Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

 

Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas and welcome to the 2020 edition of the McVal Family Christmas Letter. This letter was difficult to begin. So many mixed emotions and thoughts over the past year that I considered just typing up my twice baked potato soup recipe and see if anyone noticed. Val noticed, so here we are.

2020 was a different year in many ways. Let’s start with the new vocabulary that we learned, Covid-19. I probably don’t need to explain about Covid-19. If you have a TV, a radio, or know someone with a TV or radio, you already know about Covid-19. Covid-19 was the thing that brought families together by making them stay home and at the same time and same reason drove them nuts. The other new vocabulary word is Derecho, which is a high wind storm or “land hurricane”. Land hurricane isn’t the official “weather channel” definition but I think it fits well.

Back to Covid-19. In March of 2020, we were just finishing time off for spring break and getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday made for bagpipers. The band, I’m a part of in XXXXXXX, books events/pubs for us to play at during the day. As the day progresses, the audiences grow more appreciative of our music. I choose to believe the band gets better by the hour instead of the audience getting less discerning. Anyway, St. Patrick’s day was canceled due to concern over Covid-19. In disappointment, I put off getting my hair cut. Little did I know that not getting my hair cut would cause the spread of the virus, causing a global pandemic, and close hair salons. My work gave me the option of working from home. With only 7 out of 20 still at my office, I chose to continue to go to the office in order to be around less people. My hair was getting more and more shaggy. I was considering drastic measures and was watching home haircut how-to videos on youtube. In late May, hair salons opened up and I was overjoyed to get my hair cut. Over all, we have fared well at my house through the social distancing and quarantine periods. As I’ve admitted, I’ve rarely needed to practice social distancing, I have my personality for that.

Derecho. August 10^th a storm rolled through Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, with such fierce winds that people asked “What was that?”. The answer was Derecho. A once in a lifetime storm that happens every so often. At our house, two of the trees in the front yard were ripped up and thrown into the front fence, and deck. One tree in the back. Major parts of our roof were relocated to the back yard. Power was down for five days. Many of our neighbors were no better. Using an ax and hand saws, much of the debris was reduced to manageable pieces and removed. Neighbors with chain saws helped with the larger tree trunks. We live in a great neighborhood. At Meri’s house, some large limbs had come down, but no other damage. My biggest problem was the power outage. I can’t sleep in the heat. Val and the others at the house are tough. They got through it well, where as I spent the nights in the car, trying to rest. I recall thinking this is what it was like for the pioneers if the pioneers complained all the time. We farmed out most of the contents of our refrigerator and freezer to friends from church with electricity. A neighbor let us plug into his generator, so we could have a few things on hand. My mom stayed at a local hotel for a few days. Our insurance company really came through for us. They replaced our roof, fence, deck railing, and repairs to our one leak. They reimbursed us for the tree removal, and some losses of food due to the power outage. As good as they were, insurance companies still have trouble taking a joke. When they asked if we had losses in the freezer or refrigerator, I said yes, about three thousand in caviar. The adjuster sighed, ignored it, and offered me a more reasonable figure.

Ryan and Leon (8) have had an interesting year. Leon has been attending school online since the pandemic began. As fall rolled around, Ryan decided to continue online school for Leon at a public online school. Ryan continues to be Leon’s online coach. Leon loves it. More so, he loves being done with it by 11:30 and can spend the rest of the day playing video games or just hanging out. Not much else to do in a Covidy (our term for all things Covid-19 related) society. Ryan continues to date his longtime girlfriend Jen. Jen has worked as the lead teacher for a classroom at a local daycare for several years. In her leisure hours she enjoys cooking, art and painting.

Maddy continues teaching kindergarten at a Lutheran school in Wisconsin. March through May was entirely online. The new learning curve this fall has been teaching kids in the classroom and then ALSO online at the drop of a hat. Matthew is attending graduate school for library science and working at a full-time position at the local library. Maddy and Matthew constructed a fence in their backyard this year with the help of family and friends. Their golden retriever, Duke, passed away in January and left a void in their lives. So they added two new members to their family this year. Zola and Daisy. Two rescue dogs who have settled as two much loved children into their home.

Meri seems to have had a slightly less busy year so far. Last year she bought a house in town, left her job at XXXXXX, and opened a daycare in her home. Since then, she has spent much of her time remodeling her house, refinishing floors, learning to cook exotic Indian dishes, and collecting cats. Also, she has both her golden retrievers, Ellie, and Reedus. The daycare has had its ups and downs, closed and open periods throughout the pandemic. Being in contact with so many kids, Meri is very cautious about all things Covid-y. She has been tested multiple times and has been negative every time. Meri has been dating Shub, a recent college graduate, for just over a year.

My mother, Margaret, has mostly been staying home this year. Her contact with the outside world has mostly been limited to phone conversations and attending church online. She was going a little stir crazy and looking for any excuse to get out of the house, which she found. In late October, mom was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and other complications. She stayed in the hospital until mid-November and was released to a care facility to recuperate. She seems to be feeling much better, but continues to be on oxygen. She is likely to be released prior to Christmas. Her one lasting issue is her voice. Currently she can’t talk above a whisper. Her major concern throughout this has been her little dog Teddi. Which we assure her is fine.

Val continues telecommuting for XXXXXX in California/Florida.  She is active as a Sunday school teacher and various sewing projects.  I continue to work at XXXXX and play the bagpipes.

How blessed we are with the assurance that even though our lives have ups and downs, joys and disappointments, we can rest eary known God, through his son Jesus, has everything worked out for our heavenly reward.

Have a merry and blessed Christmas.

Love the McVals