• Twelve– or December, when we celebrated Noah's graduation from Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) in Mechanical Engineering. The Facebook Live event was heartfelt in connecting with grads who succeeded during a pandemic. Plus, we got to hear every word, see every face (including some dogs!) and avoided the usual traffic jam after such an event.
• Eleven– number of days Sherman visited SoCal (Denise joined partway) in February; would have been in India on business in April and also on the family vacation in Tuscany (and Paris) in August. It would have been Sherman's biggest travel year, and like most things this year, we grieve dashed plans and move on.
• Ten– the average attendance on extended family Zoom calls each weekend, in lieu of the Tuscany/Paris trip. After about a month's worth we realized we had had more group discussion than during our weeklong vacations! It's our way of recognizing and appreciating the essential aspect of our trips.
• Nine– 9th of June was when Denise's mom, Pat, died after years of several medical conditions. Her last few weeks were in home-based hospice and the staff made her time as sweet as possible, much like the sugary treats she preferred.
• Eight– number of nights per week JDenise makes calls to Eagle Scouts to schedule their review sessions. Like most things in pandemic mode it takes twice as long to be half as productive, and she has certainly risen to the challenge. And even before the pandemic she was given the District Award of Merit and “Spark Plug” awards. One wooden plaque misspelled her name as “Deniese”, which she wears as a badge of honor.
• Seven– month in which Denise's chapter "Use a 'Maybe List' to Keep Yourself Focused" was published as part of the book "1 Habit for a Thriving Home Office". So cool to see her name in print, after all that hard work!
• Six– roughly the number of months Noah’s spring co-operative work would have been (based in STL) but was truncated by the pandemic. At least he avoided the initial round of remote classes.
• Five– number of creative/tech bucket list items achieved by Sherman in these pandemic-necessitated times: Recorded/engineered handful of new church band songs; led the band at a service outside the church building for in-person and web audiences; upgraded church tech to handle multi-camera video livestreaming; audio engineered the office chorus's first virtual song; and co-directed / video-edited this year's film of the Christmas drama (usually a play).
• Four– or April, when Sherman's dad, Alfred, succumbed to COVID-19 in Queens, NY, among the first 100,000 US fatalities. Rather than focus on pandemic loss (different in those earlier days), we choose to remember Al's bonus years, since his 2014 heart attack and stroke. Brother Michael and Sherman nursed Dad through rehab. During and after his brain's rewiring, our relationships were the best during all of our adult lives. We now appreciate those bonus years more than ever.
• Three– number of camping trips for Denise/Sherman in 2020 and also since getting married 30 years ago. (When Denise camped with the Boy Scouts, Sherman would stay home with the pets) With everything else closed in 2020, Sherman learned how easy and fun camping can be with someone who really knows how!
Two– second year residing back in STL for Amy and Drew, as Drew works remotely for Boeing and Amy goes onsite for her job a registered dietician. We socially distance visit them in their backyard/garage about twice a month. The biggest upside about us not hugging isn't the actual hugging but avoiding Sherman's awkward approach to hugging. We look forward to a time when we can hug, awkward approach and all...
• One– as in the One who we celebrate this time of year...
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