2020 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from the Simanek’s! Well this year we are going to try something new. QR code Christmas letter - doing our part to save the tree’s. LOL. Actually the letter is long and remember we have kept every letter since 1995. It's so great this time of the year we read the old letters and reflect about all the great friends and memories.

2020, the year of struggles but we want to focus on the blessings. But first have to mention late December 2019, Luke was nominated to play for a local All-Star Football Team. And for his last game of his football career, the opposing QB gets hit and drops the ball, Luke scoops it up, looks around like he's waiting for the whistle and offense players start running towards him so he takes off running full speed to the end zone TOUCHDOWN… His first touchdown, it seems we were more excited than him. Then Christmas and New Years we spent with family. Enough with 2019…

January, My Mom and I visited Sierra up at Santa Cruz for a family day. We had a great visit, Santa Cruz is such a pretty campus. At the end of January, Larry finally got the jeep he was looking for 99 4.0 automatic with low mileage (62K). Hes in heaven but he is learning Jeep stands for Just Empty Every Pocket.

February Larry and I spent Valentine's day on the road to Mesa to visit with his Mom and Dad, and our niece Olivia and nephew Joseph. While in Mesa we took a boat ride seeing the beautiful desert and waterways, stopped at several cool bars (they tie the horses right outside the bar), and looked for wild horses. We enjoyed our time with Olivia and Joey, it's great watching them grow up, seeing how mature they have gotten. On the drive home Larry and I listed to Irish music and planned for our Irish murder mystery party.

March 13th I went grocery shopping for our St. Patrick's Day party. It was a bit eerie, since the shelves were scarce and there were a lot of stockers putting items on the shelves. Luke was released early from school that day, as school was closed due to the CoronaVirus. Little did we know that would be his last day on campus. The 14th was our St. Patrick's party and we went ahead and had the event in spite of the hullabaloo. Sierra and her boyfriend Tim were able to join us since they came home early because of the lock down. Also during this month, we were very blessed that my brother in law Wayne received a long awaited kidney transplant. He was the last transplant that was allowed in San Diego county before the pandemic lock down. A week later, Sierra and Tim would travel back to school to empty their dorm rooms, to move home. During the lock down, I had made Luke and Sierra both get up each day to go to Luke’s High School to pick up breakfast and lunch. They both were a little down, going to school at least got them dressed and outside for a ride. They didn't like that I had them do it, but I just wanted them out of bed to do something.

This is where days and months started blending together. Little did we know that we would be home all together for a month. We never imagined the kids would be taking all their classes online till the end of the school year. Like most parents, we did the best to make it normal for our kids. Luke celebrated his 18th Birthday at home, not much of a birthday but at least it was with family. Larry purchased a puzzle, arrrgh all over the kitchen table, for what seemed like forever. We built some garden beds, and started gardening. The kids wanted to play “ just dance”. We put a call out for a wee gaming system on Facebook and our friends the Johnson’s answered our call with a system missing the infrared bar. Luke figured out to use candles to make the game work without the infrared bar. Needless to say we played a lot of just dance on the wee! While we were home I did a lot of dishes since I was cooking a lot and my dishwasher was broken. Here are a few things to remember about the lock down.

• Toilet paper was sparse - luckily we always purchase 1 month ahead

• Sierra brought all the toilet paper home from school dorm bathrooms, that she could get her hands, on just in case

• Grocery store shelves were sparse

• No rice ( we almost broke into my homemade gnomes that were filled with rice)

In April, Luke was nominated for an award at the National Football Foundation. Because of COVID the event was cancelled, along with the tuxedo and the banquet, however he did receive a $1500 scholarship. I turned the young age of 49. I loved the gift Sierra got me. A roulette wheel ashtray just like my grandma used to have at her house. I also got a ping pong set to use on our kitchen table, super fun! We ended the birthday night, by watching Trolls. Luke was looking forward to his final season of Lacrosse, with new coaches and experience, he was sure to have a banner season. Unfortunately that was cut short. His coaches did do a drive by Senior night for the boys. It was cool and Luke really appreciated it.

May was supposed to be Luke’s senior prom, after winter formal had been canceled his hopes were set on prom! Unfortunately, it too was canceled! He was super disappointed. My heart went out to all these kiddos that were not able to have a “regular” senior year. Again little did we know that the class of 2021, would also not have a regular senior year. College for Luke had to be decided and so he chose to go to San Diego State University! We tried to do things as normal as possible, for Luke’s Senior year so Sierra took him out to take some senior Pictures, and we sent out graduation announcements.

A cool thing that happened for all of our local High School seniors was a lady on Facebook started an “adopt a senior” program. Where High School seniors were adopted and families and they did special things for the kids! Luke was adopted by 2 families: The Gonzalez family ( Luke played football with her son, a 10th grader) and the Strwawser family, the grandma of another 10th grade football player. They delivered gifts and helped raise his spirits, this was a true blessing. The thoughtfulness of these families was amazing. Larry and I adopted a few seniors, my girlfriend from high school, daughter Hailey, a teammate of Luke’s, Nathan Hughes, not to mention Luke's girlfriend Olivia. We did our best to pay it forward.

In June, Luke finished up high school online. Sierra signed up for summer school, she was saving a ton of money by having school online. ( No housing- which is more than tuition) this kiddo is going to make it out of college with barely any college debt, so proud of her! Luke was now focused on graduation, how would it go? It was a bit stressful on all of us. Emotions were all over the place. In the end I think we were very blessed with the celebrations he was able to have.

1. Senior breakfast drive through at Chick- fil-A - Sierra and Luke decorated the Jeep.

2. Drive thru graduation parade, again in the jeep. Larry and I went with Luke and his girlfriend Olivia.

3. A professional photographer took his picture with his diploma. ( Grandparents in attendance).

4. We had a “movie” Graduation at the local drive in!

Although it was not what he wanted, it was full of celebration and joy! He would have never been able to stand next to his best friends and move his tassel in a traditional graduation ceremony. One of Luke’s best friends Jayce, his step Mom Alex is an amazing photographer. She took some amazing photos of him and his close friends. His grandparents, Larry and Linda, were able to come down from Mesa Arizona to celebrate with us.

In the time after school ended Luke and Olivia practiced country dancing, a lot! They learned some super cool moves. We had a small family graduation party for Luke on June 27th at My Moms house.

Sunday Fundays had been in full swing, with the warm weather. Always fun to spend summer time at my Moms pool.

July I had the entire month off work. Sierra and Tim had decided it was a good time to take a road trip up to Humboldt to visit her best friend Kiya and then stop in Oregon and then to Washington to see Larry's parents and all of the Stanley family! All this while Sierra was taking online summer school. We did get an opportunity to go Beach Camping, it was so nice feeling like things were “normal”. We put on a Prom for Luke and Olivia. While they got dressed up for prom we decorated an area, by the lifeguard station - overlooking the ocean- with balloons, candles and lights. Luke had the music picked out and we cooked a steak dinner and served them while they watched the sunset. I was fun to plan and it turned out super cute.

August I was back at work getting ready for kids to attend High School online. August 26th we celebrated Sierra's 21st birthday once again not exactly what she wanted but we made the best of it. Her birthday turned out really cute, Larry’s coworker hooked him up with someone who owned a VW bus (Sierra's Dream Car). This kind stranger offered to drive her and some friends around town and take pictures in the orange VW bus. The kids along with Larry and I ended up at a beach, to have dinner at a restaurant with outdoor dining. That night we stayed at the Catamaran hotel on the beach, Sierra and friends got a second night to celebrate.

Luke started working for AMGD, a glass company helping out with glazier projects, and going to SDSU online. Sierra upped the amount of units she was taking at UCSC, hoping to graduate in March, 2021.

In September we refinanced our house since the interest rates dropped. The housing market in California is booming. My Mom then decided to meet with a realtor to see about selling her home. Our home was built in 1970, our family home where we lived since 1974. When you are 78 years old living in a two story, five bedroom house with a pool, by yourself- it is a lot. We met with the realtor on September 10th the house was on the market October1st. She accepted an offer in 5 days after a small bidding war. Prior to selling her house she found a manufactured home in Santee that she loved, and happens to be down the street from my work. The home was about the same square footage as her home in El Cajon.

In October we went to Old Town in San Diego to have dinner, at a restaurant, “outside dining”. We took the kids, a good excuse to do something, to check out the Dios De Los Muertos (Day of the dead) decorations. For the holiday we also decorated pumpkins. Halloween was spent at home, Sierra made a spooky dinner and we played Halloween games.

On November 19th, my mom moved into her new home. It was no small feet, purging and packing up 46 years of memories. She is now settled in her new little home and I think she is as happy as pie. Thanksgiving was a little strange, Mom’s house was not set up for everyone to celebrate. So everyone in Victoria’s family had their own Thanksgiving dinner, this was a first. We had dinner at our house with our family and Sierra’s boyfriend Tim and my Mom. Larry had snapped his bicep in his left arm the night before Thanksgiving, Tim had to step up and help with turkey cooking and carving. Luke was unavailable, because he was coming down with a cold. After Thanksgiving Larry and I went to Mesa, Az to visit his parents.

2020 was not all gloom and doom. Yes we have been living through a pandemic and I know that other people have had a horrible year dealing with loss and strife. We would like to look at 2020 for it’s blessings. Blessings of faith and family. Blessings of jobs and paychecks, food on the table, a happy and healthy family. Yes some days are hard and things are not great, but in the end life is good! We continue to pray for those who are not as lucky as we are, we continue to pray for good health for our family. In the end we still need to live and love, we need to appreciate today because we do not know what tomorrow will bring.

Love,

Larry,Victoria, Sierra, and Luke Simanek