Tagged: holidaze

20
May
2012

PERFECT REFRESHMENT

The last time I had a 4-day weekend I was super-productive. This time, I’ve been a total slug. A super slug! I HAVE done laundry, because you pretty much can’t NOT do laundry when you’re a family of four, but otherwise? I’ve read and read and read and slept in and watched all of season 3 of The Big Bang Theory and gone for walks and sat on the porch and sat on the trampoline and done nothing much of note. Sometimes the slug just beats the bee. It seems to be harder and harder to find things to write...

01
May
2012

SPRING FLING

It’s the first of May! Here in Europe and in a large part of the world, that means Labor Day. However, since it’s a day off, and yesterday, being a “pinch day” was also a day off, in fact for us it was a NON-labor day. It’s been a nice long weekend, with lots of sunshine and walking the loaner-dog. I had a to-do list of about 20 things that I divided up over the 4 days, which meant nothing was stressful and it included things that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, like iron those 3 tablecloths from...

22
Apr
2012

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

What happens to a place like Venice when there is no one left but the tourists? Anders read an article about Venice recently that said people were moving out of the city in droves; that they couldn’t afford the price of groceries and that there is no business left there except tourism. I wonder how many of the buildings along the canals are empty; abandoned. There are only 60,000 people residing in the city, though the total population including all 118 islands that make up Venice is 272,000. That’s not very many considering the amount of tourists averages 50,000 A...

17
Apr
2012

A PIEDI

I started walking again, officially yesterday, even though I walked all weekend because we were in ITALY. I mean: going for a walk. One of the really great things about Martin, who is pretty great in lots of ways, is that he always says yes if I ask him to go for a walk. And then we get to talk and laugh and have really great discussions to boot. Honestly, it’s crazy that I don’t do it every day; that’s how rewarding it is. In the midst of all our talk, Martin was telling me Things His Classmates Don’t Know...

09
Apr
2012

RELAXING, WITH EGGS

I had a half-day on Thursday, Friday off, and today as well. A 4.5-day weekend: JUST what I needed. The only bummer is that I am tired and in bed by 10:30 p.m. and awake around 8 a.m. What gives? I used to be the queen of sleeping in. I can’t even get BACK to sleep. *suck* Easter was sort of perfunctory around here, I’m sorry to say. We did color eggs, which I’m happy about. Karin had a 2-day soccer camp overnight yesterday and today, so the kids got their Easter baskets and lame-o egg hunt a day early....

26
Dec
2011

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

One thing that I love to do when giving gifts is to shock the recipient into speechlessness. It’s not very easy to do, and it takes a lot of hard work and observation and sometimes sheer audacity and unexpectedness. Anders and I have done a pretty good job of it the past few years when it’s come to the kids’ Christmas gifts. But with a gift they NEVER expected, from parents who have always said, “No way, save your money, those are too expensive,” we managed to shock the both of them into complete speechlessness this year. Everything else they...

24
Dec
2011

MERRY MERRY!

Anders and I just finished the wrapping, and all we have to do is put the last of the gifts under the tree after the kids are in bed, which they will be in a moment. Martin wins the biggest present under the tree this year; he’s going to goggle when he sees the package…it’s as tall as me! 😀 Our annual Ek Family Christmas letter is below, and here is a link to the photos that go with it. I’m glad that the only thing I have not managed to get done in the week since mostly recovering from...

22
Dec
2011

NOT QUITE STRESSMAS

Why is it that every year when I’m buying Christmas presents, and am so careful to keep the piles even, there inevitably comes a day about a week before the 25th where I get all the bags and boxes out of the closet and put them on the bed and divide them into their respective recipient piles and discover that one of the kids has a disproportionately larger pile of loot than the other, necessitating some rather panicked shopping expeditions in the worst of the holiday madness? Thought I was done. Turns out, I’m not. Even if it’s only a...

27
Nov
2011

AFTERMATH

Yesterday was great…everything went well, despite a last-minute cancellation from one family which brought our total down by 3 but ensured more turkey leftovers all around. The food was fantastic, from the main courses all the way through to 2 perfect pumpkin pies and an out-of-this world chocolate cake with candied cranberries on top. This year, people left at a fairly early-ish reasonable hour, which just meant that we were able to get the majority of the clean-up done before we went to bed last night. Karin took photos of the tables: we had 2 set up, one for the...

26
Nov
2011

READY

It’s 2 pm, 3 hours before our guests arrive for our Thanksgiving bash. The last 2 turkeys are in the oven. The entire house is sparkling clean, thanks to the help of ALL of us (Martin windexed, Karin dusted, Anders mopped, I vacuumed). The tables are set up and decorated, and I have nothing do do for 3 hours but write this post, eat a (very) small lunch and RELAX. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah. Life is good 🙂 Happy weekend everyone!

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