Month: January 2023

Jack got an electric violin for Christmas. He will be turning in his rented violin for a cello (when they get them restocked) so it will be great for him to still have a violin for fun.

Sam’s class at school got to work with Makey Makey kits, having a lot of fun creating circuits to play games and make music. He was excited to get his own kit for Christmas.

We didn’t get to go to Seattle, so instead we celebrated a quiet 42nd birthday at home. Presents and cake, a classic combo.

There’s a Japanese bakery in Broomfield that makes Osechi, the traditional New Year’s meal eaten in Japan. I surprised Ben with a full osechi, to be eaten for 3 days at the New Year “so you don’t anger the gods by working in the kitchen.” Each element of the meal is highly symbolic and full of flavors that I hate, so Ben rarely gets to enjoy them! Fish, soy, mushrooms, burdock, blech. But he absolutely loved it. He told his penpals in Japan and they were shocked that he had an osechi, let alone that we even knew about them! Ben says his two penpals both eat a quick, small version of osechi for the holiday when they have the chance. It was so cool to share that with them, plus Ben really loved the food.

I made his favorite cake three years in row now – “Italian Cream Cake” with pecans and coconut.

Happy 42 years, Ben!

December was a busy, festive month!

As you saw, we had heating problems. A serviceman reset the flame roll-out switch, saying it was tripped on a false alarm and should be safe and good now. It worked for another week, lasting through the deep freeze that blanketed the country. Then at 5pm on Christmas Eve the boiler stopped working again. I spent hours trying to get a technician, but no one could come out sooner than Monday after Christmas. I started a roaring fire and Ben rummaged the open stores for some space heaters.

We finally got the boiler repaired the next week. It turns out the other company didn’t really do anything to address the problem that tripped the switch. The boiler had to be taken apart, mineral build up cleaned out, and the expansion tank system replaced. Also he discovered the flue had rusty cracks, so it was replaced too. Also the regulator for the upstairs thermostat wasn’t working, so that was replaced too. After all that work we have a heating system that works better than it has in years. But it was quite stressful to have so many problems needing repair, and it was a terrible time for it all to break down.

We had also been planning a trip to Seattle to celebrate Ben’s birthday. There was a winter storm that Southwest Airlines completely failed to manage. Our flights were canceled and we had to reschedule our trip for later in January. I’m actually happy that we moved the trip, but it was another huge source of stress the week of Christmas, wondering if we were going to travel or not.

All that aside, Christmas was bright and jolly and fun for all. Andy was cat-sitting for Amanda. It was so nice to have him join us for Christmas dinner, as well as a couple other visits. We watched Glass Onion together and played a board game (after I solved the mystery of the locked garage and freed his car).

Just a fun piece of writing that Sam brought home from school.

Sam participated in the spelling bee today. A pre-test determined the top two spellers from each class and he made the cut. He did great today!

Sam made it to the third round before messing up. He correctly spelled “chunks” and “waist” before erring with “bossiness.” We laughed it off together because he said this was the same word he missed on the pre-test in the same way: with a y in place of the i.

Boy, I hate the spelling bee. So much anxiety, so much emotion! I was glad I didn’t have to stay to the end, and extra happy that Sam had a good attitude about it! He genuinely only wanted to do it for fun and was happy with his participation ribbon. He’s a total champ to me!

Jack was very excited to play one of the boom-whackers at the in-school holiday concert. This holiday card from the teacher has a video of the performance. Jack was front and center, so enjoy!

Click the link, click “Read Now” and then open the card to play the video in the holiday card.

In case the card link expires, I also swiped the video directly:

Sam’s fourth grade class learns about a different fungus every Friday. While I was there volunteering last month (sorting take-home papers), the teacher asked the class “Should we sing our song for Sam’s mom?” They broke into joyful chorus. I barely got my camera out in time to catch any of it:

Apparently Sam is so skilled at reading aloud the mushroom facts, including scientific names, that he became the official mushroom reader. One day his friend sang the Muffin Man song as joke, and it took off amongst the students. Now they sing this song every week before learning about the featured fungus.