“Foster, are you up?”

“Do I look like I’m up?” I mumbled in response to Panda’s all too familiar question. “What?”

Panda jumped down from the chair. “I got another idea for the blog!” he said excitedly.

“Dude,” I said, jumping off the chair to get on eye level with him. “You should just start your own blog! What now?” Panda ignored my comment and continued. “Well,” he said. “You know how we did The Year in Review? Well, not everything that happened last year had to do with Social Distancing. I think we should do another one to show what else we did in 2020.”

“Hmm,” I replied, thinking for a moment. “That could be a good idea. Let’s go see if Mom’s using the computer.”

“The coast is clear!” I announced, jumping up onto the desk. “Maybe she went to Starbucks or something.” Panda did his best to climb up onto the desk with me. “Cool!” he said, when he finally made it. “And she left the laptop on!”

“Don’t touch anything, Bro,” I warned. “Remember the last time, we ended up in the Amazon rainforest!” Panda sniffed. “Well,” he replied, “that wasn’t entirely my fault. But let’s look through some of Mom’s photos from 2020 to get ideas.”

“Well,” I said when we figured out how to open the photos. “It looks like we have plenty of blog material here. What shall we write about first?”

“What about telling how Mom got a new ottoman for the front room?” Panda suggested. “It sure is better than that one she made after seeing a DIY on Pinterest!” I had to laugh. “That’s for sure! When was that anyway?” Panda clicked through the blog until he found the post. “July of 2017,” he responded. “Thank goodness she hasn’t tried making another one of those!”

• 

• 

• 

“I guess we should show how she painted the accent wall in the front room,” I said, “since that did involve an element of risk.” Panda nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there was. If she hadn’t liked the way it turned out, it would have been hard to paint over such a dark color.”

• 

• 

• 

• 

“Plus she finished the wall by the blue dresser too,” I added. Panda agreed with me that it looks great. “But,” he ventured, “If you don’t mind my asking, what is that extension cord coming through the old mail slot?”

“Didn’t you know?” I responded. “That was for Mom’s Christmas lights!” Panda couldn’t hide his amazement. “Mom put up Christmas lights?” he asked incredulously. “Well, those were the only ones she had,” I replied. “The rest of the block had them up, and she thought it added cheer to an otherwise dreary Christmas season.” Panda nodded. “That was a really good idea,” he said. “You know she keeps saying that whatever happens, if we trust God, everything will be okay.”

“Back to the front porch,” Panda continued, “remember when she put the mosaic on the steps? That was really cool.” I agreed. “After all, our house is a very, very, very fine house.”

• 

• 

• 

“You did know, didn’t you,” I continued, “that she’s also putting a mosaic on the fireplace in the front room?” Panda’s eyes widened. “Coolness!” he exclaimed. “That will probably make a good blog post when it’s all done!”

“Oh, wow,” I interjected, changing the subject. “I know what would make another good post! Mom rearranged the furniture and started cleaning the sewing room !” Panda laughed. “Again?” he asked, shaking his head. We all know that’s a never ending project! Looks like she found Belle and Emma, though. They were probably underneath a pile of fabric or something!”

• 

• 

• 

“Oh man, what about when you tried to eat the broom?” Panda suggested, after we had spent some time reflecting about Belle, Emma, and the sewing room. “Don’t remind me,” I said. “That was not fun!” Panda was less than sympathetic. “Well next time don’t eat stuff you’re not supposed to,” was his reply.

“We can’t forget about how Mom was ‘big girl’ and fixed the washing machine,” I said somewhat proudly. We both know Mom tries her best to be “big girl” at all times.

• 

• 

• 

• 

“Oh hey!” Panda exclaimed. “Remember when we found out you and Cousin Inky live in a parallel universe?” I nodded. “That was really amazing,” I said. “I bet that doesn’t happen very often!”

• 

• 

“And what about when I went to the Christian school?” Panda offered. “Mom read one of our adventure stories to the first and second grade class when they went online. She didn’t make it into a blog post, but I’ve been a couple of other times in 2019 and got to see the kids in person.”

“Wow!” I said, after we had gone back to the front living room and climbed up onto the cat tree. “We’ve had a lot of adventures in 2020. I’m tired just thinking about them all.”

“Me too,” Panda said. “Let’s get back in the red chair.” And so we did.