Needless to say that 2020 has been a crazy year!

Nico got a new right hip in January, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to return to work so far. It still hurts and other joints are chiming in, so that’s going to be a longer road than expected.

Then the pandemic happened.. all the heartbreak, division and unrest (esp. in the States) certainly causes a bit of anxiety. Oddly enough there was also peace in having to live a simpler life, we love being home together ♥ Thankfully provincial campgrounds eventually opened and that gave us some normalcy and sanity in a safe way. We just stayed in the province instead of traveling to the west coast.

By then we had suffered an unusual amount of losses – RIP Chase, cousin Hennie, dad, Edwin & Jon. Of course it was specifically hard for me, Marlies, to lose my 101 year old dad and we couldn’t go to the Netherlands. But the hardest hit was losing our friends’ son Edwin to a car accident. Their (also Dutch) families couldn’t come here and we have done our best to support them. In our own household we had to say goodbye to our master cuddler Smokey during our vacation 🙁

For myself, all this took the wind out of my sails for a while. I had a hard time keeping up with my blogs and social media, something I’m going to try and get back to soon. I did finally paint the office, updated my crafts room and oh we also finally had our front yard done! I have recently invested in both the web design and the craft side of my business, but I have definitely ventured more into the crafts side in recent months (any fellow Cricuteers out there?). My happy place!

No New Year’s Eve Party this time, but let’s hope things will at least improve in 2021 – please think about others more than yourself and keep the people around you safe by following the health guidelines, it can save a life. Be kind. We will get through this!

Have a safe Holiday and a Healthy 2021!

Nico & Marlies
Our kitties Gandalf, Rider, Penny, Sheldon and Arya =^.^=