Have a Happy New Year!

Happy end of 2021 or happy 2022 – whenever you might be reading this. Drew, Joanie, Jackson, and I (pictured above last week on Christmas Eve) are visiting family in Missouri, but I wanted to drop in here and say hi and wish everyone a smooth transition to the new year. It was a chaotic final week and a half in NYC before we left town. Omicron hit us first in the country and both kids were in quarantine for the last week of school before break – yes, even as fully vaccinated students (it was Joanie’s fourth classroom quarantine in just over two months!) – which was actually kind of a blessing because it allowed us a little more protection before flying to immune-compromised family members. We hunkered down for about ten days before our flight and took lots of rapid tests (that we were lucky to have ordered many weeks ago when demand was still low for them) and a few PCR tests, and watched in relative horror as the lines at testing sites around our neighborhood grew and grew and grew and word from friends of positive tests rolled in every day.

This isn’t the note any of us hoped we’d end the year on, but here we are. I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy and that if you’re one of the millions who’ve been infected with Covid recently, that your case is mild and doesn’t cause too much disruption. We’re going to get through this. I really do think that as 2021 brought a turning point with wide availability of vaccines, 2022 will bring more turning points and that we will reach a state of normal that is comfortable for most of us. I think that point is closer than it might feel like right now, in this strange moment.

In the meantime, there’s still so much from this year to be grateful for. I am grateful for YOU, for this awesome community that continues to inspire me. Thanks for being part of my year and for letting me be part of yours. Have a wonderful and happy new year!