The Hughes Family 2021 Holiday Letter

Welcome, dear friends and family.

Thanks for taking the time to visit this site and read through the (mis)adventures of the Hughes household in 2021. While this is a virtual landscape and we can’t all be together, we appreciate your curiosity and interest in our family. I hope this letter finds you well (or you found it?) and here’s to it not being a complete bore.

After almost a year within the pandemic, the family had adjusted to an altered state of being pretty well. Bennington Public Schools had resumed in-person classes, but due to an overwhelming populace at the high school, Izzy had opted to continue remote learning. Avoiding crowded hallways and less-than-enthusiastic mask usage by many classmates drove that decision. As a freshman last year, she spent her year occupying the desk on our second floor common area contributing to her classes as best as possible from her little Chromebook. And while remote learning did come with a unique set of challenges, Izzy persevered and successfully completed her first year of high school remotely with all As and Bs.

Kennedy on the other hand went back to in-person learning at Anchor Pointe Elementry. Life for an elementry student was much different than a high schooler’s, as orderly lines, mask usage, and social distancing provided a much more appealing learning environment. Kennedy also excelled as we began a regular routine of rewarding weekly acing of tests with trips to the nearest Diary Queen. Not being one to let such an arrangement melt through her fingers, Kennedy was regularly coming home with perfect vocab, spelling, and social study test grades. This turned out to not be a great arrangement for Andy’s wallet.

Lili and Andy had also adapted to remote work fairly well. Thanks to thorough foresight on their employer’s behalf, they had been able to work from home since March of 2020 when Mutual of Omaha shut its doors due to its first recorded case of COVID-19. The family home’s upstairs office provided Andy with an adaquate replacement for his previous 9th floor window view of downtown Omaha. Lili had made a nice setup in the spare section of the basement as her replacement workstation, albeit a periodically chilly one. As Andy understood his lot in life, this past spring he graciously swapped offices with his better half. Lili has since pimped out her new office with an impressive Friends decor; complete with a stuffed monkey, orange couch, panoramic photo of Central Perk, and a purple door with a yellow frame encompassing a faux peephole. Andy has grown to love the basement, where the foosball table and dart board are located, along with a hefty space heater.

While the family spent the good chunk of 2020 staying away from public places, 2021 and its availability of vaccinations reopened the possibility of recreational activities. As a fourth grader this year, Kennedy has become an avid volleyball player, joining the Legacy Volleyball program where she’s honing her volleying skills. She’s really latched onto the sport and is eager to prove herself on the court week after week. On top of those bi-weekly classes, Kennedy has also resumed her weekly piano lessons with her instructor, Mrs. Pam. She’s always and forever ready to put on a recital for anyone who’s willing to listen.

Izzy, a sophomore this year, has also picked activities back up as well. This year she had joined the fall theater one-act production at Bennington High School for "The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood" as a crew member, helping build and teardown the set for each performance. She has also joined the bowling team, finally finding a sport that fully agrees with her. The team is part of the Unified athletic program, where Izzy and other classmates are teamed up with differently-abled students as a competing team. She’s found it to be a very rewarding experience.

Izzy has also developed quite a talent for illustration and art in general. Following (and excelling) in her dad’s footsteps, she has found a creative outlet through drawing and artwork. For those who know her, she has always talked about becoming an artist in some form and helping create the characters and enviornments for movies and/or video games. This year she took a major step forward by applying for Ringling College of Art and Design’s precollege program. This upcoming June, she will spend a month at the school’s Sarasota, Florida campus, taking college credit courses and getting a taste of what a real art school is all about. To say she’s excited would be a significant understatement.

Lili has also found an additional purpose this year as well. This fall she began her studies for a Masters degree of Organizational Leadership at Bellevue University. This follows up her Bachelors degree of Business Leadership that she earned ten years ago. The courses are all online and will provide her many additional avenues for opportunity when she graduates in the spring of 2023. Lili continues her role as the Supervisor of Benefit Enrollment Support Services at Mutual of Omaha, helping companies enroll their employees with Mutual’s group insurance products. She has grown her team quite a bit this past year, doubling its size to support the ever growing enrollment demand. Not to mention she was able to travel for work again this year, attending a week of team building in the Florida Keys. Totally all work related, folks. No horse play or anything happened on that trip… seriously!

Andy on the other hand has not exactly been as active with extracurricular activities. He has plunged himself mostly into his career this year… and what an active year it was. As a manager of front-end developers for Mutual of Omaha’s digital marketing efforts, he lead them through three different organizational changes this year. Included in this reorg was moving his entire team from Marketing to the Information Services division of the company. More details could be provided, but it’s only exciting to him and we can see you’re already yawning. Inspired by his wife, and looking to achieve a bit more of an edge in his career, Andy also enrolled in a graduate program at Bellevue University. He will be working towards his Masters in Strategic Marketing starting in Feburary, something he is really excited about pursuing. Andy also joined his neighborhood Homeowners’ Association board for Majestic Pointe as “Member at Large” (which is a very suspicious title, to be honest). The rest of his time has been taken helping fulfill the role of support for Izzy and Kennedy for all sorts of activities and homework, as well as the never-ending amount of household chores. He also built some killer storage shelving in his basement, they’re really cool. #BoringDadStuff

The family also took their first trip together in July — the first since 2019. Banding together with Lili’s sister’s family (Vivi, Nick, Jake, David, and Joel Schmitt) they all traveled out to beautiful Blackhawk, Colorado and stayed for a week, taking in the fresh air and finally getting away for some much-needed R&R. It was an amazing experience and the family is addicted to the Rocky Mountain high — albeit the periodic swelling of feet and lower oxygen that comes with the increased elevation (take this as, “Andy’s body doesn’t like high altitudes but he’s stubborn anyway”).

The significant low point of the year came with the passing of Andy’s mom, Mary Hughes, in early November. She had been battling liver and pancreatic cancer for the past 18 months having been diagnosed shortly after the pandemic began in 2020. This endurance was a feat unto itself to say the least if you’re familiar with how agressive that kind of cancer can be. While Mary was a tremendous fighter and the condition was caught very early on, the treatment turned out to be worse than the condition. Mary’s body did not respond well to the various forms of chemo she was given. She wound up spending a few weeks sporadically in the hospital due to one ailment or another brought on by the treatments. In late September, mom made the decision with her husband and Andy’s dad, Rowland Hughes to end the chemo and enter hospice at her home. Having been cared for so lovingly by her whole family, Mary passed away peacefully the morning of November 2^nd.

If there was anything good to come out of Mary’s passing, it would be her contribution to cancer research. The morning of her passing, UNMC was able to collect cancer cells from her body that will be used in their research. It is the hope that Mary’s donation will lead to advancements in cancer treatments and a better understanding of the disease overall.

Even given the loss of Mary, the family is still plugging along. We have each other and the enduring love that she had given to each of us. And we know that she is with every one of us as we continue to build our lives. We’re looking towards 2022 with the hope that we’ll be able to finally come out of the pandemic and begin to live more normally once again.

Happy holidays and a great New Year to you and your family. We love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
the Hughes Family