New Year's Eve

 Our neighbors, Mike and Kim, were having a Trivia Night party on New Years Eve, so we started out there for a while. Simon went over early with Calvin and was already defeating a kid in arm wrestling by the time we arrived. Kim and Mike have a ton of friends and it was just too chaotic with our kids there, so we eventually migrated over to Kelly and Pete's, where they were watching the OSU game and things were a bit quieter and calmer.  Kelly had fun showing me all the bizarre clothes her mother-in-law gave her, and the kids took turns trying on the ridiculous high heels. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes lost the game at the last minute, when they could've won with a field goal. Zac and Pete were pretty sad. Happy 2023!

Friends for the Holidays

 The week between Christmas and New Years provides a luxurious amount of free time where we were able to get together with our friends. I usually either forget to take pictures or don't want to seem like a weirdo taking pictures (because my friends are not the type to document everything for social media).

Anyway, one night we had our vegetarian lasagna dinner with our two vegetarian friends, Natasha and Andrea. The kids get their own table and do a good job playing together for the most part.

Izzy spent the night.

Another day we got together with Jess and Anna. We picked up Jess at the airport from Paraguay, then went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. We had them over for supper the next day and did a sleepover.

And let's not forget Alice's best friends, melons. (This is what happens when I take Alice to the grocery store with me.)

Ice at Yates Mill Pond

 Christmas weekend was very cold in NC (no snow though). We mostly stayed inside for a couple of days, but I was feeling too cooped up, so I texted Natasha and she was thankfully up for doing a hike around Yates Mill Pond on the day after Christmas. It was a lot of fun with the ice and icicles!

Our pond at home also froze. The kids collected ice from it to put in our freezer -- (yuck!). 

Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

 

(And evidence, from the next day, that I do occasionally play with my children. I'm not sure why I always look so tired and grumpy though?)

Christmas at the Arcaro-Burbridges

 On the Thursday before Christmas we went to Burlington for a Christmas feast. As usual, we failed to take pictures, but had a nice time visiting!

RIP The Mall (Poems of Life and Death)

The m all

When I drive my daughter to swim practice three times a week,
we see machines grinding the remains of the mall into gravel.
I am not much of a mall person, and yet it was a place
where I shopped for work clothes and for maternity clothes,
where I met my friend to walk laps when the weather was unsuitable,
where I took my kids to jump around in the play area on rainy days,
where I paid a dollar for us to squeeze into the little mall train,
where the driver gave the kids a dum-dum lollipop after the ride,
where we trick-or-treated once or twice, weirdly, amidst the Christmas decorations,
where we excitedly saw Santa walk by one time when we were on the tiny train…

Now in that space there is just open air, piles of broken concrete and pyramids of gravel.
What does it mean that a place can exist and then not?
Then I think of all the homes, buildings, places of worship torn down or bombed or burned up, 
and it is too much to think of them all– sacred spaces all crumbling like that, all turning to piles of rubble,
only remaining as memories in our minds,
which will one day also be spaces turned to dust.

-Sera Arcaro (12/20/22)

While I'm sharing my poems of life and death, here's another poem I wrote on the same day, although it was based on a note I dictated into my phone on a walk back in mid-September. (There's nothing like having a bunch of mid-term essays to grade to spur my creativity in a spasm of productive procrastination.)

The last time

On my walk

I passed by a park

And I saw parents

Pushing their kids

In the swings.

And I remember that.

I know how it feels to push your child

Dangling in the air

Held up by chains

Happy to be oscillating.

But I can’t remember the last time I did that.

You don’t know it’s the last time when you’re doing it.

You don’t know it’s the last time your child will sit in your lap.

You don’t know it’s the last time you’ll read them a bedtime story.

You don’t know it’s the last time for almost everything in life.

And it’s better that way

Because otherwise we’d spend our days crying

Like I did

When I passed by a park

On my walk.

-Sera Arcaro (12/20/22)

Ninja School

 Our friend Andrea enrolled her son Murphy in Ninja School, and that seemed like something Simon might light, so we signed him up too. With Alice doing swim team now, our evenings are already wrecked, so why not add more?

The class is one hour long in a big gym about 15 minutes away in Apex. The class is pretty informal, and they have a teacher that coaches them on a course in the gym, they do a couple of rounds, then move to another course. Simon loved it.

Simon plays around a lot at home doing flips and stuff, so this is a good fit for him. Maybe he needs trampoline or gymnastics though?

Simon's messes

 Simon loves to play and make things. He does not like to clean up.

Family Photo

 Don took our family photo for the Christmas card this year. It was a challenge, as always.

Alice's first band concert

 

Don's visit

 Don came down to stay for a week in December to help do a bunch of electrical work before we get our new siding put on in January. He is always a huge help and a very easy houseguest!