The 2020 series continues and is nearing its conclusion as we enter the holiday season, and it is indeed a holiday season like no other. Due to the ongoing pandemic and rising COVID cases as Christmas is coming, it was increasingly obvious that most people would be encouraged to stay home. Since 2020 was a lost season, I’m going to be positive and talk about some of the fun things that I did over the holidays.
I took part in Small Business Saturday in the city of Greensburg. I got to participate in a scavenger hunt around town and got to learn more about the little businesses in the area.
I went to Ligonier plenty of times between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My favorite coffee shop on town had a “Twelve Coffees of Christmas” feature and the challenge was to order all twelve on the menu. I managed to drink half of them. Ligonier looks beautiful when it snows and I got to see the Diamond covered in white. One day, I had a local photographer take my picture in front of the gazebo. It was a Saturday just before the holidays and families were together having their Christmas pictures done in one of the most beautiful Hallmark Christmas towns ever.
I watched a virtual performance of the Nutcracker. Included were many Greensburg businesses, Fort Ligonier, and the Ligonier Diamond. The next day was our club officer training, also known as Winter TLI. It was a fun-filled day of learning and panel discussions on club experiences. That was led by our three Spirits of Toastmasters, one of them being me. In the evening, I had dinner at the Ligonier Tavern with my fashionable sister and her husband (whom I got to meet for the first time ever). It was fun just catching up with Sara as well as getting to know Rob. COVID was running rampant but I wasn’t letting that ruin my good time.
With in-person Toastmasters meetings out of the question, we made the most of the Zoom platform. I attended other club meetings like Penn Hills and South Hills. All Toastmasters meetings in our District were online and these included a few Christmas parties.
While there were many ways to have fun in this holiday season like no other, there was also pain to deal with. Time to get real about Christmas.
The surge in COVID cases around the holidays meant it wasn’t going to be a Merry Christmas for restaurants. Families wouldn’t be able to have big gatherings, either. For us, no problem. For others, it was going to be a big deal. Our next three Christmas Eve gatherings would be very small (not that they’ve ever been big) but by 2022, things were a little better for me in my journey.
It was a snowy December with three storms dropping significant snow at the beginning of the month, as well as the middle of the month. A third storm gave us our whitest Christmas I can remember. While it was a White Christmas, it wasn’t a happy one for me.
That Christmas was our last one at my Grandma’s house before my sister moved out and it got sold. I won’t get into detail about that Christmas out of respect for family but some things were said. I think part of it was the weather and part of it was also COVID. It wasn’t the best way to end the Christmas tradition of going there, even though my grandmother had passed away a year and a half earlier.
I wasn’t phased in March when everything shut down around the middle of the month. I enjoyed the time off from WIS and made the most of it by taking some trips to Ligonier, learning Zoom and doing my meetings online, and staying safe. Eventually, what goes around comes around and my spirit would soon become tested and eventually broken. The restrictions coming around Christmas as well as news about a friend of mine quitting his job on Christmas Eve really consumed me emotionally. By next year, the rebuilding was fully underway and I was in a new workplace.
2020 was a holiday season like no other and, unfortunately, not in a good way.
Stylish 🍒 