Happy New Year

Oh Happy Day!  More than any year in recent history, so many of us are welcoming 2021 with hope of a better tomorrow.  I was tempted to let our personal struggles of the year flood this page, but I came to my senses and am making a gratitude list instead.  This is definitely an overdue practice I need in my life, so why not start today?

-The health of my family

-My dad continuing to fight cancer into 2021

-A visit to spend time with extended family

-Summer pool time with Aunt Leila & Uncle Claude

-Playing with sweet cousins at Uncle Casey and Aunt Diana’s

-Meeting the latest addition to the family, baby Chadwick

-The love of Grandparents

-Great Grandparents still alive to share their fascinating stories

-A forced and much needed slower pace of life

-A spring full of reading books in a hammock with rare and glorious PNW weather

-A squadron family whose love and appreciation will be cherished always

-A wise and sincere therapist

-The opportunity to live in the Pacific North West and New England in 2020

-A minivan that held us all + Saif for an epic road trip across the US

-Jamil’s job security

-Health insurance

-Air Force friends who stay connected through distance during a year when it’s nearly impossible to make new friends

-Friends who easily pick up where we left off

-The Golden Girls

-A neighborhood full of kids who are playing outside in masks daily! ❤️

-Masks

-A white Christmas, sort of...a little left over snow from a winter storm

-Snowplowing trucks in MA...talk about efficient!

-Mail carriers 🙏🏼

-Sledding hills in the neighborhood...we used to have to drive hours and pay for this!

-Living in a community with morally responsible citizens

-Living 5 min from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s...it’s the small things

-A rental home with space for us to spread out

-A “therapy” dog who is so happy we’re home

-Soft toilet paper

-Oprah’s Super Soul, Jen’s For The Love, Richard Rohr, and the Liturgist podcasts that take me to church

-Flash briefing news that’s keeps me quickly informed

-Two mornings a week to send my kids to school and have time to run errands

-TEACHERS going above and beyond

-Leaders who are not afraid to make sacrifices for the whole

-A vaccine

-Science

-Religion

-Spirituality

-A change in administration

-Watching the first female VP with my daughter

-Music easily streaming through our speakers daily

-Mariam’s personal playlist

-Abraham’s desire to use his own money to buy thoughtful gifts for his neighbors

-Gabriel holding onto his childhood and playing outside

-Soccer for the boys

-Dance for Mariam

-Harvard for Jamil

-Time for me to breathe and catch up on this blog

-Turning 40

-Fall in New England

-The TJ Maxx family of stores that is my happy place

-Quality television

-Christmas Movies (doesn't always fall under Quality TV but grateful nonetheless, particularly this year)

-A sunroom that functions as relaxation, reading, yoga, meditation, dance party, min tramp, and my personal office space

-Earl Grey, Chai, and Ginger Turmeric Teas

-Our first king sized bed (although it’s only ours for a year)

-The AF keeping us on our toes about our next assignment (slight sarcasm implied)

-The resilience our family shows through each move

-And even the pain and suffering that are chiseling their way into our beautiful lives

We have created a family tradition of bowling on New Year’s Eve, thanks to the Weiner and Tellez families for inviting us in 2017.  We’re able to simply show up and have some innocent fun before the night gets too wild, and we’re safely home to ring in the New Year together (awake or asleep)!  I just find it comical that Mariam associates putting on her fancy, sparkly clothes with going “bowling ball”...quite the irony.  However, I will say that the Kings Bowling Alley we went to this year was the fanciest place we’ve bowled since living in Seoul, Korea!  Currently, they are limiting capacity, have clear shields between each lane, don’t allow food or drink in the bowling area, and require masks.  This was important to us, as this was out first indoor family outing during COVID.  We’ve tried hard to make sacrifices to keep ourselves and others safe, so I do have to say that there was a sense of guilt going out.  Thankfully, there was only one other family bowling on the other side of the alley, and I feel like we were able to treat ourselves responsibly, regardless of our lowest scoring games ever.  We just blame it on 2020.  The Musas are definitely looking forward to bowling a high scoring game in 2021 in a packed, gritty joint eating pizza and playing in the arcade!  Cheers, friends!  We hope to hug you soon!