Season’s Greetings,
We hope this holiday missive finds you well. This last year was a whole thing, huh?
In January, I attended my company’s 20th Anniversary Party, a several days long boondoggle in Palm Springs and the last chance for me to enjoy the pleasures of a hotel bar for a while. 
The month of February was basically a long celebration of my 40th birthday. Many visitors from out of town arrived throughout the month to, blissfully unaware, enjoy such social activities as going to the Children’s Discovery Museum, visiting the Oakland Zoo, and watching a performance of Hamilton in San Francisco.
My 40th birthday itself was a big bash at The Speakeasy in San Francisco. We rented the place out and enjoyed food, jazz, drinks, fake gambling, the photo booth, and champagne in the boss’ office.  Thanks to all who came out for the party dressed in your 1920s finery. I especially enjoyed heading to the nearby tiki bar, still dressed to the nines, for the afterparty. It turns out throwing a giant party in late February of this year was a secret genius move.
Mere days later, I flew up to Seattle to lend assistance to Brent and Kennan after their son, Finn, was born a few weeks early. It was good to welcome nephew Finn, hang out with my niece Gus, and enjoy some Seattle bars on the nights I wasn’t on the clock. Jolyne turned two at the end of February and officially moved up to the two-year-olds room at daycare. Her Granbun and Pop visited again for her second birthday which ended up, in what is known in literary circles as foreshadowing, cancelled because Jolyne got the flu.
In March, The Bay Area locked things down. Daycare closed down and Evan and I juggled working from home and entertaining Jolyne. April was spent hanging out in the backyard and on various online pursuits. Evan and I hung out with friends on Discord and started playing Animal Crossing. Jolyne was enjoying the chance to fully explore unlimited screen time.
Jolyne was having a lot of fun in May building forts and holding glow stick dance parties in her room. Evan and I built a Lego Ecto-1.  In June, we set up an inflatable pool in the backyard and a playmat inside. Jolyne went back to daycare in July and participated in a virtual dance recital for her dance class. Evan bought a new washer and dryer for the house.
In August, we visited Brielle and Michael in Oakland for cousin Anton’s birthday. Evan learned how to make butter chicken at home and Jolyne learned how to jump out of her crib requiring us to make her room more toddler friendly. We also attended the wedding of our friends Jan and Matt. Evan officiated the ceremony. Jolyne declared it was just like “Old shark wedding” - one of the many videos she watched during lockdown.
September was largely characterized by staying inside due to the wildfires and admiring the various shades of orange that the sky can turn. Evan took up watercolor painting. In October, I started my seven week sabbatical and got a taste of the good life of getting paid for not working. I read something like thirty novels and played a lot of Hades. I also visited Brielle and got a haircut after letting my hair grow the longest it has been and probably ever will be. Jolyne had her first official playdate with a friend from her cohort at daycare and celebrated a mostly sedate Halloween. We also had a leak in the plumbing for our master bathroom shower which began a journey of water damage remediation and remodeling that continues to this day.
In November, my sabbatical ended on Thanksgiving week.  We visited Brielle, Michael, and Anton again for Thanksgiving and enjoyed a delicious meal cooked by them.  We also got started on the remodeling project in earnest so we could get fully 20% of our house back in shape. December has been a lot of the actual remodeling work, which should be complete any day now, as well as preparing for the holidays.
What sort of quote from “A Christmas Carol” best sums up a pandemic year?
“If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Charles Dickens is ice cold.
See you in 2021!
--Geoff, Evan, and Jolyne