The Nightmare Before Christmas

Glowing in the recent success of our Thanksgiving celebration and my best roast turkey to date, I thought I would spend the day in the holiday spirit.  "Take the morning for yourself honey, I'll have the boys for an outing." I said. So we grabbed some hot chocolate form Whole Foods and hopped on the F-Market street car (this one from Milan, Italy).

 We stopped by the Macy's Christmas display because I always like to see the puppies and kittens in the windows from the San Francisco SPCA.  Afterwards we peeked at the Union Square Christmas tree.

 On a whim I thought it would be fun to go inside Neiman Marcus to gawk at the opulence of the American ruling class (ahem, the rich). The decorations were spectacular indeed!  After engaging with a perfume lady and getting a free sample (score boys!) we went upstairs to laugh at the overpriced foot ware.

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We had a good chuckle at the bedazzled, furry, studded, and impractical things we put on our feet, then gazed at the displays on our way down the escalator.  Just then, Magnus starts shouting "Ahhh! My shoe!"  I looked over to see his foot wedged between two stairs and I began yanking on his leg.  Luckily, his foot came out unharmed, but his shoe wasn't so lucky.  I yanked and yanked at it until the escalator came to a halt.  Hoards of holiday shoppers passed the wedged shoe in annoyance as they came down the stairs.  Some kind mothers and grandmothers tried sympathizing with me saying, "That was always my worst nightmare when my kids were younger!" We had to wait in complete embarrassment as first employees, then facilities, and last the manager came to our aid.  To make it worse I read the safety rules as we waited, and rule #3 clearly states that I'm a dumbass that doesn't watch her children.

The shoe was unsalvageable and we had to buy another pair.... in Neiman Marcus. I was seriously sweating as we made our way to the children's section, which the manager warned us had a very limited selection.  When we got there I nearly died, seeing the adorable Burberry shoes in a glass case. The saleswoman went back to see what they had in Magnus' size, returning with black high tops on sale for $45.  Hallelujah!  A Christmas miracle! After paying the manager was nice enough to take a photo of us to remember the fiasco.

Now Magnus can say he's the only one in the family to have anything from Neiman Marcus.

Halloween

Halloween is always a team effort, with some of us on costume construction, others on creative direction, and all of us on damage control.  This year the boys wanted to be Pokemon, and the rest of us were happy to play along.  Being ignorant of Pokemon characters, I decide to be the year's hottest app: Pokemon Go!

Anders= Gastly Linus=Voltorb Magnus=Riachu Alvin=Ash

We debuted the costumes at the school Harvest Fest.  Alvin did much of the creative direction on my costume, since I don't even play the game. So many kids kept sliding their sticky hands all over my touch screen, I had to give them a quick lesson on the importance of consent.

On Halloween night we rushed home from work, snapped our obligatory family photo, and hit up the neighborhood.

Gotta catch them all!  Mattias=Pikachu Ellie=PokeStop

Slightly rainy, the kids started to whine.  I told them if the weather was that bad we could just call it quits and go home, with a lot less candy.

The rows of Victorian houses decorated and lit were too much to pass up.  Once the buckets were full, we walked home as the sprinkle turned into drizzle.

Dumped onto the floor, they sorted and then counted their loot. Mattias and I took our tax, then let them take their pick of 4 pieces to eat.  We made sure they did an extra good job brushing teeth, had ourselves a drink, and called it a night.

I'm not gonna lie and say all that work was for the kids, because half of it was for us grownups. Halloween is one of a few times in the year when we work as a team, get creative, and craft late into the night, together. We celebrate fun and whimsy and create beautiful memories for the boys and ourselves, together.

Life is Better with Friends

A few weeks ago me and the boys spent our after dinner free time face painting.  Why?  Because it was fun.  I stopped for a moment to explain to the kids that "Fun is important."  At work, at home, at school, and in life-- fun should be a priority and a part of your existence.  Not quite a lecture, more like a mini-lesson, I took advantage of a small but hopefully memorable teaching moment.  A few weeks later I came upon another important mini-lesson, that life is better with friends.

Linus and Albert have been friends since kindergarten, and as they grew together, so did our families.  We were short of devastated when Albert's family had to leave San Francisco, but promised to keep in touch.  We made good on that promise during a visit last month where we all got to catch up and enjoy the beauty and nature of the Sierras. 

The kids were so happy to rip around together, semi-unsupervised, and dig into a massive bag of Swedish candy from IKEA.

At nightfall, we set 9 crayfish traps in hopes of a autumn crayfish party.  Bundled up, we set back out to the reservoir in the morning  to collect the traps.  

We all took turns pulling in the traps and counting how many came from each.

The grand total: 133! A few of them were too small to eat, so we allowed the kids to choose one each to place in a crayfish habitat.

Upon our return we got the big boiling pot ready to cook them in classic Swedish style: dill, salt, and sugar.  After cooking we chilled them in the brine for a few hours .

That night happened to be the second presidential debate, and we chose to watch together (with plenty of aquavit, of course.) While the debate was aggressive and sometimes hard to watch, the company and atmosphere made it almost bearable.  That's the importance of good friendships-- life's challenges are better faced in good company.

The following weekend the Codys came to visit, and I volunteered to take all 5 kids out on a field trip while the rest of the adults enjoyed glorious freedom. The others went rock climbing and got Thai massages, while the 5' and under crew went to Golden Gate Park.

It was a rare rainy day so the museums were packed.  Instead we opted for ripping around the Concourse before enjoying an ice cream and taking the train home.

The boys don't have any cousins nearby, and the Cody kids have become their adopted cousins.  Close in age, similar enough in appearance, they travel well together and fall into routines and dynamics that haven't changed since we met 7 years ago. While the kids get the benefit of growing up in a collective "village" of people, we adults get support to weather Hurricane Parenthood. In a culture obsessed with being "busy",  slowing down and making time for friends is more important than ever.