At the start of 2021 I was starting a new job and going back to school. In order to focus on all the new things I had decided to take a break from social media. By the end of January I knew I wanted to document this new journey so I dumped all my photos into a blog and thus began my monthly blog posts for each month of 2021. Without plan, I became a photojournalist for my own life.
It’s common for me to do a “year in review” post at the end of the year but it was a different experience to do that 12 times throughout the year. Even amongst the challenges, I allowed myself to look back at all the good each month. This year was hard. Easily one of the hardest years to date. Sharing all the good was cathartic but not everything good was captured in photographs so some things were missed in my monthly retellings. Like hugging my best friend for the first time in a year and half.
All that to say, here’s what happened in December.
My best favorite and I decided on a real tree again this year. I can relate to Clark Griswold better after having such a sappy tree, but my oh my, it sure smelled nice.
I hosted another (festive) silent reading party in December. With so much grief and so many challenges in our current world I wanted to create a welcoming and comfy atmosphere. I spent all week cleaning, rearranging the furniture, decorating (with so many Christmas books!), and planning a menu. I mean, what else was I doing?
Last year my goddaughter and I missed out on her birthday celebration so this year was extra special. Per the norm, she came over for a sleep over party, complete with a birthday scavenger hunt created by my best favorite. I had a stack of books for her, but instead of wrapping them as gifts my best favorite incorporated them into the scavenger hunt. It was the best hunt yet. To top off the celebration I took my goddaughter to see ENCANTO. At the movie theater. This was the first time I had been to a movie theater since 2019. And what a memorable experience it was. I love time with my goddaughter and will happily have birthday sleepover parties and scavenger hunts for as long as she wants!
My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion they invited my best favorite and me to dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory on the Plaza. While it wasn’t the big anniversary party I had envisioned hosting for them it was nice to give cheers and thanks among the Plaza lights.
Much like last year, Christmas was small. There was no extended Cook Family celebration again this year. Christmas Eve has always been one of the most anticipated days of the year for me as it is the one time during the year that my extended family gets together. Not seeing all of them, missing out on making predictions for the coming year, and not hearing my Uncle Jimmy sing "5 Golden Rings" in the 12 Days of Christmas left a certain sadness in my heart. I’m hopeful that there will be more of these moments in years to come. Christmas Eve did still bring traditions that I love. My dad still read “The Boy of the Bells” as he has every year since 1990. Christmas was so unseasonably warm that it really felt more like Thanksgiving. We had a fire in the backyard and played some football. And of course there were gifts and so much yummy food. We had quite the smorgasbord of family favorites: a charcuterie board on Grandma Cook’s cutting board, Grandma Wisemore’s fudge, Mama Jean’s Christmas morning coffee cake, Mama Lisa’s sticky rolls, Mama Marinette’s riz au lait, and Beth’s bourbon peaches. It was a Christmas to remember.
While still on Christmas break my best favorite and I took a trip to KC Zoo. It was a cold day in Africa and many animals were hibernating. Even without seeing all the animals it was still a memorable day out.
New Year’s Eve is my most favorite day of the year. My best favorite and I had plans with some friends but for many reasons we ended up hanging out at home with the pups. Fear not, there was still eating, drinking, reading, and a Supernatrual marathon. The best part was Face Timing with some of our Colorado people. It was good to get in such silly laughter.
I even got to have breakfast with a friend as he drove through town.
The pups stayed pretty snuggly this month as evidenced below.
Here’s to a another year and may the memories of 2021 be a blessing.
