December 2022

School & Socials
December can’t help but be a very busy month; this is just some of what we got up to: Annika and I went to the PHS drama department’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace (several of her friends were in the crew) — it was better than I expected, and her friend Ezra stole the show in a smaller part. Poor Lukas got sick and missed out on Matching Day, which he’d planned to do with Manir, but on another day, got to go to BJ’s for a pizookie with Mr. Dinh (and the other fourth-grade Dandy Day teacher raffle winners) as Ben’s plus-one. To all of our delight (really!), there was rain rain rain (and cold) most of the days of the month. Both of the kids got their checkups (two years late, thanks to covid). Annika had her first real finals week, the kind you have to study and plan for (but get three short days, so it balanced out!). Lukas and I went with Manir and Ami to Castillero’s holiday orchestra/band/dance/drama spectacular — it’s a recruiting event, essentially, but did absolutely jack to change my kid’s mind on electives, lol. Annika went to a cookie-making party at Sydney’s, and the Blade Team had an hourslong D&D session at Reid’s, feat. their new kittens (which didn’t affect Lukas’s allergy at all, so now he’s convinced he’s outgrown it and we can get cats. R. begs to differ). 

Christmastime!
The first weekend of the month was a highlight of my personal holiday calendar: Christmas Tree Gettin' Day! We ended up getting the first tree we saw; once it was decorated, we took a night walk to see the neighborhood’s lights, and had our first viewing of The Movie (A Christmas Story, obviously). Another weekend, we went to the drive-through Fantasy of Lights; all month long, movie night was holiday-themed (ACS, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special, Frosty, Rudolph, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Albert, etc. etc. etc.). The kids were in school until December 23 (ugh), but at least R. was working from home for the month and off completely between 12/23 and January. On Christmas Eve, the grandparents arrived midafternoon; we were all wrapping presents and prepping food and so on, and retired relatively early after one last Xmas entertainment (the Yo Gabba Gabba! episode about Christmas — as opposed to their Very Awesome Christmas special). Christmas morning got off to a not too early start; we put A Christmas Story on loop, dove into our stockings, got the turkey in the oven, and started ripping open the presents — which included a lot of shirts (CB3, Oneders, Zelda, Star Wars, etc.) for both kids, weird-scented candles and lots of books for Annika, and retro cassettes and a tape recorder for Lukas. Annika knitted R. a hat and me a scarf.  R.'s laboriously digitized/stitched-together/edited/color- and frame-rate corrected home movie from the 40s to the 70s was the marquee present for the grandparents, and we had a 90-min. visit from the Sunnyvale household. All in all, a lovely couple of days, and all the more valued because of the mess of the last few pandemic years. 

Holidays plus

The week between Xmas and New Year’s was cozy and lazy; on the 26th, the grandparents stayed a little longer than usual and we all watched the 3.5-hour home movie, with commentary provided by the Dorks. On the 27th, the four of us began what turned into an epic game of Risk; we left it on the table, photographed at the end of each session to prevent foul play, and waged a global war that only ended when I gambled, lost, and got outflanked — after which the kids teamed up to demolish R. It was fun, but: NEVER AGAIN. heh. We were supposed to go back to Uvas Canyon with the Patels to hike on the morning of New Year’s Eve, but it was a thorough rainout — one of the rainiest days of a very rainy season, which would have been dangerous to attempt even if the park had foolishly been open. So instead, we went over to their house for chicken and waffles, then continued the party at our house (in the dark for awhile, as our power went out for a couple of hours), played Mario Kart, ate TJ’s appetizers and the hot pretzels that were a gift from the Sunnyvale household, and watched the ball drop on 2022 with a crapton of homemade confetti. Here’s to 2023!