Neeley Christmas Card 2020

My favorite time of wrapping gifts, festive treats, and poorly made Lifetime movies is upon us. For every 10 minutes I watch in Lifetime Christmas movies, I inform Tyler I could definitely write a better script than anything I’ve seen. (I actually told him I could write a better script in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, after describing a Christmas Space themed movie in which one alien from Jupiter and one alien from Neptune fall in love over Christmas but can’t be together due to galactic tensions but are able to reunite under the snowfall on Mars on Christmas night, Tyler kindly told me “I’m not quite sure why this is taking place in Space.” so I’ve decided to give myself at least 15 minutes to come up with a superior plot.) With my Lifetime movie script out of the way, I now have plenty of time to write our Christmas Card.

2020 has been an eventful year. I started a new job as an Innovative Learning Coach for my school district. For those who stick around long enough for me to explain what that is, I tell them I coach teachers as they integrate technology into their classroom, but for those who don’t, I am happy to let them think I’m coach of the soccer team or something. My twelve year old self who always snuck off the dodgeball court and into the long line of people who were “out” even though a dodgeball hadn’t even come remotely near me always beams anytime someone actually thinks my coaching job is one of athleticism. I’m overjoyed to have gotten this job and my new team is amazing. It was bittersweet to leave my old school as the staff are some of my favorite people ever. Luckily, leaving the classroom was made slightly easier when I was cleaning out my student’s desks during the Covid shutdown and found one of my students had left an old carton of chocolate milk in his desk from March-June. (You may be thinking “Rachel, I’ve already heard this story about chocolate milk being left in your classroom for weeks at a time” because an almost identical experience has now happened in my class THREE TIMES while I’ve been teaching. To say my classroom is cursed would be an understatement, and I hope the incoming teacher had enough sense to carry Madame Zeroni to drink from the stream at the top of God’s Thumb before the school year began.) 

My new job still gives me plenty of time to interact with elementary students. When I went to a 2nd grade class to teach them how to code, a very skeptical student informed me that I would be required to buy him a soda if he didn’t enjoy coding. I told him no, but we settled on me burping in front of the class in case he didn’t enjoy the lesson. Luckily about 10 minutes into the lesson he informed me that he absolutely loved coding, so I was saved from public humiliation. I have not found any rotten chocolate milk at work and consider that to be my job’s biggest perk. 

Tyler continued working in his current job this year and earned an Employee of Merit award from the city. He sometimes doesn’t like to tell me about the recognition he receives at work because I apparently “make it too big of a deal.” In other news, I’m currently constructing  a 20 foot tall golden statue of Tyler in our front yard.

The ongoing pandemic hasn’t stopped us from taking a few nearby vacations. We visited family in Arizona over Labor Day and had a wonderful time with them. We went to the movie theaters to watch Tenet, which took a collective 84 hours after the movie to research what exactly happened during those two and a half hours. (After reading hundreds of articles that tried to explain what happened, my only understanding is that someone had a really weird dream and literally nothing made sense.) We got the chance to visit Zion and Bryce National Parks over Fall Break. We spent the morning and afternoons hiking, and the evenings watching the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs. (Condolences in the form of Oreos can be sent directly to Tyler)

This year has certainly been unusual, but I am so grateful for every adventure. Hopefully at this time next year, we’re all sitting together watching a spaced themed Lifetime Christmas movie.

Merry Christmas!