December is dark and cold (for us), with days short enough that sometimes we bike home in the dark, but it’s always full of joy and celebration! We talked a lot this year about “celebrating the light” and the different ways we do that- with candles on the table in the morning and night, by going to the tree lighting ceremony in Golden Gate Park (a 100+ year old Monterey Cypress! They still use the strands from the 1940s?!), with our festive tree in the window, with our rainbow light rope on the bike.
Tycho’s school had its Book Fair at the local bookstore; it’s always a little chaotic but such a highlight of the year for Tycho and Nova. We buy them each a book and one for the school, and then they can spend some of their money on something they’d like too. Nova was over the moon about a Bluey invisible ink activity book, while Tycho picked out presents for Nova and Daddy (Moomin socks!). We got dinner and ice cream and biked home in the dark past some pretty houses all decked out with holiday lights.
We went to Filoli, an old historic estate, for their winter events. The house was all dressed up for the season (it’s a big house, but really where do they keep all those fake trees??), the gardens were beautiful and full of baubles, and the nature play area had little houses of hot chocolate and delights, plus the most wonderful train display and a brand new troll – Rose Wonders! The kids were so excited to meet her after being so sad when the other trolls left in November.
Of course what is the light without the darkness, so we had our first major power outage ever in mid December. They still don’t know exactly why, but a good third of the city lost power. Some for just half a day or so, like us, but others had no power for days and days. Nova took a nap and was so confused when she woke up! Max got to test our new solar house battery (it helps if you have some advance notice… and know what to turn off if the power goes out….) We made dinner in the gas pizza oven and played cards by candlelight before snuggling in our beds.
The kids’ break was… long. Tycho wrote a “book” and read a ton; Nova went to art camp one day and then was sad she couldn’t go back! We had a lovely Festivus with presents in the morning and homemade pizza at night. We went to the Panto in the Presidio (still great!) and circus nearby (amateur) and circus far (professional, local) and circus over the top (professional, international). Last but not least, our usual NYE plans fell through but we pivoted to a downstairs dance party in fancy dress and it was so fun to see the kids shine together! Looking forward to another awesome year with these crazy kiddos. Happy 2026!
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