I talked about COVID-19 extensively in Part 1 of our 2020 Christmas letter, but there is so much more to say about what we did, and didn’t do, in 2020. I’ll start from the beginning.
January—May was a tough time for Aarica, even before any COVID-related upheaval. She had a challenging group of fifth graders to teach at High Plains K-8 School in Loveland, but she toughed it out and made it through, even after school shut down for several weeks. Personally, I used to think it was a bit hyperbolic to call teachers heroes, but now I think it is the perfect descriptor!
sleepy
sneaky
Emmett and I did our best to take care of her. Emmett did his part by being as cuddly (and spoiled) as ever, of course. Aarica and I found some ways to enjoy ourselves depending on the COVID policies. We caught Onward in theaters as our last pre-COVID movie, ate dinner and watched the sunset in the car, hiked Horsetooth, carved pumpkins, and saw some retro movies at the Holiday Twin Drive-In (The Goonies and Top Gun are officially retro, live with it). Patient and thoughtful as ever, Aarica was even a good sport and went on a few walks with me around the neighborhood.
I think she wants a cat
Being a pair of unabashed nerds, we also read lots of books (we are both working through J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike novels as she writes them), played single player and co-op video games together (Aarica has claimed the Nintendo Switch as her own to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so I’ve been catching up on the big PlayStation 4 titles I’ve been missing, like God of War), and binged even more TV than usual with so many things shut down (Community is a new personal favorite!). Since my sister, Meghan, was sent back early from her mission due to COVID, she joined us for much of the safer-at-home quiet.
lol
Emmett did… whatever it is he’s doing in this picture.
Aarica enjoyed a more-than-deserved summer break when school let out, but I found myself in the middle of a huge career shift that stressed me out a bit too! Until the end of June, I worked as a Team Lead at Radial Development Group. Radial will always hold a special place in my heart; it is a company full of amazing, thoughtful people that live by exemplary values day-in and day-out. However, I was offered a competitive, very different opportunity at BillGO as an Expansion Group Manager. This position leveraged my management experience from my Team Lead role at Radial and pushed me to learn about and empathize with other humans in a completely different context. It was a strange shift for me because management is almost the opposite of engineering as a job; engineering is all about owning problems and focusing on the task in front of you, while management is all about delegating and multitasking.
Working from home has its perks, but I’m glad to be back in an office!
Despite the brevity of the experience, I am very grateful for the opportunity I had at BillGO and the time I spent working with yet another group of outstanding, talented individuals. Any company whose product is about consumer choice and value is one I can likely get behind, and I am glad to have played a small part in the company’s future.
Meanwhile, Aarica came to the conclusion that she did not want to return to teaching for another year. She had already been on the fence, but confusing COVID policies (and lack of leadership surrounding them) made her even more skeptical than she already was. Thinking about our home-buying experience and her love of people, decorating, caretaking, bad puns, and even cleaning, Aarica made the bold career move to become a real estate agent with Keller Williams. She completed her certification and is now an active realtor in the Northern Colorado area. If you need a house, you know who to call!
How did I get so lucky again?
We celebrated our one year anniversary in August. We were intending to have our honeymoon in London this year, but COVID made that a poor proposition for every reason you can think of. Instead, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Maggiano’s, which is an Italian restaurant we love down in Denver that we frequent when we are visiting an art exhibit or major event.
This year was… muggy.
#swag
Think our year was wild enough yet? We’re not done! Aarica picked up a temporary job at AtHome in Greeley while her realtor work got off the ground, and I found myself with another job offer that was hard to turn down: a Software Engineer position at Plan to Eat. The product of the same name is an app that lets you import recipes from any website you like, plan meals for your family, and put together a grocery list that only contains the ingredients you actually need, in the quantities you need. I enjoyed my experience at BillGO, but I won’t lie: I missed coding and am glad to be back at it! You’ll be seeing lots of new features in the web app from yours truly very soon!
We visited a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Truly incredible design. I’m rather tall.
Between the wild career shifts and pandemic pandemonium, Aarica and I have found ways to spend some time with family and friends. We visited her family in Alabama at the end of last year (right after my last letter) and again over the summer. However, we did join her mom’s side in the (annual? random?) Mario Kart tournament in Loveland. Additionally, her family set up a Google Hangout every few weeks to check in during all the isolation. This really helped us remember that there was a world outside our house!
We did not place in the Mario Kart tournament. But that’s okay, because neither did Tyler.
We visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama while we were with the Walkers
On my side of the family, we attended a Rice family reunion in Montana, watched most of the Avengers movies with my mom over several weekends, visited my dad’s house for an early Christmas celebration, and celebrated my grandma’s birthday in conjunction with a socially-distanced Thanksgiving. We are grateful to say that everyone in our social circle is safe and healthy!
Shh she’s hiding
The big 8-0!
And last, but certainly not least, we welcomed a new member of our family home just the other day: Mia!
Mia was a stray that the Weld County Humane Society found and took in. She’s a bit shy, but she loves being petted and will be joining #yourmorningemmett in the Instagram photos as #yourmiddaymia. Keep an eye out for the cuteness… or terror, because Emmett and Mia need some time to bond.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. We are very grateful to have our family, friends, good health, and stable work making our lives what they are, and we wish you a very Happy Holidays!
Post number 71.
