Here we are, not only at the end of another year, but also a decade. I feel like I should have something profound to say, some great insights into the last ten years, but all I have is a look back at another year of Markel family fun.

January was a pleasant month. We started our “Great Star Trek Project,” an effort to watch through all of Star Trek from Enterprise through Voyager, including the movies and even the animated series, chronologically (at present, we’re watching Deep Space Nine). We went up to Chicago, where we got to experience a good, old-fashioned, Chicago snowstorm. While we were there, I took the Fab Five to Brookfield Zoo for the first time, and even though it was a winter day, it was one of our best zoo visits ever! At the end of the month, Turkey won a Lego building contest!!!

In all honesty, it’s hard to find much to say about February. It’s always a pretty quiet (and dare I say, boring), month, and this February was no exception. We had a lot of poor weather, including ice, but we did start playing tennis on some of the nicer days, which was fun. Turkey, Bunny, and I went to see The Lego Movie 2, which we really enjoyed.

March is always a favorite month, with so many things to look forward to, including St. Patrick’s Day. Turkey turned sixteen in March, which I still can’t believe, and Chickadee celebrated her seventh birthday. We got new dishes, which really brighten up our table!

At the beginning of April, we had a new roof put on the house…quite an expensive project! We were excited about the start of another season of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. The Missouri Botanical Garden stayed open late for cherry blossom viewing, which was a rare treat. Our Easter celebration was a lot of fun! We all went to see Avengers: Endgame in the theater opening night, and some of us cried all the way home.

May is always one of the busiest months of the year for us. We celebrated Ladybug’s twelfth birthday. Another year of homeschooling wrapped up. Moose received a choir award we didn’t even know he was getting! At the end of the month, we went up to Chicago for Combo Breaker. While we were there, we visited the Lincoln Park Zoo, a special Lego exhibit at Brookfield Zoo, and made the journey to the top of the Sears Tower.

June‘s schedule was unusually packed. We took a trip to Michigan, which included visiting Frankenmuth, Michigan’s “Little Bavaria” enjoying a wonderful meal at the Bavarian Inn, and shopping at Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, which was a dream come true for me. Bunny and Ladybug attended volleyball camp at WKU. The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup for the first time ever, and we went downtown for the rally! We saw Superman. I celebrated my 40th birthday in a rather epic way. Kantorei Kamp week was a lot of fun!

The busyness continued into July. Ladybug earned a very special choir award. While she, Bunny, and Turkey were at RSCM camp, Moose, Chickadee, and I took a ride on the St. Louis Metro Link. We celebrated the anniversary of the moon landing. Bunny turned 15! Chickadee got her ears pierced. We had the privilege of participating in the rededication of the sanctuary at Hope Lutheran Church. We celebrated Christmas in July with a European twist.

We wrapped up our Rick Steves’ Europe themed summer school in August, and then turned around and got ready to begin a new year of homeschooling (and Moose started eighth grade!). We enjoyed another Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. After how busy the summer was, it was a relief to have a more quiet month!

September was a very exciting month! We started it off by attending the St. Louis Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. I received a Post-It note tweet from Alton Brown! We saw the Red Arrows perform at the Spirt of St. Louis Air Show!!! Moose was named Student of the Month at his school! The girls and I went to see the Downton Abbey movie. We celebrated “Friends Day.” The Fab Five and I went to “Garden Party Lights” at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We had our traditional Oktoberfest celebration.

We got to see the Stanley Cup in October! Our school acquired a mascot. We attended the fourth year of Legends and Lanterns, and saw some of the STC250 dogs while we were in St. Charles. We picked not just one, but two pumpkins. Moose got to play in the band at a high school football game.

We put up our brand-new (and quite tall!) Christmas tree earlier than ever in November, to make sure it was up in time for Moose’s 14th birthday! The girls and I went to see Frozen 2 opening night…it was a very movie-heavy year for me! We attended one of our favorite events of the year: Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Our three-day Thanksgiving celebration was just as much fun as always!

And just like that, we made it to December. The Fab Five worked on a project throughout Advent…they built the 6,020-piece Lego Hogwarts Castle. We celebrated St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, and an unexpected snow day following a fairly large snowstorm. We attended Christmas Traditions, and for the first time in several years, Christmas on the Hill. I went to a movie’s opening night for the fifth time of the year when we saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (for the record, I liked it!). We had our standard, huge Christmas celebration…one of the best ones ever, I think! We finally made it the holiday flower and train show at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and I’m glad we did, because it was lovely!

2019 was a busy year, and I expect 2020 to be more of the same. There are lots of things to look forward to, not just in the next year, but also in the next decade. I’m going to do my best not to think too far ahead, though, lest I realize how old the children will be at the end of another 10 years, and I start feeling old myself!

This has been a weird year. There were some major highs (especially our vacation to Orlando!), but there were also some maddening lows, mainly, I don’t know, everything in our house breaking…roof, dishwasher, garage door, hot water heater, my ankle… I’m actually not sure how I feel about it in the end…but I’m looking forward to starting fresh with 2019! Before that, however, a look back at 2018…

January kicked things off with a bang, as our dishwasher broke at the same time our town had a multiple day boil order. Talk about frustrating…I couldn’t even use the sanitize cycle to make sure things were really getting clean! Even with all that hassle, I managed my first attempt at Japanese cooking for Ryan’s birthday dinner…but I think I’m still recovering from cleaning up all those dishes! We also took a weekend trip to Chicago, where we visited the Adler Planetarium, the Legoland Discovery Center, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Little Popcorn Store, and Portillo’s.

February was fairly quiet. The highlight of the month was the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. I learned how to cook some Korean dishes, and we had a taste of Asia to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

March is always a busy month, and this year was no exception. Chickadee lost her first tooth! We had our traditional St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Turkey turned fifteen!!! A few days later, Chickadee turned six! The Hofbräuhaus finally opened, but we wouldn’t make it there until the following month.

In April, we celebrated Easter, and then the Cardinals home opener. I won a Nintendo Switch?!? We attended Chinese Culture Days at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We finally enjoyed a meal at the Hofbräuhaus!

May is another busy month every year. I got to see my name in print as a published writer! We enjoyed a beautiful spring in Forest Park and Tower Grove Park. Ladybug celebrated her 11th birthday. Ryan and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a tea party the day before the Royal Wedding. Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug received choir awards on Ascension Day. Pinup Girl Clothing sent me a box of Mary Blair print items which I joyfully reviewed. I had a very pleasant Mother’s Day. Turkey, Bunny, Ladybug, and Chickadee finished the 2017-18 school year, and then Moose finished elementary school! We went on what is now an annual Memorial Day weekend trip north for Combo Breaker, where the Fab Five and I spent a fun day in Chicago and took a Wendella boat tour. We also visited the Chicago Botanic Garden for the second time in the year, and had a Rainbow Cone.

And then June. It started off fairly calm, but that didn’t last long! We took a trip to Bowling Green, KY, where Bunny attended WKU’s volleyball camp. While we were there, I celebrated my first 39th birthday…we even went to Mammoth Cave! Back home, the children attended a very busy week of Kantorei Kamp…and that was the calm before the storm, because we had a big, Harry Potter-themed vacation up next! We headed to Orlando, where we visited Legoland, Universal Studios Florida, (including Diagon Alley), Islands of Adventure, (including Hogsmeade), and had a fun cabana day at Cabana Bay Beach Resort. We even saw a SpaceX launch (from a distance) early one morning..so many dreams came true on our trip!

Our vacation wrapped up in July…we even visited the ocean on our way home. It was the most amazing vacation ever! Bunny and Ladybug joined Turkey for a week of RSCM camp. While they were away, Moose, Chickadee, and I took a little train trip. Bunny celebrated her 14th birthday when she got home from camp.

In August, we finally made it to the special summer event at the Missouri Botanical Garden: Flora Borealis. Our summer school wrapped up. We got ready to begin another year of school…our first day of homeschooling for the 2018-19 school year saw Turkey and Bunny starting 10th grade, Ladybug starting 6th, and Chickadee starting 1st. Moose had his first day of junior high! Moose, Chickadee, and I went to a Cardinals game and hung out with Fredbird.

We were back at the Missouri Botanical Garden in September, this time for the Japanese Festival. The girls and I went to Art Hill to experience the Great Forest Park Balloon Race’s Balloon Glow for the first time. Bunny and I went to Powell Hall to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the big screen while the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra played the score.

In October, we finally got to see the much-awaited Olympic Spectacular in St. Louis. The Fab Five and I went to Braeutigum Orchards to pick pumpkins and baby porcupines, apparently. We headed west to St. Charles for the third year of Legends and Lanterns.

And then November. The month started out so promisingly, with our annual Extra Life for Kids fundraiser…which also turned out to be the day I broke my ankle. I was really afraid that would be the end of our fun for the year, but I was determined not to let it ruin things, so we eased into the celebratory season with Moose’s 13th birthday. Garden Glow was a bit of a challenge, but I was able to (slowly) make my way through the event. Thanksgiving was a scary proposition this year, but somehow, we got everything done, and had a nice dinner, even if I did overcook the turkey. We even made it to the Boar’s Head Festival for the first time since Chickadee was a baby!

December started with a Christmas Getaway north to St. Charles, IL and Pheasant Run. We got to experience a rainy Christmas in Chicago while we were there. We celebrated Santa Lucia Day. Moose and I got to go to Powell Hall and watch Home Alone on the big screen while the St. Louis Symphony played the score. We traveled west to St. Charles, MO, for Christmas Traditions. Our hot water heater died right before Christmas, but we pressed on and enjoyed a mostly typical Markel Family Christmas.

There was much about this year, and especially the last two months, that was difficult. But I found strength I didn’t know I had, and accomplished almost everything I set out to, and really, what more can you ask for? I hope that in 2019, I will continue to conquer every hurdle I face!

As much as I wanted 2017 to be an improvement over 2016, in many ways, it was just as difficult a year as its predecessor. No matter what is going on in the world around us, though, we always manage to have fun times and make happy family memories!

January was a pretty quiet month. I got to attend the One Nation Classic at Busch Stadium, after Ryan was there for the first ever St. Louis Winter Classic on January 2nd. It was so cold, I was certain my feet were going to snap off before the end of the day, but it was also a lot of fun, and a unique way to view the ballpark! We also had fun visiting the snowy Missouri Botanical Garden, the Missouri History Museum, and especially the St. Louis Science Center, where we had a membership for the year.

In February, the children and I took the train downtown to visit the NHL Centennial Fan Arena, which was held outside the St. Louis Public Library Central Library…and they were hosting a special exhibition called “50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers” in honor of the Blues 50th season in St. Louis. We attended the Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is always a nice bright spot in the middle of the winter. Bunny got a major hair cut, and donated what was cut off to charity. We celebrated our fourth annual “Seamus Day,” which is one of the most delicious days of the year!

March is always a busy month. Our new refrigerator was welcomed with much excitement after the unexpected demise of the old one. We visited the Butterfly House. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, and then Turkey’s birthday. Right after that, it was time for Chickadee’s 5th birthday, just proving how time flies!

April was a very exciting month. Moose was confirmed! Spring in St. Louis is always beautiful. April finally had that baby giraffe! We celebrated Easter. We visited the St. Louis Art Museum and saw both art and hats.

I’ve come to realize that May rivals November/December in busyness! The American Kantorei performed their last concert at Concordia Seminary. Ladybug celebrated her 10th birthday! Twitch ran a Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood marathon, and we all fell in love with Fred Rogers and all his neighbors all over again. We wrapped up our ninth year of homeschooling, which included Turkey and Bunny completing the eighth grade!!! Ryan and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. We attended Art on the Square. The Missouri Botanical Garden opened their outstanding “Garden of Glass” exhibit. The four oldest children received choir awards again on Ascension Day. We attended Combo Breaker for the second year, and while we were in Chicago, we also visited Medieval Times, the Naper Settlement, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

We traveled to Bowling Green, KY, in June so Bunny could attend volleyball camp at Western Kentucky University. While we were there, we drove to Nashville, TN, and used our reciprocal membership through the St. Louis Science Center to visit the Adventure Science Center. Right after we returned home, the four oldest children attended Kantorei Kamp.

July was another busy month. The Magic House was hosting a Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit, so we went to see it for the second time in just over 10 years. We had a German July 4th. We visited Purina Farms for the very first time. Our air conditioner broke down on one of the hottest days of the summer during Vacation Bible School. We had summer school field trips to the Lewis and Clark Confluence Towers, Camp River Dubois, and Faust Park Historic Village. I found out I was an honorable mention winner in the “PUG Changed My Life” contest. Bunny became a teenager! Turkey attended his second summer of RSCM camp. We visited the St. Louis Carousel on National Carousel Day.

Things didn’t slow down in August. While Ryan was out-of-town for work, the Fab Five and I had a tea party, went roller skating, and had dinner at IKEA…and our air conditioner broke down again. We saw the Wienermobile, and all of the children received Weenie Whistles, which may have been a bad life choice on the part of their mother. We visited the “Dressing Downton” exhibit at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville. While we were in town, we also visited the Parthenon! We had our 11th first day of homeschool, and Moose started sixth grade!!! We all really enjoyed the Great American Solar Eclipse.

September was a month of firsts. We attended the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden for the first time, and it was AMAZING! We went to the Great Forest Park Balloon Race for the first time, too, and even though it started late, it was a lot of fun. I entered a St. Louis Post-Dispatch recipe contest for the first time, and I came in second place!

I guess we kind of had a chance to catch our breath in October. Turkey, Bunny, and I went all in on Hogwarts’ House fashions. We attended the second season of Legends and Lanterns in St. Charles, MO, and visited the most sincere pumpkin patch in Belleville. We discovered how difficult it is to be a Ninja Warrior. We celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, with Bunny, Moose, and Ladybug participating in a mass children’s choir at Concordia Seminary on Reformation Day.

As always, things really picked up in November. The American Kantorei, in a never-say-die movement, had a concert at St. Paul, Des Peres for Bach at NOT the Sem. We visited Creve Coeur Park, and took a walk around the lake. Moose turned twelve! We went on our annual field trip to Cahokia Mounds, where we saw lots of deer! We attended the Conference USA volleyball tournament at Western Kentucky University, and the girls posed with Big Red. We celebrated the Platinum Wedding Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh with a tea party. I made all of the pies for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We visited the Missouri Botanical Garden’s “Garden Glow,” which is one of our favorite Christmas activities of the year!

And that brings us to December, which is always the busiest month of the year! Way too much of this month was taken up by various family members having what I have to assume was some strain of influenza, but we made the best of the time we had. Christmas Traditions in St. Charles, MO, is always one of our favorite events of the whole year, and this year was no exception, even if it was one of the coldest visits we’ve had! Our St. Lucia celebration was as fun as always. We visited nativity scenes from around the world at Belleville’s Cathedral Basilica, learned about Hanukkah, and rang the Salvation Army bell. IKEA has an annual Swedish Julbord dinner, and we attended for the first time. We enjoyed a traditional Belleville Main Street Christmas. And our Markel Family Christmas celebration was a big, three-day event this year!

Of course, no year is perfect. This seemed especially true this year, because there has been so much bad news everywhere you look.  But we hang together, and find our own joy in the everyday, as well as special events, and what more can you ask of family? It’s us against whatever part of the world tries to interrupt our happiness!