From the Editor

ON THE COVER

Pie Chef

Chef John Hall stands in the new Post Office Pies location that he opened with his business partners in Lane Parke this fall. Photo by Mary Fehr Design by Jamie Dawkins YY’all, we made it. Believe it or not, 2020 will have an end, and it’s just around the corner as we wrap up this issue. I certainly can’t recall a more tumultuous season or, ironically, one where I spent oh so much time slowing down and enjoying the simplicity of the everyday goodness. As I’m looking back through this issue’s stories, most seem to be telling microcosms of 2020. Let’s start with tragedy. Our feature on the Buddys App starts with Caitie and James Morgan’s story of losing their son the night before his first birthday in an unexpected twist of sorrow. That part of their story feels very 2020-esque, with the loss of so many lives as we watched news story after life event unveiling yet another calamity to drag this year down further and further. But that’s not where the Morgans’ story, or 2020, ends though. With time came glimmers of hope for their family and later an app to help bring light to others walking through darkness in life through connections to others in similar situations. Be sure to read more about it and the lives it honors in the pages that lie ahead, as well as the story of how Lacey

Simmons’ signature abstract feather artwork was born of a difficult season she unexpectedly spent at her parents’ house—sound like a familiar life theme for this year?

There have been other plot lines in the midst of the messiness of this year too, like following through with plans to open a new restaurant location during a pandemic. Doing so feels crazy, Post Office Pies Chef John Hall admitted to us, but also he says his team knew they had to. And isn’t that a universal story to a degree too? Remember the days when even leaving your home felt crazy? And yet at times you had to. Some parts of life have had to go on, with a new sort of normal, strange though it may be.

And then there’s the place where we all found ourselves forever on end this year: home. While you might be tired of time inside yours, in the pages ahead we take you on a tour of the Dennistons’ brick colonial home all dressed up for the holidays. Looking back at these festive spaces we photographed pre-pandemic last Christmas, I am reminded of how the space where we wake each morning, where we dirty dishes and fill our stomachs, where we recline to rest and sleep ushers in a constant of comforts as tumult escalates in our larger worlds.

That’s not even getting to our Q&As with the stellar School Resource

Officers who are so passionate about building relationships with students. Be sure to check those out in these pages too along with our annual Holiday Gift Guide. 2020—it’s been a wild ride we’re all ready to usher out, but we sure are glad we’ve lived out in the richness of community around us here in Mountain Brook. Here’s to hoping your year ends with joyous memories amidst all the crazy!