Category: holidays

  • Christmas in Hawaii 2023 (dedicated to “Mommy and the Troops”)

    Christmas in Hawaii 2023 (dedicated to “Mommy and the Troops”)

    I wouldn’t call spending Christmas in Honolulu a tradition for us, exactly, but it is certainly lovely when the calendar for the 4 of us align and make it possible. And so it was thisyear, when we spent 11 glorious days in paradise, enjoying the sun, ocean, and surf. The theme for this year’s stay…

  • Holiday 2022

    While many people think of the holiday season as consisting of snow and hot chocolate and other winter festivities, we much prefer sun and ocean and warmth for the holidays. And so off we went to Hawaii for Christmas!Honolulu never disappoints. (Nor does the Halekulani where we were staying.). We enjoyed warmth and ocean views.…

  • Spring Break 2022

    Our last spring break together as a family was in March (yes, this entry is a bit late). We really have no grounds for complaint, however. For several years, the college spring break for Jade coincided with the high school spring break for Marcus, and so we eked out a couple more years of spring…

  • Christmas 2020

    In an act of foolhardiness, we decided to go to Hawaii for Christmas. This was foolhardy for several reasons: first, Hawaii has imposed some stringent covid testing requirements in order to be permitted to come; second, there were no non-stop flights to Honolulu due to the lack of flights, which added another wild card to…

  • Thanksgiving 2020

    As with everything this year, Thanksgiving was a little different than usual. Instead of the usual 20+ guests crowd, we had 11 people total, 9 adults. Everyone had tested negative before they arrived. (The new prerequisite: don’t bring a side dish or flowers—bring a negative test result.)Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 11 is barely cooking Thanksgiving…

  • Thanksgiving 2020

    Relief is probably the thought uppermost in most people’s minds–relief that this year is finally drawing to a close. Relief and hope that 2021 will be an improvement. Thanksgiving for our family is always an opportunity to remember our many blessings (and to eat lots of food). We feel fortunate that our extended families are…

  • New Year’s Eve 2019

    We have marvelous friends (more like family) who, for some unfathomable reason, decided to host a New Year’s Eve dinner and invited us to help cook (the unfathomable part of it was letting us help cook). What that really meant, of course, is that they allowed us into their kitchen to create a gigantic mess.…

  • Halloween Week Festivities at Sidwell Friends School

    Halloween Week Festivities at Sidwell Friends School

    Our son goes to a private high school in Washington, DC where the academics are excellent, the kids are (mostly) affluent, and the pressure can sometimes be intense. This is especially true during the last week of October when the seniors have Early Action college applications due (November 1 is the actual due date).Marcus (on…

  • Deer Valley 2019

    We are creatures of habit, even if we prefer to call them traditions. Tradition dictates that during Presidents’ Day weekend, we join our ski-loving friends in Deer Valley for a weekend of skiing. To be sure, our family can best be described as 2 non-skiers, 1 reluctant skier, and 1 enthusiastic skier. The enthusiastic skier…

  • 2018 New Year’s Eve Dinner at Métier (Washington, DC)

    As consolation for not being able to go to Hawaii over holiday break (a First World problem, I know), we celebrated New Year’s Eve with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Métier, the younger sibling of Kinship, headed up by Chef Eric Ziebold and his wife, Celia Laurent. To our delight, the kids decided…