Having our S home for extra time before he starts his career. Additionally, S and I have been walking 4 miles each morning - talking about everything including all our post-COVID plans. 
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Seeing the local gardens in every season.
Playing Dominion on line.
Seeing family every week via Discord (like Zoom) and occasionally booting up Tabletop Simulator for favorite board and card games.
Seeing our neighborhood stick together through this. We donated to charity, made masks, had a socially distanced Halloween parades and Solstice celebration, and raised/got grants/donated thousands of dollars to extend the local park when an empty lot adjacent to it came up for sale.
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Some of you have had wonderful fallout as a result of the pandemic!
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More time with the hubby.
Regular zoom calls with family and friends.
Fabulous take out from restaurants we typically don’t frequent regularly because of the cost.
I also got my first paying job after being a SAHM for 18 years right before the first lock down and am still working, so that also feels like a blessing.
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There were some, for sure.
I got an extra 4 months with my D20 home, when I wasn’t really ready to let her fly the coop for college.
We saved a good chunk of change by not paying r&B at her pricy school.
There’s probably no argument my employer could ever make against future requests to WFH, after years and years of not permitting it.
And my final one…this one is hard to admit, but in the spirit of being human and opting for full disclosure…having everyone I know collectively facing something difficult has made my family’s personal difficulty (H has been battling cancer for the past 18 months) somehow less…lonely/isolating (?) than it was in 2019, when everyone else seemed to just be living their best lives. I guess misery loves company.
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We are currently in the middle of a long visit from ds that would not have otherwise happened. We’ll have a total of at least six weeks with him (if not more) and that is the most time we’ve had since the summer of 2016 after his sophomore year of college.
Dh had a job he loves fall in his lap when he wasn’t looking and came out of retirement.
We accelerated our plans to move into a slightly larger space which we are loving.
I have had significant time to work on my hobbyist classical guitar playing and have uploaded nearly 100 new videos on my YouTube channel.
We’ve actually had a pretty good year, all things considered.
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I am trying to be very intentional about focusing on the blessings we experienced in 2020. Our S’s wedding in August certainly tops the list, followed by having our 23 yo D moving home in March and now living with us for what will most likely be a year plus. This unexpected time with her has been an incredible joy for H and I.
Another gift born from the pandemic is that my group of college girlfriends, scattered throughout the East Coast, started a 2x/month zoom meet-up. Through the sharing of challenges and anxieties and fears and joys, we have really deepened our friendships and forged a close bond that would not have happened otherwise.
Starting a habit of daily walking, discovering the beauty of after-dark walks, taking greater notice of the changing seasons in the trees and gardens, and just slowing down in general are all things I’m thankful for as this year winds down and we look forward to better things ahead.
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As mentioned in the Say It Here thread, 2020 has been a year of crisis and disaster. It has also been a year of renewal and discovery.
We have a new grandson who was born in the pandemic a week after my mother died. He is well. Lovely. Serious, alert and calm.
Our college senior daughter got an opportunity to practice getting back up after falling down. She’s officially real world ready.
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@Hoggirl Ok, now I want to see your videos! But I understand wanting to be anonymous.
Here’s a silver lining: some businesses actually thrived this year. I talked today to our landscaper who installed a patio for us this summer and was asking to include a picture of ours on his website. He said he was already booking up big project slots thru next June. Last March he told his wife that with people losing their jobs to count on a rough year but that he’d build her a patio. When he was assembling pictures of all the patios he’d built this summer she was like “ where’s MY patio” and he told her ‘ it’s been replaced by an extra 75k over last years business.’
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No doubt, this has been tough! My D is a ‘front line physician’ so I have worried more than I have ever worried in my entire life.
BUT…
S is living at home with us now and I adore him. His awesome sense of humor brightens my days. Plus he orders all of our groceries and does our Target pickups. Oh, and he is my tech repair guy - the best!
We spend more time with D and SIL (also a physician, though his patients are Covid tested before he does any work) as we care for their beautiful children. Because they have worked more, we have had more time with the kids.
D’s next-door neighbors usually travel to their home country for the summer. For several reasons, including Covid, they stayed here this summer. GS loved playing outside with the older kids, socially distanced of course!
My favorite nieces (both lived near me post-college and we became even closer) had new babies this year. I can’t wait to meet the babies and see my sweet nieces!
As weird as this might sound, the fact that my mom passed away 2-1/2 years ago, makes me happy. She would have been beyond miserable to be alive and then isolated from her family.
@DeeCee36, I understand. You, your husband, and your family are in my prayers.
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One silver lining this year was Halloween. After a debate in my town about trick or treating being canceled, the vast majority of people independently made the decision to celebrate in very creative ways. There were clothes lines with hanging treats, candy shoots, an elaborate end of driveway giant spiderweb where the threads were light up necklaces the kids could take and an entire yard Rube Goldberg machine that dispensed halloween stickers. There was such a feeling of good cheer as small groups walked around to each display. It was very spontaneous and kind of amazing.
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Yes Halloween was very cool here too. And the kids did a socially distanced parade with a lot of adults in costume to cheer them on. Everyone said it was worth doing again even if there is no pandemic.
For the solstice we all marched around our local pond with lamps (or flashlights) and noisemakers. The snow was still on the ground, but it wasn’t cold or icy so it was a lot of fun.
We discovered this neighborhood because the magnet school is located here. And once we could afford it we moved here. Our old neighborhood was not nearly as much fun.
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My grandchildren and lots of other students learned the word asynchronous and what it means.
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Our FaceTime family group today was wonderful. All three kids and their spouses/SOs and grand pets. Spent an hour and a half just talking, caught up better than we would have on individual phone calls. If we had to have a pandemic and hunker down for months, thank God it was now rather than years ago. Technology makes all the difference.
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The most stress free Christmas Eve/Day in years! Yes, I had to plan, buy and cook the meals but no tip toeing around the GF with her own family baggage coloring everything, no dodging political land mines with my parents, no time schedule, etc. Yes there are returns to be made because how does one buy clothing exclusively online without returns? Played our usual game with the cousins via zoom with some adaptation that worked out fine. I had a great 2 days with my kids.
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Totally agree, @dragonmom! We did a Christmas zoom with our S and DIL who live in another state and it was great. Streamed it to the tv screen and it really wasn’t much different than having them here in person. We leisurely opened our stockings and gifts together and just hung out and chatted like we would if they were staying with us. We were on for 5 hours! It was great and I am so thankful that this technology is available to us.
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Pros: More “bonus time” with our adult children. (Not sure if that is a Pro for them . . ). Saving R&B costs for D’s senior year in college.
We don’t have a lot of family near by and it’s usually just the 4 of us on holidays which makes me sad that my kids don’t have a big family gathering to go to. But this year, everyone was (or should have been in) the same boat, so I did not feel like we were missing something.
The way our town is really pulling together to help those who are struggling. We have had many successful fundraisers, a plethora of volunteers at the food distribution sites, generous donations to nonprofits and creative ways to do our normal festivals etc virtually.
My job involves fundraising for students affected by the pandemic so while my workload has actually increased, it is very satisfying to be at work (at home!) these days
Cons
I don’t seem to have all the free time some websites talk about, to learn a new hobby or get in shape. I know intellectually I have more time to exercise but I can’t get myself to do it.
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The biggest silver lining: Spending time with my wife. I have traveled at least 50 percent of the time for work for over 20 years. Plus, ShawWife and I traveled a fair bit for pleasure. And for a long while, we were raising kids, which required a fair bit of tag-teaming. So my life was very hectic. I was talking with a client of mine in Calgary who reminded me of how complex scheduling with me could be – the first time we talked, the only hour I had was shortly after checking in to a hotel in London after a transAtlantic flight. ShawWife and I are really enjoying being with each other.
The second silver lining was fortuitous but not prescient. We sold our house of 25 years (where we largely raised our kids), which was in an in-town area and moved in the same town to a house that is grandfathered on the banks of a river at a bend, so we have a beautiful view down the river as well as views along it. We’re surrounded by conservation and agricultural land so it feels like we are in a state park. But, we are no farther from downtown Boston than our previous house. The view, and especially the long view down the river, give me a sense of peace that has made Pandemic-life very nice.
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Kids and I have dinner together (almost) every night. After dinner we sit around the table laughing and doing silly things. Last night we chanced my kid’s college acceptances using coin tosses and a deck of cards. I’m sure that makes no sense to the average reader - but we found it hilarious 
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