December 2020

 Christmastime again!

The month of December is pretty much all about Christmas, and so nearly everything we did was related to it in some way, from the millions of packages arriving every day (we had to order everything online, since there was virtually zero in-store shopping) to the dozens of batches of xmas cookies we made (plenty to share with friends; the kids and I did drop-offs at several houses). Our movie nights were all xmas/holiday all the time: Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special, Yo Gabba Gabba’s Very Awesome Christmas (plus their regular Xmas ep, the Winter ep, and the Octonauts’ xmas ep), The Nightmare Before Christmas (several times), Elf (a new family favorite), A Christmas Story (also several times), all the old classics (Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, et. al.) — pretty much everything but Die Hard (which was for R. and I on xmas eve, per tradition) and Scrooged (which is my present-wrapping background movie). Christmas Tree Gettin’ Day was the first Saturday of the month, and we got a good one at the first lot we tried; as is tradition, R. and I had White Russians while the kids had hot chocolate and eggnog, we put on R.’s holiday music playlist, and got it decorated, finishing the night with A Christmas Story (aka “The Movie”). Lots of things were different (e.g. no school holiday parties), but Fantasy of Lights was basically pandemic-proof, so we did get to enjoy driving through Vasona Park as usual; we also walked our neighborhood at night a couple of times to see the local color. Hiding the kids’ Advent Treasure Hunt stuff was harder this year because everyone was home, but I managed it (minus a few days here and there). I shopped for groceries on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday, to avoid crowds prepping for their xmas feasts. On the 24th, we all were able to “get” at least one other person with “Christmas Eve Gift!”, so nobody’s feathers were ruffled. And finally, on the big day itself, Santa Claus showed up (evidenced by the gifts, and the eaten cookies & empty milk glass by the fireplace) as did a million other gifts; R. and I could have taken the opportunity to be like “this is the year we focus on how material things don’t really matter, and it’s all about family and togetherness (which it is, we know!),” but instead we went full fuck-it (as in, anything you so much as mention, you’re totally getting it): art supplies, Disneyland merch, Nerf guns, anime books and merch, mechanical Baby Yoda, YouTuber merch, Switch games, etc. etc. etc. It was sad to not have Grandma and Grandpa here, and we missed seeing the cousins, but FaceTime had to bridge the gap — here’s hoping we don’t need that next year because life is back to normal! Santa Update: Lukas still believes … sorta … heh. He’s asking all kinds of questions, and this is probably our last hurrah, but it’s been fun while it lasted. 

Friends and such
We did manage to see some of our friends — a park meetup here and there, a bike ride for me — and in the meantime, the kids spent a lot of time on Saucecraft (with Skyler, Mason and Ethan) and other online social things. R. decided the time was right to finally paint all the upstairs doors, so he set up a workshop in the empty garage and sunk a few nights and weekends into getting them done asap (while the kids — well, Annika really — bemoaned the lack of doors; we had to fix up a curtain on a tension rod for her room, but still we heard many times daily how ineffectual and unacceptable the situation was … but now we have nice, finished doors, so it was worth it. And finally, in the interest of getting outdoors and building endurance, Annika and I started a couch-to-5K program, running every other day (at lunchtime on school days); there are no races right now, obviously — we were just using the program to give some structure to her goals.  

Quotable
—“Did you ever have an emo phase?” (Annika, with malice aforethought, lol)
—“Grandpa sent me a bag of dirt and an onion.” (Annika, opening a horticultural gift from Grandpa — it was a flower bulb, and the dirt to get it started in a pot)
—“It's 3:00 and that's the bad hour.” (Lukas having a nightmare and getting into bed with us)
—“I just think it’s weird that people roleplay the birth of Jesus.” (Lukas re: nativity scenes)
—“paranorma” (Lukas, misreading “panorama” on one of his many effects apps
—“No, the game has buttons.”  (Lukas with a devastating burn, in response to me saying I’d own them on the Switch tennis)