Christmas Card 2022

 Dear Family and Friends,

To gather some ideas of what to include in our Christmas Card, I started scrolling through the pictures Tyler and I had taken this past year. While I hoped my photos would be full of shots from our favorite trips and activities throughout the year, based on my camera roll, 2022 was mostly full of random screenshots and pictures of arbitrary objects. A picture of a paint can so I can remember the exact color of our walls? Got it. A screenshot of a recipe that I ended up never making because I later realized that the delicious looking sauce was actually pureed brussel sprouts? Got it. An accidental screenshot of my family’s Zoom call where everyone is making odd facial expressions because I was not intending to take a picture and really just adjusting the volume? I have a whole album. Eventually I found the pictures of our “bigger” events, like trips and sporting events, but looking through my photos I realized that I liked some of the random photos as much as the more intentional ones, as it gives more of a real summary of the year. 

During the summer Tyler and I got to go with his family to Disneyland, and it was so fun to spend time with family there. Because we went in the middle of the summer it did feel like we were waiting in line on the surface of the sun, so the large sum of money we used on buying ice cream in the park was completely worth it. Whenever I go to Disneyland my family always asks me about the Monorail because when we went when I was a kid I allegedly had a very large tantrum about not being able to ride the monorail when I wanted to, along with loud hollering and dramatic tears all the way back to the hotel, all for a ride that is pretty much the same experience as riding TRAX. Luckily on this trip, one of my nephews declared that the Monorail is the best ride in the park, and five-year-old me felt justified.

Tyler was happy to be able to watch the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs in Atlanta this year. This was quite a miracle as we’ve planned multiple trips to see them in the playoffs in previous years but they didn’t advance, but luckily the stars aligned and we made it to Atlanta in time to see the Braves win a playoff game at Truist Park. The day of the game started off  with a rain delay that left us sitting for four hours on the floor of the stadium, but eventually the rain stopped and the Braves won the game. 

The week before Thanksgiving, Tyler went to Florida for work, and I expected it to be a quiet week at home. Shortly after he left, I opened the freezer and instead of delicious frozen treats, I found large puddles and found that neither the fridge nor the freezer were working. My knowledge about refrigerators is pretty limited, so I tried the old “unplug it and plug it back in” trick and hoped it would fix itself by the morning. I am sure it surprises none of you that this did not work. I called Tyler in a panic, only to find out that he had tested positive for Covid. Unfortunately my Google search of “How do I fix a broken refrigerator and also take care of my spouse who is sick but is also on the other side of the country” did not bring very helpful results, but luckily I have great parents and in-laws that give great advice. Tyler was able to recover quickly, and we had an unusual Thanksgiving week that was spent not baking, but instead counting down the days until our new fridge arrived. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with my incredible grandparents and family, and were so grateful to all be together.

Perhaps one of my favorite memories from this year is when I won the Masters! Well, I didn’t really win the Masters specifically, and don’t actually play golf, but I got my Masters Degree, which seems to be pretty much the same thing, minus the green blazer the golfers get when they win. All of the classes I took were online, besides my internship, which was a pretty big feat for me seeing as my high school-self took four whole years to complete a three credit online geography class I needed to graduate. Tyler was incredibly supportive during my whole program, from helping me choose the program I would complete to making sure I had time to spend on studying and listening patiently as each week I would tell him how many papers or assignments I had to write until I could graduate. If anyone deserves a green blazer, it’s him. 
This year has been a great one, and we are so grateful to celebrate Christ’s birth this season.

Merry Christmas!

The Neeleys