Goodbye and good riddance 2020 hello 2021
Goodbye and good riddance 2020 and hello 2021!
I’m sure we’re all feeling pleased to see the back of this particular year.
As so many you enjoyed my goodbye 2018 and hello 2019 post and my goodbye 2019 and hello 2020 post I thought I’d do the same for this year.
Goodbye and good riddance 2020
What a year 2020 has been.
I can’t believe that March is only three months away, I don’t feel like I have been able to process March 2020 yet!
Like most people I had a lot of hopes and aspirations for 2020 and it feels like for the most part, our lives have been put on hold.
The start of 2020 was great, I had some days out with friends, enjoyed going to concerts, wedding fairs, wedding dress shopping and going out for food.
Elsie started weaning, we took up baby yoga and continued with our other classes and had regular catch ups with friends and family.
Baby yoga
And then covid spread.
March came and lockdown began.
The last of my maternity leave was not what I had expected – our swimming, yoga and Hartbeeps classes were all abruptly cancelled so we never got to say goodbye properly.
Instead of catch ups with family and friends to look forward to this became video calls.
Our Hartbeeps and yoga classes moved online so we were able to join in virtually which was great fun and certainly better than nothing.
I helped out at work (albeit it from home) prior to my official return as things were so manic.
Elsie was supposed to start nursery in April but it was closed due to lockdown.
She actually started on 1 June, so I juggled a whole month of working full time from home and caring for her, that was tough!
We were really fortunate that lockdown was lifted in time for Elsie’s first birthday and we were able to socially distance celebrate the milestone.
As a family we enjoyed nice walks at the weekend and spent as much time with Elsie as we could.
I’ve been back at work since May but only physically on site a few times as we’ve been working remotely.
And this has been both a good and bad thing.
I’m starting to find a balance so I am working from home rather than living at work.
And although a lot of our plans were cancelled and we’ve missed family and friends, we’ve been really fortunate in 2020.
We’ve been able to save some money from not eating out, going out or commuting to work.
Our garden was finally given the makeover it needed and we’ll hopefully get it finished next spring.
And we’re now saving up to convert the garage into a much-needed playroom/home office next year.
Our first family holiday was post-poned until next summer but that means we’ve got that to look forward to.
We had a really lovely Christmas despite the restrictions, you can catch up with my festive favourites from 2020.
I know 2020 has not been the year any of us thought it would be, I sincerely hope that 2021 will be a vast improvement for us all.
What am I looking forward to in 2021?
I’ll scale back on this for 2021 as like most people our plans for 2020 just went out of the window.
I hope to be able to spend quality time with family and friends as this has been what I have missed the absolute most in 2020.
2020 has been such a lonely year hasn’t it?
Elsie will be turning two in July so I really hope we are able to throw her a party and hopefully she won’t be poorly like she was for her first birthday.
You can catch up with Elsie’s first birthday celebrations if you missed it.
And just before her birthday we will hopefully be having our long-awaited and much-needed first family holiday in beautiful Northumberland.
Elsie’s water babies swimming lessons will be re-starting after another break in January and Steve and I will take turns to go in the pool with her.
Elsie ready for her lesson
I’m hoping to continue to progress with my blog and hopefully get new opportunities to collaborate with other brilliant bloggers and companies – building on the hard work I have put in to date.
And I’m hoping there’ll be a better balance at work and a hybrid of working from the office and home.
I’m also hoping to find some time to do more courses to develop myself career-wise.
As always there’ll be plenty of new content on my blog with days out, product, book and food reviews and Elsie updates (providing we are allowed out again).
I wish you all a happy and healthy 2021.
What were the best bits of 2020 for you, if any? What are you looking forward to in 2021? Let me know in the comments below.
Pin this 👇🏻
Keep in touch
You can also find me on Twitter @rachael_stray
Or follow my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/rachaelstrayblog/
You can see my random pictures on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rachys2011/
And see what I’m pinning on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/rachaelstray/
