Neeley Christmas Card 2021

At the beginning of the year, some families come up with a theme for their family to focus on that year. Some families concentrate on being kind or hard working, while others pick a specific goal they want to meet.  Tyler and I don’t usually pick a theme for our year, but after a few months we realized the perfectly optimistic theme that so accurately was describing our year was “don’t get your hopes up.” 

In January, Tyler and I put down some money for our first house. This was incredibly exciting for us, but maybe even more exciting for my parents, whose basement we had been living in for three years. (They acted happy when we told them we found a house, but I imagine after we moved out they burned something on the stove to set off the smoke detector because they missed me regularly doing that) Our home was in the process of being built, but we were told that the timeline was hazy due to the fact there needed to be a sewer lift built in the neighborhood before we could move in. (If you’re wondering what a sewer lift is, you’re not alone. Unfortunately this year I learned that buying a home means becoming an expert in a lot of boring things like sewer lifts, bathroom sinks, and water pressure.) There was a pretty big window when the sewer lift could be ready, but we were so excited to move in that we drove by weekly. This is when our “don’t get your hopes up” chant started as I constantly refreshed my email ninety thousand times a day, hoping for an update from our builder.

In March, I won my family’s March Madness bracket. You may be wondering if this achievement is Christmas card worthy, but my family has a real knack for being extra competitive about things that require mostly luck and no skill at all. The last time I won our family bracket I was in college, and anytime I stopped home I would get on the family computer, screenshot my winning bracket, and make it the screensaver of the computer. This year’s 37 Marco Polos to family members and mention in the Christmas card about my win truly shows my growth in humility.

In May, our house was finally ready! We got all moved in with help from our family and friends and we love our new place. We’re currently going for a minimalist home decor design as I am incredibly indecisive and continue to procrastinate figuring out where to hang photos and artwork. 

In July, we decided we would go to Hawaii in the fall. To say I was ecstatic would be a huge understatement. Hawaii has been #1 on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, my Mom would sometimes leave her to-do list on the kitchen counter, and regularly I would add “Take Rachel to Hawaii” to the bottom of her list. Unfortunately my persistent begging did nothing (except maybe made my parents wish they hadn’t taught me the 50 states) and I never went. Tyler decided going to Hawaii would be the perfect way to celebrate our 5th anniversary, and I obviously needed no convincing, so we bought our tickets. Shortly after we bought our tickets, the Covid cases started spiking in Hawaii, and there were discussions about closing the state to tourists again. I was devastated. We decided again we wouldn’t get our hopes up and decided to play it by ear. (In case you’re wondering, a very chill and cool person like me likes to “play things by ear” by Googling Hawaii Covid counts daily, following the governor of Hawaii’s Twitter account like a hawk, scrutinizing any news article ever published about Hawaii in the past eight years, and delivering a four hour press conference to Tyler each night about what our chances were of actually going) Luckily after the summer, Covid cases cooled down, and by the time our trip came in October we were good to go! It was the most wonderful trip-we spent the week hanging out on the beach, hiking, and seeing the sights. I also spent a fair amount of time plotting ways to convince Tyler that we could move there. (My strongest argument was that the Atlanta Braves, Tyler’s favorite baseball team, won every single playoff game while we were there, but I had a million backup reasons) It was the best week ever and I spent the entire layover on the way home looking for flights to return.

As soon as we returned from Hawaii, the World Series started! I have really only followed the Braves since Tyler and I started dating (don’t worry family and friends, I'm still a Cubs fan), but I knew their track record well enough to know that this was the ideal time to repeat our “don’t get your hopes up” mantra daily. Luckily they went on to win the World Series, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tyler happier. We laughed extra hard the night they won because in June, I had called MLB TV to fix a streaming problem and the customer service representative asked me what team I cheered for. I told her Tyler is a huge Braves fan but they had been playing terribly this year. The woman on the end of the phone then gave me a very stern talking to about not giving up because this year they could win it all! Tyler and I laughed daily at this because we thought there was no way that could happen this year, but I guess she knew what she was talking about, and we were glad somewhere in the world a very smug customer service representative was also celebrating the big win.  The great thing now is that anytime one of Tyler’s other sports teams lose, all I have to do is pull up the highlights of the World Series on Youtube and all is right in the world again. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and don’t get your hopes up! 

Love,

The Neeleys