Looking Back on the Ups and (Lock)Downs

2020 Year in Review

Boy, 2020 is going to be a year to remember. And not for just good reasons either. It was a year that started great and ended great, but was pretty strange and unusual in the middle. Like biting into a delicious chocolate, only to find there's yucky egg in the centre.

The year started with an awesome hot summer and lots of fun trips to swim at the beach. Even a visit to Greenlane Hospital to have my tonsils removed didn't spoil things. Well, not too much anyway.

But then suddenly we went from fun in the sun to lockdown at home. No-one even knew what a coronavirus was a few weeks earlier, and now it was the reason we all had to stay at home - no work, no school, no getting anywhere near anyone else.

It was a pretty interesting couple of months, with William moving into my room so that Mum and Dad could turn his bedroom into an office. Every day I'd have to do schoolwork on the iPad - completing exercises and uploading the stories and drawings I'd created. William would use the iPad to join in the sessions with his daycare class (even if most of the time he just munched on food and didn't get involved in what they were doing!).

After a couple of months though, there was no more coronavirus in New Zealand and we could go back to normal.

...and then we couldn't, because the coronavirus was back. Damnit.

But fast-forward a couple of months and it finally seemed to have gone completely, so before anything changed again we quickly made plans to go away on holiday with Grandma and Grandad. We took a road trip down to Taupo, where we visited some smelly thermal sites, had our first play in the snow at Mt Ruapehu and did lots of swimming in the resort pools.

Even though we spent so much time out of class this year, my schoolwork is still going great. And you don't need to just believe me - my teacher Mrs Hugo says so too. Naturally this is pretty awesome news right before Christmas, so a timely letter to Santa will help me get the best reward for my hard work.

And then finally it was time for Christmas. For months I'd been asking how many days it was until Santa got here, and judging by our visit to MOTAT one night he's arrived! As well as seeing him, we got to have a tram ride and see all the awesome Christmas lights displays.

My school report must have worked too, because there were presents aplenty under the tree and in my stocking on Christmas Day. I got some Playstation games, a big metal slinky, some Dogman books, a Dogman game, some activity books a big bunch of clothes and some treats. Definitely worth my being such an ace student all year.

So that was the year 2020 in a few sentences. Now there's a nice long summer holiday to enjoy - or squander playing Playstation and munching chocolate. What will 2021 bring? Year 4 at school, William starting school with me, another fun family holiday... and hopefully no more viruses!