbye to 2020 even if it was only symbolically. And so the new year is here and with it brought terror, hope, and a lot of work.

I feel a tremendous amount of pressure this year to fully capture what it was like to live through 2020. It’s an understatement to say that it was unlike any other year, because how could it be. And so throughout this recap of my 2020, not only do I want to highlight all of the joy, surprise, and growth but I also want to remember what it felt like when the entire world shut down, and we sat at ground zero of a global pandemic. The uncertainty, fear, pain, and the confusion of what the “new normal” would become. And so this recap will be both familiar and also very different from years past.

I’m struggling to find the words to capture this year. It started off so promising, I was killing it in my career, Amy had her first child: Gracie, Joel, and I were settling into the city and truly living a dream NYC life. I remember Dad coming to visit during winter (February) and just having a great time with him, watching him freeze at the dog park, and eating La Salle and Il Buco till our hearts were content. I can still see Joel, Jake, and I walking through Central Park, eating at Rezdora, and laughing during the Book of Mormon. I can feel us booking our bucket list trip to South America. I can recall the exact moment I got my new job offer and how thrilled I was for this new adventure in my career.

A few days before the end of the year I’ll send Jenn an e-mail (ironic this year since we work a couple feet from each other) with a template to fill out for our favorite things. I make sure not to read hers before I write mine up so we don’t influence each others list. Being together for nearly two decades its not that surprising that our lists usually sound similar and this year is no exception. And so without further ado here are our favorite things from 2020.