January | CNY Party

Even though Chinese New Year’s Eve fell on a Monday this year, friends near and far still made the time and distance to be with us for our favorite face-stuffing event.

Vivienne and her favorite cat / second favorite pet Marco worked together to deliver the festive ambience.

February | BOTFL Project

In late February, Justin spent a couple weeks in Tajikistan to advise a group of MBA candidates on a nonprofit consulting project to accelerate rural economic development with a focus on climate and green initiatives (click here if you want to read more about the project). Here are some (of Vivienne’s favorite) pictures from his adventure:

While Justin was busy trying to make the world a happier place, he didn’t miss a beat at making Vivienne an (even) happier wife. He left sweet messages all over the house, sent flowers on the wedding anniversary, and brought back a mesmerizingly beautiful plate.

When Justin made it home safe and tired, the entire household just couldn’t be happier to finally have him back to ourselves.

March | Love, Beach and Bevies

Our COVID besties, two of our favorite people, vowed to love each other forever in front of family and friends in Key West — we got to witness their profession of love and commitment, and discovered the treasure that is key lime pie martini.

April and May | Spring! At Last!

As snows melted in Chicago, we started to have more visitors. Our favorite New Yorker and Marco’s favorite pet uncle visited us during Easter. Friends, coworkers, and school mates also came to visit us in the spring. We did what we do best and provided entertainment centering around eating and drinking.

In May we roadtripped to Ohio to spend Mother’s Day weekend with Justin’s parents. Vivienne got to admire her favorite plant (the unbelievably giant umbrella tree) and took home from a local nursery her archnemesis plant (the dollar princess fuchsia) which she, for the second time, purposefully neglected in an attempt to kill after getting tired of the fussy care routine.

June | The Beginning and End of Our Summer Plans

For Vivienne’s 35th birthday we drove to Milwaukee to have a prosciutto and champagne themed picnic at the beach, and then dinner at one of the gem restaurants we discovered during one of our mid-COVID sanity getaways. Polo, whom Vivienne considers as her clumsy, flightless dragon, joined us on the trip as well.

On June 26, we celebrated a dear friend’s upcoming parenthood and then checked out Logan Square Arts Festival, where we found the perfect painting for the dinning room wall that has been kept empty for 3 years, and picked up a side of omicron, most likely from the creator of said painting.

3 days later, Justin tested positive on a home COVID test. 2 days after that, Vivienne followed suit.

July | A Quarantine of Weight Gain

For the entirety of July we stayed home and avoided all human interactions outside of the two of us. A lot of low-intensity baking and grilling happened to expend Vivienne’s physical energy unmatched by a complete lack of mental capacity due to a bad case of COVID brain. Needless to say this turn of events didn’t help our summer fitness plans.

In other news, Polo made friends with the downstairs puppy.

August and September | Time Goes “Swoosh”

In August we went to Minneapolis for Justin’s company’s corporate party, where we got to spend time with friends and enjoy some very well executed dishes.

After returning to Chicago, we got a surprise visit from our COVID besties and had a (short but) sweet time together. We love these two so much and are blessed to call them our friends.

Then work got crazy for the both of us and everything was a big blur for two months straight. In the big blur Marco’s favorite pet uncle came to our rescue and showed us a great time in NYC.

During the two blurry months we also found out that Polo had thyroid cancer. Our wonderful vet did her best to stay factual and never gave us any unnecessary stress or false optimism. The treatment plan was carried out smoothly and so far seems very effective. Polo handled the recovery like a true champ. Now he is one thyroid gland less, a few pounds heavier, and all zoomies.

Between caring for Polo and the new collective schedule, neither of us had much attention to spare for Marco’s bratty needs. So he protested by sitting on Vivienne whenever she is on the living room couch.

Justin’s birthday was also in September. This year we low-key celebrated with happy hour at our favorite cocktail bar in Chicago followed by a taco dinner. And we took no picture at either place.

October | Fall Appreciation!

We stayed office buddies for another week in October but finally found the rhythm to appreciate life and friends. We got to enjoy the (short but) beautiful fall weather in Chicago, hang out with the charming Hart Oliver, host food-themed parties for friends, and see one of our favorite comedians (Demetri Martin) in person.

November | Chill

We beat the snow to it and got our home all Christmas-ed up the moment November hit, and then took the Polo with us to a quaint lake resort in small town Indiana, where we soaked ourselves in the pure bliss of waking up to a serene lake view, playing fetch with Polo in the bright and warm early winter sun, getting impressed by the wonderfully fresh local seafood scene, and most pleasantly, spending time with each other.

December | Is Yet To Come

In case of the unlikely event that you are planning on doing so, there’s no need to hold your breath. We are on our way to visit family for Thanksgiving as this sentence gets typed out and may end up never updating what happens in December.

Just know that whatever happens in our mysterious Decembers won’t change the fact that we love you and are grateful to have you in our life.