How do we even talk about 2020? It’s popular to say it was a bad year, and it has been in many ways, but it’s also been a good year and will go down as the year we decided to chase our dreams.
We started 2020 in Florida for the 3rd year in a row. We rung in the new year in Naples before spending another week at Lazydays in our RV. Karissa and Adelaide flew home while Emerson and I left the RV in storage and made the long drive north. We got home in time to celebrate another Christmas and Karissa’s birthday.
February brought a major life change – choosing to quit eating meat, dairy, & eggs and only consume plants. We did our best to survive the grey skies of a Midwest winter. And had a few health scares in the family.
March is when the pandemic caused major shutdowns across the nation and Illinois. School was shut, everything cancelled, and we got to spend some time together as a family at home. Though, Karissa taught virtually through the end of the school year.
Not much changed through the spring. We continued to mostly stay home due to the pandemic. We enjoyed spring for the first time in a long time –taking a lot of bike rides and walks as a family. And the dog my parents had for 14 years, Fry, died while my parents and I were there for his last breaths.
June lead us to finally open the family lake house by ourselves. The pandemic meant we were the only ones who used it this year. June was also when I began applying, very selectively, for jobs. We enjoyed spring and the start of summer, but knew winter was coming and deep down that we don’t want to keep doing this winter thing in the midwest. So we kept working on finishing our home renovation while enjoying the warm weather.
August meant a bunch of choices regarding school. We chose for Adelaide to learn virtually, but the school board ultimately made everybody go virtual (thankfully). Karissa took a leave from her job to help the kids with their learning while I tried to navigate the stock market volatility as best I could. We still made time for fun – buying, fixing, and painting a great playset in the back yard. September saw us get a new puppy, Runty, start the school year, and spend a final week in Wisconsin shutting the place down and enjoying the last breath of summer.
In October, we finished up outside projects on the house – painting and brick pavers. We voted in November and celebrated our first Thanksgiving as vegans. Virtual school chugged along, we kept working on little projects on the house, and mostly did the same things we’d been doing all quarantine.
And then December hit and the gas pedal of life got punched down to the floor. We decided to put our dream house up for sale. It has been our art project for 8 years and is perfect. We continued to finish up little projects on the house – painting doors, trim, and other small items. Getting a house put up for sale is hectic and emotional. Realtor, price-setting, staging, photo/video, and then the showings! We celebrated our final Christmas here – actually it was Emerson’s first Christmas in the house after spending the last 3 down at Sun-N-Fun in Sarasota, Florida. And we’ll ring in the new year here as a family tonight.
We made the most of 2020. It was a hard year, a different year. But we’re using it as a transition year into our new future. We’re chasing our family dream of endless warm weather. We think we’ve found the perfect place to make that happen and are filling in the details around that big decision.
More to come in 2021. We’re scared and excited for what’s next. And emotionally drained from 2020 – health scares, pandemic, craziness in the world, and making a big decision to sell our dream house and leave behind family and friends. But we’re also confident that it’s the right time and thing to do for us – and we’ll make it all work.
Happy New Year. We hope your 2020 was enjoyable, despite the strange year it’s been. And all the best in the year to come.
Beautifully written! May all your dreams come true!