Favorites Makes of 2020
In this post, I will share my favorite things that I made in 2020. When I was thinking about what I made, all I could think of was endless crafts I did with Daphné (and may or may not have rolled my eyes). Remember I had Daphné and Django at home all day everyday from March 17th until September 1st. That’s a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, especially because we couldn’t leave our house except for an hour a day for 2 of those months. Yowzahzz! But I did it with with the amazing help of my husband and in-laws! We made a great team.
And I actually made more than I thought. I bet you did too when you think about it. The verb “to make” is quite broad (could even be memories). I’d love to hear what you “made” in the comments below. But here we go! Some of the favorite things I made in 2020…
1) Easter play
I wrote and directed an Easter play during confinement. All the actors were Petrignani’s, and it was all filmed at Pierre and Nancy’s place and in the garden area of our apartment complex. We had a blast, and everyone at church gave us lots of great feedback. It was a cool way to unite us all for Easter, even though we were still doing Zoom church. I was also able to share it with some families from Daphné’s school. It is in French, but if you would like to get a glimpse, click here.
2) Restaurant in our home
To celebrate Tonio’s 38th birthday (on May 22nd), we still couldn’t go to restaurants because they weren’t open, even though we had just been de-confined. So, I made the “Brasserie de Susan B.” Daphné was our waitress, and we invited Pierre and Nancy (I still can’t thank the Lord enough for finding us an apartment in the same building as them!!!). It was a nice time and super chill, which I think worked well for all of us. I’m always thankful to celebrate my man. I’m sure glad the Lord chose to make Tonio =).
3) Strawberry shortcake
Now, if you’re like me, growing up we had strawberry shortcake, but we just bought the “cake” and put strawberries and whip cream on it… voilà. it was always really yummy, and I thought that was that. My eyes have been opened. For Tonio’s birthday, I asked him to pick a dessert from this super fancy French cookbook, and he chose “Charlotte aux Fraises” (strawberry shortcake). It was a crazy challenge, but was so yummy. The cookbook I used (which was a gift to me in my first years here in France) is called “Ripailles, 1 Livre, 299 Recettes” and can be found here.
Tonio and I became recording artists out of pure necessity. He played guitar or cajon, sang, and did all things sound and video. I played and/or sang and entered the words on the screen (which could end up being a two hour process each week : creating png’s in a program like power point, then uploading them to imovie, then listening to the recording and dragging and dropping the slides accordingly.) We got more efficient, but it was a huge endeavor. Thankfully, we have technology that made all of this possible. It united the church in our time of confinement, which was such a blessing! If you’d like to check out some of the videos, you can view Calvary Chapel Nice’s youtube channel here.
5) Wrote a melody with Daphné
To say “wrote a song” wouldn’t be accurate, since the words were already written. But Daphné and I created a singable melody to a sweet little 4-lined poem from a book given to every child in Nice. It was to celebrate Nice’s 160th anniversary as a united city. I can’t share it here because my Vimeo account is expired… boo hoo. But if you want me to whatsapp or imessage or email it to you, let me know.
I thank Jesus for His never-ending blessings and a brain with which to be creative. It’s amazing to see how He is at work ALWAYS. We have the choice to recognize it or not. And, yes, sometimes we can’t see it… it’s in those times, where we cling to the Promises of God and trust that He knows better than we do. Thanks again for stopping by. Let me know what you made!!!
Love Linz