Our 2020 Time Capsule
Overall this year was spent largely at home. In March the kids started emergency distanced learning. We canceled our spring break trip to London and Paris. Jay increased virtual clinics with patients and his surgical practice fluctuated based on safety protocols. My life sort of stayed the same, except I was cooking more and driving less; supplementing the kids writing education at home; and teaching P.E. My bar exam tutoring business slowed down given the postponements and changes to the CA bar exam. We finally set up a will and trust. We did not get a pet. We sewed masks.
Annika thankfully outgrew me. Her quarantine hair might outgrow me too. Xander got his phase 1 braces off; Annika got her phase 2 braces on. We went to the beach often and kept Sidecar Doughnuts in business.
In the fall, Annika chose to enter middle school virtually. Xander started fifth grade in the hybrid format. A friend and I began supplementing the 5th grade education for our boys because the fun projects, presentations and challenging reports weren’t happening anymore. We VOTED in November. In December, Jay got his first dose of the Pfizer VACCINE.
Despite 2020 being 2020, we still managed to make and witness some noteworthy memories this year.
Memorable Pre-Covid adventures
There were a few things we are grateful we were able to do before quarantine:
1. Annika went camping in Big Bear with her 6th grade class for Outdoor Ed. It was her first trip on her own. She came back happy and exhausted. Upon her return, she didn’t wake up until 1 p.m. the next day!
2. Xander performed in his class musical: California Missions and More. The songs were catchy and too easily got stuck in our heads.
3. Xander and Annika both learned to square dance with their class. Annika loved it, Xander said he could have done without it.
4. Xander finished his first basketball season and Jay coached a game.
5. Annika participated in competitive swim meets and improved her times.
6. The Parekh extended family enjoyed a February family reunion at my parent’s new home in San Diego where a group of 8 cousins played UNO inside a giant furniture box.
7. We attended the annual Women’s March.
8. We shared one last family night at the theater on Valentine’s Day to see “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.”
9. Annika and her friends received a blue ribbon in the 6th grade science fair.
10. Our kitchen update was finished.
Out-of-the-house adventures
1. Joshua Tree to see the milky way. It was a 6-hour roundtrip, we did it in all in one night. Snacks packed and an emergency portable toilet in the back! On the way back belted Galileo by Indigo Girls.
2. The beach! Early morning boogie boarding pre-crowds in Newport Beach made for easy sibling bonding. I tried it once too...on the one day the ocean was cold. My fingers were too numb to unlock the car! Paddle boarding in Carlsbad with cousins and Newport Beach with friends. And date morning walks with Jay during the open hours in Laguna.
3. Watching Hamilton on a big outdoor screen at Tiffany & Brandon’s house
4. Visiting family in San Diego and playing games around the fire pit.
5. Hiking. One with the Balls to see the goats graze. The goats were brought in to prevent wildfires. Many other hikes (especially in San Diego with cousins.)
6. Bike rides through the neighborhood.
7. Losing our beloved eucalyptus tree to the Santa Ana winds and then evacuating our home because of a wildfire.
In-home adventures
2. Composting
3. Mastering sourdough with friends and other baking adventures (even though half the group didn’t eat bread!)
4. Indian cooking lessons with Dadi on zoom. Xander learned how to make roti and thepla.
5. Table Tennis Tournaments
6. Board games galore (including the game Pandemic, which we played even before the Pandemic).
7. Following the 2020 Election and feeling relief with the result
8. Home school writing and projects with mama
9. Haircuts with mama
10. Family workouts
11. Camping with Daddy in the backyard, while mama got the bed all to herself.
12. Volunteering as an attorney for the ACLU voter hotline in Michigan courtesy of Sharon Dolente signing me up!
13. Celebrated our 15 year anniversary with our wedding wear in the backyard with our kids as the papparazi.
Memorable Zooms
1. The first and novice Parekh family zoom where no one could hear each other over everyone else talking and babies screaming.
2. An intimate zoom for Amy’s birthday organized by friends (Thank you Laurie for organizing!)
3. Jay’s college fraternity friends zoom
4. Shah extended family zoom – they showed us how to organize an actual conversation!
5. A zoom with the Parekh cousins from India, America, and Australia - many of us hadn’t seen each other in over a decade.
6. The four sister’s zoom (no kids!)
What we maintained despite quarantine
1. Virtual piano, harp and voice lessons
2. Math classes
3. Shopping at the local farmer’s market, eating local, and cooking healthy
4. Annika’s neighborhood friends’ pod (distanced with masks)
5. Xander’s friendships through an outdoor PE class (wearing masks)
6. Outdoor personal training sessions with Adonis
7. Family tennis with Coach Daddy
8. Swim team practice
9. Maximizing our Peloton
10. Yoga
11. Games galore: brought back some oldies out of the cupboard too like Cranium and Taboo
12. Swimming in storms
13. Revived age-old knitting projects
14. Paddle boarding
15. Hiking
Traditions kept or created
1. Diwali candle making and singing songs together
2. Thanksgiving gratitude fire circle
3. Many visits to San Diego playing games around the fire pit
4. Christmas crafts and baking: Making new tree ornaments and Santa cookies
Amy’s top podcasts
1. Business Wars
2. The Daily
3. Axios Today
4. Deep Background by Noah Feldman (especially the Deep Bench series)
5. The Doctor’s Farmacy
6. The Dr. Gundry Podcast
7. Dr. Death (The Dr. Fata series which took place in my old Detroit criminal defense world stomping grounds).
8. Select episodes of Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard (honorable mention for the episode with Jay’s cousin Rajiv Shah!)
9. RadioLab
Jay’s top podcasts
1. The Tim Ferriss Show
2. the drive by Peter Attia
3. Marketplace
4. The Daily
5. Presidential
6. Business Wars
7. Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell
8. Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
9. How I Built This
10. White Coat Investor
11. Trade Offs Health Care. Policy. People.
Xander’s top podcasts
1. Overheard
2. Short Wave
3. Business Wars
4. Disappearing Spoon
5. Presidential
6. The Daily
7. Axios Today
Annika’s top podcasts
1. Business Wars
2. The Daily
3. Short Wave
4. Marketplace
5. Axios Today
Top silver linings
1. Deeper and more frequent connections with long distance friends from high school, college, law school and early motherhood
2. Keeping our teenager close at heart for an extra year
3. Sibling bonds
4. Two new Taylor Swift albums
5. Biden Harris FTW!!!!!!!
6. Tennis lessons with Jay
7. Annika was interviewed with friends for an article in the Economist titled Girlhood, and the major theme among her and her friends was their strong relationships with their mothers
8. How baking adventures created recipe, treat, and starter exchanges and fostered community connections
Things we missed the most
1. Hugging & gathering with friends and family
2. Our annual yoga party (Annika’s and mine)
3. Travel
4. Out-of-state family members
5. Touching my face (although, the silver lining was better skin!)
The kids probably survived quarantine so well because they were able to escape into the imaginary world of books. They read more this year than I have read in my life. Making me realize I need time limits on social media and election law blog sites. Here are many of the books they read and recommend to friends and family. They also both wrote blogposts featuring some of their favorites here and here.
Annika’s and Xander’s 2020 favorite book series
1. Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
3. Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
4. Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan
5. Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan
6. Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan
7. Harry Potter by JK Rowling
8. Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger
9. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10. Twilight (Annika) by Stephanie Meyer
11. School for Good and Evil (Annika) by Soman Chainani
12. Wings of Fire (Xander) by Tui T Sutherland
13. Aru Shah (Xander) by Roshani Chokshi
14. Storm Runner (Xander) by J.C. Cervantes
15. Tristan Strong (Xander) by Kwame Mbalia
16. The Vanderbeekers by Karina Yan Glaser
17. Chronicles of Narnia (Xander) by C.S. Lewis
Annika’s favorite 2020 books
1. Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
2. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
3. The Sun is also a Star & Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
4. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
5. flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
7. Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
8. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
9. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
10. A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielson
Xander’s favorite 2020 books
1. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
3. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
4. White Fang by Jack London
5. Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
6. Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sacher
7. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
8. Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
9. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
10. Holes by Louis Sacher
11. Code Talkers by Joseph Bruchac
Amy’s & Jay’s 2020 books (we probably only read a few between us – yikes!)
Amy’s
1. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
2. The Girl with Seven Names by Lee Hyeon-sou
3. A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Neilson
4. Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates
5. Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Jay’s
1. Harry Potter series
2. Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
Amy & Jay (adult only movies and shows)
1. Queen’s Gambit - a great end to a year of lots chess matches
2. Parasite - it was good, worthy of an Oscar, but could never watch it again
Not much alone time this year!
Family shows
2. 60 Minutes
3. The Daily Show
4. The Ronny Chieng – Asian Comedian Destroys America
5. Hasan Minaj – The Patriot Act
6. The first 5 minutes of Between Two Ferns
7. The Office
8. Space Force
9. The Good Place
10. Never Have I Ever
Amy’s 2020 binge-worthy shows while riding a bike to nowhere
1. Big Little Lies
2. Mrs. America
3. Kim’s Convenience (kid friendly)
4. Emily in Paris
5. The Crown
6. Schitt’s Creek
Family documentaries
1. The Last Dance
2. Kiss The Ground
3. David Attenborough’s Our Planet
4. My Octopus Teacher
5. Hillary
6. Thirteenth
7. American Factory
8. Taylor Swift: Miss Americana (Annika’s favorite)
9. Taylor Swift: Long Pond Studio Sessions (Annika rewatches this one often)
10. The Social Dilemma
Family movies
1. Hamilton
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
4. Jumanji: The Next Level
5. Remember the Titans
6. Instant Family
7. Just Mercy
8. Marvel movies
9. Harry Potter movies
10. Soul
11. WW84
12. Molly’s Game
13. Tangled
14. Safety
15. The Wedding Planner
16. Home Alone & Home Alone 2 (but it’s not really a 2020 movie, we watch it every year)
17. The Prom
18. Mulan (old and new)
19. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
20. Moneyball
21. Oceans 11 & 12
22. Maleficent 2
23. Frozen 2 (pre-Covid in theater)
24. Little Women (pre-Covid in theater)
25. Mission Impossible - The Fallout (and now Xander loves to copy that Tom Cruise run!)
26. Enola Holmes
27. Knives Out
Movies we wasted our time on
1. Mall Cop
2. Pan
3. The Prom (half of the family watched half of the movie)
4. WW84 (but still glad we watched it)
Items we were glad we already owned in 2020
1. A Peloton
2. A bidet
3. Adjustable dumb bells (bought for $199, Covid pricing became $899!!!)
4. Kindles
5. Puzzles
6. Instant Pot
Best purchases made in 2020
1. Vuori joggers
2. Roku – so we can watch Disney+ and do Peloton workouts on the big screen
3. Theragun
4. Updated tennis rackets (Xander commented that we were playing with rackets 3xs his age!)
5. New puzzles
6. Books
7. Peloton stock
May your 2021 be filled with hugs, kisses, good health, and deeper connections.
More books and less twitter.
Bigger communities and herd immunity.
We hope to see you all and hug you all in-person in 2021!!!