2020 Christmas Card Letter

The 2nd-Ever Annual Kowalewski Family Christmas Card Letter

Welcome to the 2nd Kowalewski Christmas Card letter. Previously in the Kowalewski Christmas letter, I secretly wrote the letter, offered to stuff, address, and mail the Christmas cards, and then I snuck the letter into the card. Hundreds of cards went out and my family only learned that 

I wrote and sent a Christmas letter when people started texting them or mentioning my hilarious and charming letter. Oh, how I laughed. My oldest daughter did NOT laugh. She actually thought she might have to change her name and move to a new city. She didn’t. It turned out OK.

If you want to read that letter, go to http://bit.ly/FirstChristmasLetter. This year, I won’t get so lucky. Everyone demanded to proofread and make edits. 

Let’s start with the Christmas letter essentials. Gorgeous, talented, and brilliant (see what happens when all family members have input) Kathy is still teaching 2nd Grade at St. Hugo of the Hills. She likes Hallmark movies, fancy coffees, and our dumb dog. I always considered her pretty good at being a wife and Mom, but this year she took that to another level. Without her steady hand, the ability to help the kids with homework, and be a psychiatrist to handle the emotions of being quarantined, we never would’ve made it. If you have a minute, post a message on her Facebook timeline saying “thank you” …and do that for all the elementary school teachers you know – watching her teach 2nd Graders on Zoom, while hilarious at times, also looked near impossible. How many work-Zooms were you on where you had to beg the other people to “put on socks BEFORE the Zoom” and remind them “we’re not playing with our dogs” and “don’t lay down? 

For those curious, Kathy has only had a handful of days teaching at home. Most of her days have been in-person. Marian High School has been 50/50 in-person and distance learning. Brother Rice has been 99% in-person up until Thanksgiving and when high schools were asked to go to distance learning. We’re luckier than many, and the schools have done an amazing job of tracing, staying on top of things, and communicating. .

Marylin is a senior at Marian Highschool and balancing picking a college with senior-itis. We were lucky she got her entire fall field hockey season in. She is the greatest field hockey player in history (see …outside input, again). She’s been accepted (as of the writing of this letter) to two schools and hoping to hear from at least one more. I know where I want her to go (green), but I’m not going to State it out loud so as not to influence her deciSion. She nannies and babysits because her other jobs weren’t jobs anymore because of the pandemic …still the hardest working kid I know. If you have another free moment (after you posted on Kathy’s Facebook timeline), say a prayer for Marylin and all the high-school seniors (this year and last year’s) that they’ll get their proms, senior-all-night-parties, and graduation ceremonies. 

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth  …my two front teeth …and a vaccine.”    ←- my favorite Christmas carol

Jimmy is a sophomore at Brother Rice. He played a full soccer season. He turned 16. He drives. He does all the work around the house (ask him, he’ll tell you). He’s still mowing lawns and caddying at Oakland Hills. He ran track until COVID ended that. He went out for the wrestling team until the COVID paused that, too. He and I watched many, many movies because I took advantage of the quarantine to try and walk him through the history of cinema. Hey. You spend quality time your way, I’ll do it my way ….and I think the young man should watch Shawshank Redemption, Sixth Sense, and The Usual Suspects (or maybe I just wanted to watch ‘em again). 

Ada is an 8th Grader, played her full soccer season, she dances, and plays tennis. She has braces, now. She babysits. She’s also a whiz in the kitchen and the quarantine-15 I added was because she baked something every week – sometimes twice a week. Could I have exercised? Hey. You do your shelter-in-place your way, I’ll do it my way …by eating. Ada will be attending Marian High School in the fall, following in her sister’s footsteps, and she’s counting down the days until her big-sis is off to college and she’ll have her own room. She has vowed that it will always be clean. Truthfully, if I give Kathy credit for keeping our quarantine house operational, Ada is probably most responsible for keeping it fun, funny, hopeful and optimistic. She’s optimism and joy in human form.

And lastly, there’s me . . . I’m doing OK. I took a new (old) job back in February right before the pandemic. I’m back at iHeartMEDIA doing the job I left two years ago when I went to Tribune Publishing. I sell advertising. I sell air. Yup. Did I mention Ada is a heckuva baker?

Do you have a pandemic where you live? It’s all the rage in our little neck of the woods here in suburban Detroit. But we didn’t let it stop us from traveling and partying. We traveled from room to room, sometimes out to the backyard, and occasionally to the store. My regret is I didn’t start a travel blog and document it all in pictures. Like I said. We partied. The five of us. We played games, did puzzles, built bonfires, played games, built bonfires, played puzzles, played bonfire. And we drank. Did you drink where you live? Because drinking was all the rage in our little neck of the woods. Speaking of Christmas cards . . . I am expecting to receive a Christmas card from Canadian Club, Maker’s Mark, and wine and be invited to their shareholders party when they celebrate their best-year-ever. 

We did make the most of things when we could. We went on our annual Torch Lake vacation with my brother Dave and his family. Jimmy and I went hammock-camping with my old college friends, Ben, Jon (aka Word), and their sons. As a non-camper, non-sleep-outdoors kinda guy, that felt worth bragging about because I felt like I conquered nature. We went up to visit Kathy’s Dad at Canadian Lakes only once when we knew we could be outside alot. We went to Northport and saw Uncle Wally, Aunt Karen, Emily and Jack (I don’t know what Anna has against us). 

It feels really weird writing this letter, in December, and realizing I don’t think I saw four of Kathy’s five brothers the entire year. I only saw my sister twice. I saw very few friends. Zoom doesn’t count. Now that I think of it, my daughter is looking at colleges outta state, which surprised me, but now looking back on this year and spending way too much time with her parents and brother and sister, OF COURSE she wants to find a college far, far away from us. Heck, I might start looking at getting a master’s degree at a school far, far away, just because.

The theme of my letter last year was “time” and I reflected on how we don’t always have as much time as we’d like. I lamented that sometimes there isn’t a next time. Life gets busy, I said. Take a time out. 

2020 was exactly the opposite. Wow. Did I have time. You can’t believe how many hours of Netflix, Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ I watched. So did you . . . don’t judge the Kowalewski family. We watch TV. Not as much as the McGregors, of course …that family is a buncha lazy do-nothings if you ask me.

2020 was 17 years long. I grew a beard. Shaved my beard. Then grew another one. My son Jimmy grew a full-on 1970s style curly head of hair. Actually, if you can believe it, in February a large group of college buddies flew to Ft. Lauderdale to be part of Dave Adamec’s Guinness Book of World Record attempt at gathering the most guys with male-pattern baldness on a beach at the same time. But seriously, we did fly to Ft. Lauderdale in February to be a part of this and we all, at that moment in time, thought very little about coronavirus and what it would mean to the year. We were having a great time, we were part Dave Adamec’s World Record for “World’s Loudest Human Carried Stereo System.” And we did it. We set the record. We flew home. Nobody got sick (thankfully) in our group. A month later the world was on lockdown. 

Things can happen fast. Things can change quickly. If 2019 was me talking about “time”, then 2020 will be about making the most of our opportunities and our time on earth. When you’re driving around and thinking of someone – call that someone. Or write them a letter. When you think you might write a book, interview for a job, start exercising, try-out for a team, make a bold move, or organize a massive world-record setting event and convince all your friends to travel and be a part of it …don’t wait. Do it. Throw yourself into whatever that thing is for YOU. And when someone invites you to Ft. Lauderdale, or to a party (when we can have them again), or offers you a job that might really fill your soul …accept that invitation or offer.Tired of your current job? Make a change! 

It’s hard to find the silver lining in 2020. I really did enjoy all the bonus family time. It’s heartbreaking to know how many people suffered and lost loved ones, but hunkering down for days, weeks, and months on end was unlike any other time in anyone’s lives. When, and I hope never, will I get four months of uninterrupted family time where we can laugh at Tiger King, have a bonfire while my daughters make Tik Tok dance videos and laugh, and my son can strum his guitar around the fire? I wish my teens had their teen lives with sports, dances, parties, jobs, and hangouts, but because they didn’t, I feel lucky to have had that time. Think about it . . . the pre-pandemic world had me spending way more time with co-workers and being in an office than with my family. That’s our American life and while this has been terrible, there really was a silver-lining. 

Believe me! When this is all over and the vaccine gets into our veins, and when we see it’s actually working and cases, hospitalizations and deaths trend down, down, down …I’m going to live bigger, bolder, and better than ever. I hope you will, too.  Ya know how, before this whole pandemic, when someone would tell you something sad they would often say, “hey ..it could be worse?”  Guess what? You can’t say that about 2020. Hey, it could be worse, right? No. No it couldn’t. 

I think we humans are designed and do our best when we’re around other humans. Sure, we fight from time to time (I’m sick of that, TOO, but my family took out my whole political rant against extremists on the opposite side of me and I was going to list names of family members and express my disappointment in them . . .I guess some input from the family was OK, after all). Where was I? Oh, yes. When I looked for it, I saw most people doing great things and that gives me hope that when things start to get better, we’re all going to be better.

I can’t wait to write the 2021 Christmas letter and have it filled with much more nonsense and many more reports of things I’ve done, places I’ve gone, and love that I saw. That’s what I’ll be looking for next year.

I will be looking for you and your smile, your phone call, or an old fashioned letter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love, 

The Kowalewski Family 

p.s. except for you, McGregor family. Turn off the TV, for goodness sake.