Merry Christmas from the Krupkes!
Hello!
As I sit to write this, we are taking down Thanksgiving decor & putting up Christmas, my feet propped up after a day in the kitchen crafting a gluten & dairy free delicious meal. It sounds like a normal Thanksgiving break, but obviously 2020 has been far from normal just like everyone else. I can’t help but look back on the year as a parallel to the C.S. Lewis series that Laidy & I just finished reading & our family’s inspiration for our Halloween costumes: Narnia.
January & February of 2020 went as planned with a successful hosting of NHS’s first show choir competition, Solo Contest & Large Group events going well. Right as things started getting weird around spring break, our family hit the road to Salt Lake to visit Katie & her crew. As we watched school districts close for an extended spring break, we knew we could extend our visit as well. On a morning that started with earthquakes & aftershocks, Lochlyn had an unfortunate encounter with a heavy rock and we are so thankful that the Magician (aka Aunt Katie) works at a nearby hospital & directed us to expert care. The Magician’s Nephew eventually gained a black cast when we got home & displayed great resiliency throughout a 3 week cast-wearing & 4 weeks of physical therapy. The 15hr-ride home from SLC was eery, as if we had entered the spare ‘oom with the looming wardrobe.
The rest of March-May was definitely a different world, akin to The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. We mourned the normalcy of the most rewarding part of the school year, but took advantage of the time at home by installing new flooring throughout our kitchen/great room & fun activities with the kids to go along with their virtual learning. Laidy accomplished her goal of taking her training wheels off, Loch worked on writing/recognizing letters while the adults made lesson plans for our own students (band, choir, photo 1 & 2). It sometimes felt like an emotional roller coaster, with ups & downs, but we held on for the ride, much like The Horse & His Boy.
Oma & Papapa made their annual trip to Iowa by the end of May & we were so thankful for the escape that New Providence, a town of ~200, served for our family. Two of Katie’s kids joined Oma & Papapa for about a month & we made the most of cousin-time throughout June. The adults weeded, mowed, planted & landscaped enough for a year! Into July, we celebrated Lochlyn’s 4th birthday at Grandma Cheryl’s where he was treated like Prince Caspian. Interspersed throughout the summer, Carrie Krupke Photography had a record-breaking season of shooting, serving high school seniors & families. Shooting outside is what I know best & it worked out to our benefit in the midst of a pandemic for social distancing. Laidy continued gymnastics, with safety measures in place, once a week with a very small class size & Loch enjoyed getting back to pre-school routines.
We had consistent contact with colleagues & administrators as districts planned their return to the classroom throughout the rest of July & into August. Similar to the galloping ride in the spring, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader into the school year was like riding a wave of ups & downs. Sanitizing protocols, quarantined & Remote Learners logging into our classes synchronously have become a part of our routines. We’ve been very fortunate that as of this writing, only grades 6th-8th have had to learn remotely for 6 days. My (Carrie) desk chair became The Silver Chair & I taught from a two-laptop set up while helping students fix their tuba valves, trouble-shoot a leaky flute key or diagnose a dying clarinet reed via the chat feature in Google Hangout. At some point you have to laugh at how absurd that all sounds & all the technological feats that have had to be put in place for this year to take off. The phrase “building the plane in mid flight” comes to mind often. But it’s this same technology that allows us to do Zoom calls with extended family & see them more in a year than ever before. There are trade-offs everywhere. We just have to look for them.
While rehearsing a choir in a 6ft x 6ft grid, masked, isn’t ideal for a lot of reasons, we also acknowledge that in-person learning is the best form of education for our students. Hopefully, this winter will be The Last Battle against COVID & we’ll be able to see our students’ entire faces by next school year. The field of education has shifted drastically in a very short period & we know there are bits here & there that we will use outside of a pandemical time. We aren’t denying that this has been the most challenging/scary/anxiety- driven year of our careers, but we also recognize that we have much to be thankful for: our salvation & source of ultimate Hope, our immediate & extended family is safe & healthy, our jobs (we work with the best!), our home-God has so richly blessed us!
We send this letter with prayers that you & your family are well, finding the trade-offs in a difficult year and are looking to 2021 with the Hope that does not disappoint (Romans 5:5).
Merry Christmas & Happiest of New Year’s,
The Krupkes-Gerard, Carrie, Adelaide(7), Lochlyn(4) & pup-Ella(11)
photographers contributing to our Christmas card: front is Andrea Dahlberg of Dahlberg Portraits (June) & the masked session is Austin Day Photography (May). Don’t worry, the entire session wasn’t masked, we just did this one at the end. :)