"I planned out our whole day. First, we’ll make snow angels for a two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Toll House cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle."

"And we’re going to have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas."

John's Usual Excuses & Apologies--

Less than 2 weeks until Christmas! I know that we've all said it lots of times over the past 10+ months, but 2020 has been such a weird year! On one hand, it's gone really fast. It really doesn't seem like a whole year has passed. On the other hand, there has been so many very different epochs over the past 12 months, it's hard to believe that it's all happened in less than 12 months. We started the year like any other holiday season with all of the normal concerns. Then by the end of March everything shut down for more than 2 months. Then in June things started to gradually re-open and felt almost normal as long as you were doing things outdoors pretty much through August. Finally toward the beginning of October we entered our current period with lots of people locally affected. Everyone seems to be saying that this current infection risk level is going to be the status quo for a few months. That's one of the main reasons that CLI will be closed from 12/23/20 though 1/10/21-- to limit our exposure to one another during the holidays when it's harder to maintain your isolated bubble.

I'm looking forward to 2021. CLI was awarded two grants by the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities(DODD) that we need to have completed by June 30, but the visible effects of those grants happen after June. I will be talking more about each of these grants in January newsletters. We are excited to jump back into the (real) community late spring/early summer once it's safe. I feel like we really are in the home stretch. Let's all do everything we can to keep each other safe!

DODD is conducting a virtual Provider Compliance Review this Tuesday, December 15th. Holly, Jen & I are disappointed that we can't host them in person this year. It's always helpful to have professionals with a wider context take a personal look at what we are doing and get a sense of how it compares to the outside world. This virtual review is by necessity a bit more document-compliance oriented than our last review is. They will be talking by phone or computer to a few clients, family & staff-- and there will be a few walkthrough reviews using smartphones (in case anyone wonders why we're walking around looking like we're playing Pokemon Go Tuesday).

At the top of the page are 3 links that will take you to CLI's annual survey. We need LOTS of input please! We use this information to help us design services that people want AND this year your answers will be part of the assessment that CLI has to do as part of the DODD grant. CLI staff will be happy to help anyone that needs help filling out their survey. If you know ANYONE who has an opinion-- good or bad-- about CLI and what we do, we want to hear it! All three surveys are available at www.CLIsupports.com or they just need to give me an email address and I'll send it to them.

That's all I have for this week. Keep yourself safe (and those hands clean).

"Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?

"“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”

Spread the word!