November 2022

Social butterflies
Once you get to Halloween, it’s pretty non-stop till January, and this November — the first fully post-lockdown holiday season — was absolutely roaring. Manir had a pool party for his birthday (with like 20 kids from all his various overlapping enthusiasms; Lukas and Owen sat it out and played masked-up D&D in the house). Sam had a game night for his birthday, which sounded like a few hours of more or less total chaotic fun. I took Annika to the Mother Mother show in San Francisco on a rainy night in early November; she was super-psyched and loved every minute. (It was on the drive home in the rainy dark that I realized I needed glasses for distance viewing — the highway signs didn’t reveal themselves quite as soon as I needed them to!). The Los Alamitos crowd had an early-out week for PT conferences (ours went well, we thought, but R. and I both had a little bit of side-eye for some of what the teacher said — more about that later — and we gave her the part of the ADHD diagnostic packet for teachers), so we met up with his friends a lot — a hangout with Manir, D&D for the blade team at Ben’s, etc.). And there was the first annual Dandy Black & White Ball, an evening fundraiser for the school with a silent auction and dancing, the whole bit; we made up a table with Ami & Ritesh, Brandi and Alastair, and some other friends. It was a great time, even if it did make it a little difficult to get up for blade team the next day. ;-)  

Home and Away
Rain finally came after so many, many dry months — it was heavenly to have what other places think of as fall weather around here! The kids were off of school on Veterans Day, so the kids and I went out to breakfast on a weekday. And finally, the big week: Science Camp for the fifth graders! Lukas was excited, but pretty nervous going in, though he didn’t want to show it on the morning of (and didn’t want me takin’ pics as they loaded onto the bus, lol). We all three wrote him letters, and we got a few posts from teacher-chaperones on a blog that had pics (some of which he was in). But we missed him so much! It was so very odd not having his energy around the house. We made the best of it; the three of us at home watched a bunch of Stranger Things episodes together — getting close to caught up! When he got home, he was ragged-out tired, and gave the whole experience a 4 out of 10 (Manir gave it a 3!); he hadn’t really enjoyed being away from home, and didn’t have a lot good to say with the exception of a few small moments. But I think he’ll look more fondly on it later, and at the very least, he certainly did have an experience. 

Lukas's birthday!
This little guy is ELEVEN! Wild and crazy … like him. :-) Given Science Camp coming up and then the Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to have his birthday party the weekend before. We invited the Blade Team plus siblings and a couple of other people; the party largely consisted of splitting the kids into groups and sending them into the park with walkie-talkies to do “missions” (or was it quests?) — something they made up and I don’t understand, but it looked super fun. Of course there was cake, and presents, and horsing around at our house as well — another great, no-frills adventure for the little band of merry goofballs. He got home from Science Camp on his actual birthday — Ami and I took HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKAS!!! signs with us to welcome the buses home, and she had a present (selected beforehand by Manir) for him to unwrap (I had sent him a tiny little something in his luggage, even though we were told by the teachers not to do that! heh). He hadn’t been there to eat breakfast at his specially-decorated place, but it was waiting for him in the afternoon nonetheless. That night we had the family favorite chocolate-raspberry cake and presents, tending heavily toward band T-shirts, secreted-away Disney stuff, and gamer dude paraphernalia. Grandma & Grandpa came to visit the birthday boy, bearing gifts (Robux chief among them). He is such a huggable muggable, the neatest of the meatest and the munsterest of buns! Happy birthday, Danger Tween — love you so so so much!!!

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving week started off a little dicey — Sunday night, the weekend after his birthday and return from camp, Lukas had a sore throat and fever and missed all three days of school; it wasn’t covid, but we were still worried about having the grandparents over, under the circumstances. He rallied, though, and we put on a good feast once again: the Macy Day Parade, the dog show, the grandparents’ arrival (and R. and I out of the Very Nice Room to our own bed in the nick of time, so they could stay over!), and a heaving table full of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, pie, etc. We spent the weekend watching movies, eating leftovers, laying around, and putting up the outdoor Christmas lights — rain was in the forecast, and R. wanted that bit done at least. And now — let the Christmas season begin!