Happy Holidays from the McElveens!
In the words of Judith Viorst, this has been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day—or in the case of 2020, year. We’ve endured fire, flood, plague, isolation, deaths, conspiracy theories, violence, protests, and possibly worst of all, a gut-wrenching presidential election. And, that not being QUITE enough, the disruption of the accepted processes for a presidential transition. Is it at this point that we cry “uncle”?
Heading into the Christmas season, though, we can report that we are all healthy, and reasonably safe here in Alexandria—wearing our masks, washing our hands, and keeping our distance. We miss going to the movies, going to the theater, fine dining (though we HAVE had some fine curbside pickup), and of course, getting together with friends and family. When we think of what we are missing now, however, the consolation is always “Maybe next year..”. Far better to be safe right now.
Our note to Santa says that we have been VERY good this year (though it’s been hard to be naughty, when we’re confined to our houses and forbidden contact with most occasions of sin..) Our “nice” activities have involved photo sorting, reorganizing stuff, totally EMPTYING our last storage space, getting a new stove, re-doing the dining room lighting, and basically, catching up with all the things we’ve postponed till we had more time. But even these have gotten pretty old, and we think longingly of plays in NY and West Virginia, map conferences (yes, even me!), Chautauqua, and all the other portions of this cancellation year.
Sarah is still working from home as an assistant city attorney for Alexandria, and Darnell is doing the same with his job, with occasional required days in the office. Sarah has also been helping us screen the many curbside pickups in town, and we’ve all discovered some hitherto unexplored locations—notably one that offers grapefruit margaritas by the pint.
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Kay and her family continue in Tucson, with Audrey and Claire doing virtual learning and Kay working from home. Paul is still with the foundry on a part-time basis and they are also working on the home-improvement side of things, totally re-landscaping their yard, and doing the seemingly-endless fix-ups that home ownership entails.
Like most other families, our Christmas-ing is happening largely on-line (thank God for Zoom), which isn’t entirely satisfactory. BUT...everyone seems to be doing well—and my nephew Eric and his lovely wife, Tiffany, are expecting a little girl in May, which gives us all a positive boost and an event to look forward to. Times may be hard right now, but we consider ourselves to be among the lucky ones who have all that we need to get by until better days return.
For the moment, JC and I are planning to fly to San Diego right after Christmas—if only for a change of scene. We intended to visit Tucson at the end of January..but all that depends on the virus and its attendant statistics, as well as the vagaries of vaccine distribution (which we don’t expect to see until late spring, if then.) Ah, to have life be predictable again!
So, from our house quite literally to yours..stay safe, stay healthy, keep in touch, and have as merry a Christmas, and as happy a new year as your circumstances allow!
JC & Mary
