20 Gifts in 2020

It's Christmastide, that wonderful season of celebrating the great gift of a good God in the birth of Jesus and sharing gifts amongst ourselves.  It's also the end of the year, which has me reflecting on 2020 and the things that have been gifts to me.  At first, I thought of two specific gifts but since it's hard to resist a good theme I thought I would challenge myself to think of 20.  Maybe you'd like to do the same in this last week of a year we will never forget.  Even in a year of losses, there are so many gifts.  

1.  Our family has stayed healthy.

This obviously stands out in a year where we've been more aware of germs and their spread than ever before.

2.  Ladies' Bible Study on Zoom

In March I talked with another woman in our church about having a Bible study time for ladies, but I couldn't figure out how to fit that easily into the week.  I need to be home most days to oversee school for the kids, and meeting in Paris takes a lot of travel time.  Scarcely two weeks later, and France was in a strict lockdown, and we all downloaded this little app called Zoom.  

The pandemic made us try something that we would never have thought to try, and it is my favorite gift of 2020.  Reading the Bible together and discussing it on Zoom enabled women to join us when they went away on holiday for the summer, while their babies were napping or crawling all over them needing to be muted.  It eliminated hours of travel time in the middle of a work day.  It kept us safe, encouraged our hearts, and kept us connected.  What a gift.

3.  Church in the Park

Similarly, we would never have moved church meetings outside in Paris parks without the pandemic necessitating new creativity in gathering, and this time was such a blessing to me, too.  On a typical Sunday in the building, I had quick conversations with lots of people, mostly just quick catch-ups.  These are of course good, but the times in the park gave time to actually have conversations around the sermon, beyond the quick chats.  I was able to hear how people were processing God's Word that week.  We could ask questions and hear each other's thoughts.  It was another good gift of connection. 

4.  Taking Advantage of Paris before things Shut Down

I am SO thankful I made so many plans in February.  We visited Luxembourg Gardens and the Pantheon with friends.  I saw inside the stunning Sainte Chapelle with a friend.  E and I saw Little Women at the theater.  We went to the zoo and met up with friends.  The kids had friends over to hang out, and we went to restaurants.  I am so grateful we did all of these things before normal life disappeared!  And did you notice a theme there?  Friends, friends, friends!  We've missed our friends this year, haven't we?

5.  The Garden

We utilized Noreen's garden more than ever before this spring during lockdown.  K.J. and I paced back and forth discussing the day's events.  We tracked each new blossom and watched birds build their nests.

6.  Michael Tinker's daily lockdown shows

We met Michael in North Yorkshire, and his Mission to Dendros album was already a family favorite on road trips, but his daily Facebook Live with songs and puppets, costumes, and jokes was a daily joy and part of our lockdown rhythm.  

7.  Some Good News with John Krasinski regularly made me cry.  

8.  Robins

I've had a special love for robins for 5 years now, and watching one build his nest during lockdown was happy for me.

9.  Online Book Club

It wasn't our normal, but it was still so good to have an avenue to talk about books.

10.  Family Bike Rides

11.  Outdoor Communion

Anytime you do something in a new context it arrests more of your attention, wakes up your brain and your heart from the fog of the familiar, and taking the Lord's Supper outdoors with our church--bring your own baguette!--was special.

12.  A Hammock

Friends who moved away this summer gifted us their hammock, and we all fought over time in it.  Why is swinging through the summer air with a book the best thing ever?

13.  Our Supporters

While we were enjoying our first outing in the world since the end of lockdown, marveling at being in the wheat fields made famous by Vincent Van Gogh, someone broke our car window and stole my computer.  This was obviously a complete bummer of a way to end our mini vacation, but by the next day several of our supporters and friends had offered to cover the cost of replacing our window and my laptop.  This lavishness was an unexpected outpouring of love.

14.  Online Gaming

I wouldn't have expected online gaming to ever be a gift to me, but with time with friends much harder to come by, J being able to FaceTime and play Minecraft online with friends or Switch games online with friends was a gift for him and to me.

15.  An Impromptu England Trip

Going back to England now feels like returning home, and like most trips this year, our September trip was canceled.  But we crossed the channel for a quick 6-day trip just before crossing the border grew complicated.  We spend most of our time doing outdoor things on these trips so we felt pretty confident we could do the trip safely, and we're so glad we did.

16.  Seeing More of France

K.J. was able to change his cycling fundraiser this year to adapt to borders being closed, and while he rode hundreds of miles I practiced my French driving skills and navigated traveling in France with the kids, and it was all a gift of discovery.

17.  Reading Aloud During Lockdown

At the beginning of our first lockdown we decided to read through The Chronicles of Narnia, and it was nice having that goal.  I hadn't been reading aloud to the kids as regularly before that, and it was an anchor to the end of each day that we all enjoyed.

18.  Noreen has been kept from COVID.

A big part of all our decisions this year has been shielding our dear friend and neighbor in her 90s, and we are grateful she has stayed well this year.

19.  Our EIC Family

Even though we spent a majority of the year meeting in non-traditional ways, God still added to our number, and we'll never forget our very cold outdoor baptism service in September!  I'm grateful for how God has grown and stretched each person in our midst.  I'm also really grateful for the men and women who work behind the scenes talking thoughtfully through every change in the rules in this changing landscape.  Since all staff meetings have been online, I've often overheard all the discussions taking place, and they have worked so hard this year.

20.  Walks with K.J.

We've really embraced that walking together lifestyle this year.  I always feel better after a good walk and talk with him.

And that's my list!  What's been a gift to you this year?  

November Remembered

France was in lockdown this month, so there are a lot of pictures from my daily walks, a lot of pictures of our local parks.  We are so thankful the big park has stayed open during this lockdown!  It was closed in March and April during the first confinement.  Restrictions loosened up here beginning on Saturday.  Shops selling non-essential items were allowed to re-open, and we're now allowed to go up to 20 km away from home to exercise and be outside for up to three hours.  

To celebrate we drove to a favorite store that is part Hobby Lobby, part Home Depot, part pet store, part florist, and bought our Christmas tree.  It was so fun to be out of the house even for just a little bit and to see all the beautiful Christmas decorations.  This particular store is in a mall, and as we walked quickly down the slick and shiny flooring to pop into another store, E looked at all the masked people passing and said, "It's like Christmas shopping in a hospital."  It was an apt observation...but at least we were Christmas shopping.  Be careful out there, folks. 

November 1 - Back to Church Online!

November 2 - Beautiful Words to Keep Me Company

November 3 - Rainbow Over the Park

November 4 - Mornings

November 5 - Cold Morning Walk in Woods Near Our House

November 6 - I started walking around a smaller park for variety on some days.

November 7 - Made Tom Bombadil's White Bread

November 8 - Church on Zoom and Our New Heater/Fireplace

November 9 - Sunset Geese

November 10 - I love the steeple on the hill.

November 11 - Everybody loves the new fire.

November 12 - Still Some Fiery Leaves Remaining

November 13 - The benefit of the age of big houses is the age of having beautiful places to walk (in yet another local park).

November 14 - Still Some Golden Leaves Left, Too

November 15 - Out the Kids' Window

November 16 - Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal with Pumpkin Seeds

November 17 - Baking Bread, Take 2

November 18 - Walking to the Grocery Store

November 19 - Another Day Dawns

November 20 - I've started getting my walk in most days of the week in the four o'clock hour, just before sunset.

November 21 - The Local Tabac, where in pre-lockdown days men sat outside at tables drinking coffee and reading their newspapers, dogs at their sides.

November 22 - The Year of Home

November 23 - Sometimes I only have time for pacing back and forth around the garden.

November 24 - "Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it's more like a well-read friend than a literary review."  Who wouldn't want that magazine?

November 25 - Cornbread made my kitchen smell so good.

November 26 - A Cold Thanksgiving Morning

November 27 - Cousin Jeopardy Competition over FaceTime

November 28 - And all of a sudden it's Christmas.

November 29 - Baked Camembert with Honey and Rosemary on a Sunday Night

November 30 - It's reached the point where my fingertips feel cold on walks, even when I'm wearing gloves.

Deck the Halls, Trim the Tree

It's here!  It's here!  The day has finally arrived!  We are not officially out of lockdown yet, but restrictions have been lifted on stores that sell non-essential items, and if a store is allowed to be open, we are allowed to shop there.  It's a Saturday morning, and I can already tell the road sounds a tad busier today than it has during the past four weeks of strict lockdown.  I wonder if everyone will rush out to do some Christmas shopping just because they can.  Hopefully people will keep their distance from one another and places won't be too crowded and France's COVID-19 cases won't skyrocket again.  As for us, we are hoping to go out and find a Christmas tree today.  

We haven't bought a Christmas tree as a family since 2015.  The past four years we were fortunate enough to be able to spend Christmas at home with family, and the last time we picked out a tree, it was in the company of K.J.'s parents who spent a few days with us on their way to South Africa for the birth of a grandchild.  We all used to do so much traveling, right?

At any rate, I hung the stockings yesterday and told J to write something Christmasy on the letterboard.  He surprised us all with something funnier than I would have come up with, and if you know, you know.  

Confinement 2.0, Day 13

• finished reading The Fabulous Showman
• scrambled eggs
• led a ladies' Bible study over Zoom - If there's one thing the pandemic has taught us all it's how to use Zoom, and that's not totally a bad thing!  Truthfully, getting together in Paris takes a lot of travel time, and I wish we'd been doing these weekly Bible studies before this summer.  Discussing God's word with women every week has been such a delight for the past 3 months.
• took a family walk to the boulangerie - I watched a video about the way we process time and how we need novel experiences to wake our brains up and make time slow down and feel rich and meaningful.  Lockdowns seem to pass relatively quickly because we have the same routines day after day.  So today we all walked to a boulangerie we've never visited before within our perimeter just before lunch and bought goodies that prompted me to put together a snack lunch, or when we're feeling fancy, we call it a charcuterie board.

• read about the ancient city of Ephesus - I had no idea it was the third largest city in the Roman Empire at one time!
• graded history work and writing
• filmed the kids doing science experiments
• did a French grammar lesson with J
• invited Noreen over for a visit and a cappuccino 
• washed dishes, swept, tidied 
• read a news article that made me feel distressed about the state of humanity
• read a Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day poem
• cooked cabbage, leek, and bacon in good salted butter - I bought the most beautiful cabbage at the supermarket Monday, and I needed to cook it.  
• laughed at The Andy Griffith Show with the kids

Confinement 2.0, Day 12

During the last confinement I kept a short list of things I did each day that I shared in my Instagram stories.  It was a manageable way to record snippets of life during what will surely be a historical time, something my grandchildren will interview me about for school the way we had to interview people who lived through WWII or the Great Depression.  

I picked up this daily habit again when the second French national confinement was reinstated at the end of October, but while out for my allotted hour of fresh air this afternoon I thought I might try moving my lists to my blog where I could still keep a simple list, but I could elaborate when I wanted.  So, here we go.  For my posterity, who won't have any trouble finding out about this time in history unless the internet goes bust.  Some days that doesn't seem like it would be a bad thing, right?  Moving on...

• Read The Fabulous Showman - I serendipitously found this 1950s biography of P.T. Barnum at the Tuscaloosa Friends of the Library store while having a quick browse with K.J. after a date night where we'd just come from seeing The Greatest Showman at the theater...or cinema as it's called here.  (My brain often thinks about what things are called now in Alabama, North Yorkshire, and France, and it's fun to see which word surfaces first.)  The movie is obviously a very glossy and shiny version of events, though I'm sure it accurately captures Barnum's joie de vivre. 
• checked on the delivery time for a package - We have to be on high alert when packages are coming because we live behind a stone wall, and sometimes people can't find us, and sometimes we don't hear the bell.  Today's delivery was from an American online shop with a few items for the holidays including canned cranberry sauce (because I really like those lines in my cranberry sauce), pumpkin puree, and graham cracker crusts.  

Our cottage behind the wall is on the left, and Noreen's house is on the right.  It's amazing how quickly October's glory is replaced by November's slow decay.

• read about the Apostle Peter with J
• tried to remember which was the divisor and which was the dividend - My children's math books always insist on learning these terms, and I can never remember.  Maybe this time...
• read The Bronze Bow aloud to J
• read about Caesar Augustus in E's history textbook - E mostly reads things to herself now (unless she's tired or finding the language difficult, at which point I eagerly read aloud to her), so my role is merging into that of guide instead of teacher.  I try to stay up to date on her reading so I can start riveting dinnertime conversations.  😀
• did some lessons on Duolingo
• did a Pimsleur French lesson - I doubled down on the French today, which rarely happens.  Just when I think I've learned some things I go into the world and draw a blank when someone rattles something off at me.  My standard reply used to be:  Je suis desole.  Je suis americaine.  (I'm sorry.  I'm an American.)  This is easy to say and is pretty self-explanatory:  I don't speak French.  I'm a little more advanced now and will either say:  Je ne comprends pas tres bien le francais. or Je ne parle pas tres bien le francais.  I don't understand French very well.  I don't speak French very well.  People have always been kind to me, except for that security guard at the grocery store once...
• graded math
• Marco-Polo-ed a lot
• read about how amazing our bodies are with J
• went for a late afternoon walk

I take a picture of this cottage every autumn.

• tried a new recipe for Chicken Korma
• read a little Julius Caesar - E is reading her first Shakespeare play this week, and reading the opening pages was so thrilling.  I can't say enough how much I loved our trip to Rome last October.  It was so exciting to be in that place where so much human drama was played out, and reading Julius Caesar brought it all back.  I also read I, Claudius while we were on that trip, and it made me feel very familiar with all those Romans.

Standing at the spot in the Roman Forum where

Julius Caesar was cremated.

That's an average day in lockdown for us:  work, read, walk, repeat.  What did you do today?