We’ve come through the holiday season with a sense of peace and calm. Amazing, huh? Dad even said that this was the first year that he really enjoyed the holidays. Dad’s usually our Scrooge, but not this year!
We celebrated Hanukkah, lighting the menorah every night and practicing saying the prayer, we went to a Japanese Tea Room for Mom’s birthday, we got our normal Giftavus (Christmas) haul, and we stayed up sort of late for New Year’s. All of it was great. We even threw in DCPA performance of the Christmas Carol featuring two of our school friends and trips to the History Colorado museum and the Museum of Nature and Science. And because we paced ourselves and didn’t overschedule ourselves (too much), we not only survived the holiday season, we feel recharged and ready for what comes next.
So, what does come next?
Emmett is scheduled to participate in a production of Glee, Riley’s heading back to the range for JOAD, Asher’s hitting the floor for breakdancing class, and Tessa’s booked into another session of art. Ski season also starts for us this next week. Each year, Dad takes us skiing weekly, but this year we’re all four going to ski every week. How, you ask, can he keep an eye on all four of us at once on the hill? Well, he won’t. Dad will ski with two of us, while the other two take lessons. A perfect solution.
In the meantime, we’ve been sprucing the house up a bit. You might have noticed the amazing tree house that Dad built? Well, we’re also getting new fireplaces in the house, as well as some other mechanical work done. The fireplaces we really need, though, as those three days with negative temperatures as a high last month really demonstrated how much cold air comes into the house through the ones that we currently have. (We had to stuff blankets and pillows into the openings around each fireplace to keep that cold air out.) It’s a heating nightmare soon to be solved.
Tessa also has a birthday coming up. Sweet T’s gonna be twelve! Although, as an aside, most of the time she comes across as a bit older than that. It’s a combination of her independence and vocabulary learned from listening to hundreds of hours of myth and conspiracy podcasts. And her memory. Something goes into that brain and it sticks. Forever.
Although we are enjoying our days, we are also looking past January. We’ve already booked sleep away camps for this upcoming summer, a trip to Maine, and we’re looking into going to London in September. We didn’t end up taking a trip to Greece this year, but we all agreed that we’d prefer something a bit less scheduled. Something with more free time. Something like our recent trip to DC. After some discussion, we landed on London. Who wouldn’t love all those museums?
So, to recap: We’re all looking forward to getting back into the swing of a normal routine, while also keeping our eye on some highlighted days on this year’s calendar.
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated on how everything shakes out.
Best,
The Pigs
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