Category: family
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Deer Valley 2017 (aka Flight from DC)
Washington, DC area locals know that every four years in January, it is best to leave town, no matter who has been elected president. Downtown DC is shut down for security reasons, traffic is even more horrible than usual, and the kids get a day off of school. We fled town for Deer Valley at…
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Inn at Little Washington December 2016
Another one of our annual traditions is to go to the Inn at Little Washington after Christmas and spend the night. While Jim and I usually do it with just the two of us, this year, we took the kids. (I know—I want to come back in my next life as one of our kids,…
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Pyromaniacs enjoy!
I should have put this video up earlier, but last year, we had a lesson on how quickly a dry Christmas tree can burn (it’s a pyromaniac’s dream)…
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A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre
We have an annual holiday tradition of going to see “A Christmas Carol” (this predates our time in Washington, DC and kids, for that matter). The bonus of seeing it in DC is that the play is performed at Ford’s Theatre, leading to the kids’ worst nightmare—a cultural event AND an educational event rolled into…
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Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii)
Due to the fortuitous circumstance of Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, the school’s holiday break included the week before Christmas. This allowed us the rare opportunity to spend Christmas not in Washington, DC (Jim’s business being calendar year-end intensive). To no one’s surprise, the family voted to spend Christmas in Honolulu. There is…
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Thanksgiving 2016
We sat 26 people down for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Some family but also friends. Our menu was as follows: Thai pumpkin soup Smoked organic turkey Roasted organic turkey with confit legs Fried organic turkey Roasted shrimp with rosemary Roast duck Stuffing Chili-bathed sweet potatoes Dinner rolls Rice Kimchi Gravy Orange cranberry sauce Roasted carrots…
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Disneyworld and an 18th Birthday
In the category of “How to Make Me Feel Really Old” falls the 18th birthday of our daughter (I assume our son’s 18th birthday will fall into the category of “How to Make Me Feel Really Really Old.”) Our daughter elected to celebrate this momentous occasion of being able to sign legally binding contracts by…
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Halloween 2016
We have a Halloween family tradition of over 10 years of inviting ourselves over to a friend’s house who has considerably more trick-or-treaters than we do (given that have zero). The kids decided (very reluctantly) that they were too old to go trick-or-treating by themselves and contented themselves with giving large amounts of candy to…
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Inn at Little Washington birthday dinner
It was our son’s 15th (!) birthday a couple of weeks ago and, in addition to feeling really old, we celebrated with a dinner at the Inn at Little Washington (at his request). As usual, dinner was fabulous from the moment we stepped into the restaurant until we were wheeled out of the restaurant in…
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Restaurant review: Chef Mavro (Honolulu)
Chef Mavro is one of our favorite restaurants in Honolulu. While some of our other favorites have gifted chefs who serve excellent food, Chef Mavro has both those requirements, and the dishes are always beautifully presented. We try and go twice on every trip and alternate between the 6 course menu and the 4 course…