2020 Best Nine

I somehow skipped last year but I’m happy to be sharing my best nine from 2020 today! It is truly impossible to sum up 2020 with any combination of social media posts. It was a year of many lows and challenges for all of us. This year, more than any other year in my recent past, was spent with my immediate family. There was less travel than I had planned and MUCH more time at home, but these photos do reflect a few highlights:

Letters Are Lovely | 2020 Best Nine
  • This year I worked from home from mid-March through December. While there isn’t an end in sight to this WFH life yet, there were some amazing projects and learnings that came from re-imagining my daily work life. Pictured is chalk art I created for Hallmark spreading positivity in a time where we needed it more than ever!

  • This year Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected! While a highlight, there is still much work to be done and divisive challenges to work through. There is also a vital need to keep up the work led by the Black Lives Matter movement.

  • Dale and I celebrated five years of marriage! Our plans were to spend a week in Santa Fe. While that trip didn’t happen our outdoor appetizers at Campground and outdoor dinner at Plate in KC were just as special.

  • Dale matched at KU Med for his Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship! I’m so proud of all the work he has put in over many years to get to this point in his career. It is an unbelievably strange year to match in Pulm Crit Care and he amazes me every day with his dedication to his patients.

  • I was still able to participate in some amazing extra projects for Hallmark this year! They included helping with this mural for Children’s Mercy Hospital led my my friends Meredith and Matt. It was a much needed bit of normalcy to work on a creative group project (safely outside!).

  • My grandparents (Grammy & Pop) celebrated 60 years of marriage!! This is one of the days I’m most grateful for this year. So much work went into safely celebrating with our family this summer and I will never forget it!

  • My sister Sophie got engaged to the best guy, Alex, this year! I can’t wait to be a matron of honor in her wedding next summer and helping her find her dress was another highlight of 2020!

  • Dale and I managed to take a road trip to Colorado in September. I’ve shared lots of photos here on the blog and it was an amazing escape from reality for a week. I know that I will forever be extremely grateful for any opportunity to travel after this year.

  • We also fit in a sister staycation in Brookside this summer! I had really been missing the pool this summer so we rented an Airbnb in our neighborhood that had a pool and had the best day swimming, relaxing, and playing Catan.

The moments that aren’t pictured really are hard to sum up. Covid changed all of our lives significantly and while the year ended with Dale receiving the first dose of his vaccine those who have lost family and friends this year have been on my mind a lot. I hope that we can stay strong through 2021 in order to save lives and see a much different recap of this coming year!


2018 Best Nine

2018 is coming to a close! This year was one of the most eventful of my entire life and while these nine moments do tell part of the story this year, there is a lot these quick nine photos don’t share as well. But starting with what is included — lots of highlights! Dale graduated from Saint Louis University School of Medicine, matched at KU Med in Kansas City, we celebrated our three year wedding anniversary, had an amazing time in Europe (and on a few other trips!), and I had a great year of growth and new opportunities at Hallmark. The part that is missing is all the ups and downs that came along with these events.

Letters Are Lovely | 2018 Best Nine

Change can be exhilarating and exhausting. On top of all these huge life event we bought our first house, dealt with the death of my childhood kitty, Bonnie, and spent countless ordinary days with family and friends that were some of my favorite moments of the year. I’m thankful for 2018 and all the growth, and now I’m also fully ready to ring in this new year!