Christmas Letter 2020

Greetings friends and fam­ily! We have suc­cess­fully made it through 2020 with all its sur­prises and turns.

January be­gan with a bang: Melissa’s brother Michael and his fam­ily moved from California to Mobile! It was a bless­ing to be able to help through the has­sle of mov­ing across the coun­try, find­ing a job, and mov­ing into a new house.

Melissa taught a cook­ing class at our lo­cal home­school co-op from January un­til the March lock­down. It was her first time teach­ing in a for­mal set­ting, but she feels that all things con­sid­ered, she rocked it!

In February, we at­tended a stun­ning per­for­mance of Shen Yun by Chinese ac­ro­bats and dancers. It was a great date night; highly rec­om­mended if they travel to your city.

When the coro­n­avirus quar­an­tine started in March, Brian switched to work­ing at home full-time. With the in­crease in fam­ily time, we made fruit sushi, held a glow-in-the-dark party for Brian’s birth­day, and made a zom­bie apoc­a­lypse video.

In May, Brian got Lasik, so he has been with­out eye­glasses and con­tacts for the first time in over 20 years!

Also in May, we saw fam­ily for the first time since the March out­break. We rented a four-story man­sion AirBnB with Brian’s mom, most of his sib­lings, and their spouses for a week of bil­liards, swim­ming, movies, board games, and just catch­ing up.

The first Saturday in June saw the in­au­gu­ra­tion of Koserstag, a fam­ily hol­i­day cel­e­brat­ing us! We de­cided on of­fi­cial food, tra­di­tions, dress, songs, and even art. It eas­ily be­came a fa­vorite hol­i­day, and we can’t wait for it to come again in 2021!

June also fea­tured Lydia’s bal­let recital and a cheese party where we sam­pled over 20 dif­fer­ent cheeses with friends.

Lydia re­quested a tea party for her birth­day in September, at­tended by Amber, cousin Ruth, and friend Livvy. The girls dressed up, ate hors d’oeu­vres, dec­o­rated a cup­cake, and be­haved beau­ti­fully for a per­fect birth­day.

September and October brought two fierce hur­ri­canes, but thank­fully we only lost power for a day and in­ter­net for a cou­ple days.

November was full of fam­ily! Melissa’s par­ents, sis­ter Melody, broth­ers Tim and Michael, and their fam­i­lies drove with us to Gatlinburg to spend a week at the Westgate re­sort. While there we en­joyed an in­door wa­ter­park, com­plete with a lazy river, wa­ter­slides, and gi­ant bucket. We rode open-air gon­do­las up to Anakeesta (quite fright­en­ing for par­ents with three young chil­dren) where we ex­pe­ri­enced a two-per­son roller coaster (Lydia and Amber’s first!), climbed rope bridges and tree houses, and saw a black bear for­ag­ing in the dis­tance. Another day, we drove high up into the moun­tains to­ward Clingman’s Dome, hik­ing the last mile or so. It was frigid that day and the path was of­ten steep, but some­how we made it up to the in­cred­i­ble panoramic view at the top, even while push­ing Penny’s stroller. On the last day, we played some mini golf in Pigeon Forge.

Melissa’s par­ents al­ter­nated stay­ing with us and the Binzels for the re­main­der of their visit. Christmas Day was per­fect—we had a ter­rific break­fast on a beau­ti­fully-laid table, read the Christmas ac­count in the Bible, opened pre­sents, and spent the rest of the day at Michael and Esther’s house play­ing games. The next day, Melissa’s par­ents flew out of New Orleans to re­turn to Honduras, and af­ter drop­ping them off Melissa, Tim, and Michael vis­ited the Lego store.

Another year brings new ac­com­plish­ments: Lydia can read bet­ter than many ten-year-olds. Amber is speak­ing (mostly) clearly and can jump off the top of the couch. Penny can climb every­where and is sur­pris­ingly good at hide-and-seek.

Brian and Melissa each read 100 books and pod­casted about their feat.

Melissa at­tended a Ladies’ Bible Study dur­ing the first half of the year, and they dis­cussed the book “Lies Women Believe” by Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth. She rec­om­mends it for women of all ages. Melissa was also given the op­por­tu­nity to be­gin lead­ing the church chil­dren in choir, and has en­joyed their sweet play­ful­ness and de­sire to learn.

What a year! God knows where 2021 will lead us, but we know that it’s in His good hands. May the new year be a time when we all grow closer to each other and trust more in God’s sov­er­eignty.

Much love from Brian, Melissa, Lydia, Amber, and Penelope