HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We hope this letter finds you well. Our family of 5 has had similar feelings to most of you while leaving 2020 behind with hopes that 2021 brings better times. We can’t really complain though because for the most part our family has had it pretty good this year. Yes, I had to work in a pandemic with all the anxiety and unknowns that brought into our lives, but we have been spared a lot of the hardship other people have experienced this year. We have thought a lot about those severely impacted by this pandemic and are hopeful the vaccines improve things ASAP.
Here’s the best of 2020 from the Morrises:
Keith
Keith would like everyone to know that he has cared for three kids and a household at home during a pandemic and done so successfully all while being…A MAN. Being a stay at home dad has made him even more of a feminist than he was before. He has done an incredible job of keeping everyone sane and staying sane himself. Our little house wasn’t completely designed to hold 5 people all the time but it’s managed. We are very lucky that we have a stay at home parent in our house so it was easy to pull our kids from school even a week before requested in March. Online school would have been a bit easier for Keith to help with if Sammy wasn’t around causing trouble, but we would miss the constant presence of his shenanigans. In the summer we bought a play structure and gave it new life as our summer “project” and Keith didn’t divorce me even though the project was a bit more complicated than anticipated, so that’s a win. Our marriage is still 16.5 years strong!
Highlight of 2020: Soccer in the summer. The kids (and their dad) love soccer and we thought they wouldn’t get a season this year with the pandemic. Fortunately they decided to proceed with soccer but in the summer instead of the spring. With so many other activities canceled in the summer having soccer 4 nights a week was a fun way for us all to get outside and for Keith to finally get to interact with other adults. It was less stressful in summer than spring and Keith secretly hopes that’s what happens next summer too. Yay soccer!
Cian
Cian entered Grade 6 this year which seems surreal. His biggest interest is getting his own phone which he will likely get when he goes to Gordon Bell next year. He enjoyed ice camp with Scouts in January before the pandemic hit and won an ice fishing award. He also helped his Opa build his new bedroom in the basement which is pretty cool. He is all set up down there now and isn’t really a “kid” so much anymore (cue sobbing from his mother). Cian started piano lessons and he went to his first concert - Wilco. In the fall Cian started horse riding that incorporates occupational therapy/core strength. He loves it and his strengths get to shine there which is so lovely to see as parents. I fully expect to spend more time with Cian in a barn.
Highlight of 2020: Family and friends and playing games with his new Star Wars headset.
Emily
Emily started Grade 3 - she’s in the French program. She did very well when I told her the day before her 8th birthday (March 15th) that we would have to cancel her birthday party because of the pandemic. Good thing I had knocked it out of the park last year with her Harry Potter birthday spectacular. Instead of a birthday party we took advantage or her big brother moving out of her room and transformed it into her Harry Potter sanctuary. We made a big mural on her wall and had lots of fun doing that together. She took to online school very easily and had Wednesday zoom chats with her friends. Emily went on her first overnighter canoe trip with her mom and big brother and loved it. She didn’t even complain on the portages. Emily wants everyone to know she fell in love this year…with tacos.
Highlight of 2020: Going to the cabin just before Christmas and spending 3 days tobogganing with her brothers.
Sam
Sam spent most of 2020 doing his favourite activity…eating. You can almost always find him in the kitchen with crackers, craisins or his favourite; FRUIT. He likes to “help” with unbagging the groceries so he has first access to any fruit entering this house. Sam loves being outside, especially with his siblings or in the carrier on the back of mom’s bike. He is the most dramatic and hilarious of the Morris children and loves to perform for his bigger siblings who dote on him. He has been everyone’s joy during this pandemic.
Highlight of 2020: Fraggle Rock 2nd birthday. Sam was the only person who got a typical birthday in our house this year and he had a great one. We had a few families over for Sam’s favourite, spaghetti and meatballs, and he had a Fraggle Rock birthday cake.
Amanda
Hot off the heels of my amazing trip to Australia in December 2019 I found myself watching the brewing pandemic. There have been lots of unknowns and constant updates and changes to PPE and N95 masks. The pandemic has made it harder to care for patients but it also has been an inspiring time to work with such amazing colleagues. I changed call groups this year and I have had such amazing support in my group which has been a highlight of 2020 for me. I had a wonderful day at Festival du Voyageur with my friend Paul before the lockdown. I got very close to my friends Vanessa and Steph at work and Steph’s son Ben was born on my birthday. Vanessa and I paddled the Manigotagan River this year and have put our deposit down for the Nahanni in NWT in summer 2021. Keith signed me up for violin lessons as I had been wanting to do that and I am really enjoying learning an instrument as an adult (even over Zoom) Our nephew Charlie was born safely at the end of March. Even under mask and goggles I still get to go to a job I love and care for people and that is a real gift.
Highlight of 2020: Spending so much time together as a family of 5. Whether we are having “Movies and Snacks” on Fridays or playing outside or dressing up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (our halloween costume) I know these times are precious and fleeting and I am so thankful for them.
May 2021 bring renewed hope to us all. We think of the families and communities who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 or to other illnesses because of the pandemic. Our hearts are also with people who have suffered economic hardship and isolation. This has been a hard year for many and I hope that 2021 brings hope, laughter, smiles that we can see and HUGS. We love you very much and no pandemic can take that away. Stay healthy and well friends.
Love,
The Morris family
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