2020 was a difficult year but there is a lot to be grateful for.

1. I spent a lot of time with my family. I have 2 kids, my daughter is 19 and in her second year of college. My son is 15 and in his second year of high school. They are both practically grown and while my son still lives at home, he’s in his own world. My daughter lives in Boston during the school year. I am grateful for this little bit of time together. I know as they get older, these moments will be very rare.
2. We bought a house. We never thought we’d do so. In fact, we were adamant about being renters forever. But several circumstances came together and we did this. There are still a lot of times where I question the rights and wrongs of this thing but, I do love starting a garden, fixing things the way I want things fixed, and buying things on a permanent level rather than a temporary one.
3. I’m an introvert and I love staying home. I loved not having to make excuses or find reasons to stay home. It just was.
4. My little community came together to help each other. My closest friends cooked, went shopping for, and helped wherever we could (from a distance). We did drop offs, we zoomed every chance we got.
5. My quilt guild created an online community. First, my Sunday minigroup moved to zoom. Then we invited the guild. We went from 2-4 people in person to 12- 15 people online. And then we started having our meetings on Zoom and then, we went crazy and started inviting national and international quilt stars to speak and teach. That has been great and I hope we continue our online portion even when we are able to meet in person. Some of our members have moved away and it’s nice to see them on zoom.

It’s easy to point to the crazy stuff of 2020 and be glad that it’s over. But without the crazy stuff, the things I’m grateful for would not have come to existence. I’m grateful for my family, my friends, my community and everything we did to stick together to make it through. We’ve lost some of our members and we will always remember them.

Hugs,

Melanie