Friday the celebrations started at my little guy’s preschool. He will turn 5 over the winter break, so my husband and I went to celebrate with his class. I read the Jan Brett story “Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve?” (a classic in our house), I showed baby pictures (we show one from each year) and then we had cupcakes and strawberries. We have done a lot of these birthday celebrations at this preschool, starting with my eldest’s 5th birthday, which was approximately 12.5 years ago. And this was the last one! End of an era for sure.

Then in the evening, my husband and I went to his office’s holiday party. This is another thing I have been doing for a very long time (and will do for limited more times — he will be retiring from this place at least in 3.5 years). I have learned my lesson from earlier years and now I own long sleeve festive dresses, as winter is cold, and if I were wearing something sleeveless I would just be sitting there in my big puffy coat the whole time. Anyway, we hung out with the folks I know fairly well, and made it home at a reasonable hour (10:45 p.m.) which was key because we had…

Robotics at 6:45 am! My husband took kid #2 to the high school to get the 6:45 a.m. bus to a robotics tournament that was about 45 minutes away. I wasn’t sure I’d make it back to sleep, but I did until 8 a.m. — at which point it was up (kid #1 and me) to go to the dress rehearsal for our church choir concert. We sang through all the pieces in the lessons and carols service, and made it home by about 12:30 or so. (There may have been a Starbucks stop along the way).

Since we had childcare for the little guy on Saturday, I took the three kids I still had (#1, #3, #4) ice skating downtown at the ice rink on the Delaware River in the late afternoon. While this was not on my official Holiday Fun List, it is really quite fun. The weather was perfect (clear and about 34 degrees, so the ice stayed frozen but we were not so cold it was unpleasant). We skated for about an hour. I’m thinking maybe I should have signed kid #4 up for hockey as he was just zipping around everywhere…

Meanwhile, my husband (who does not like to ice skate) went to the robotics tournament to get kid #2, and then take him downtown not too far from the rink to go to the Battleship New Jersey. His scout troop was staying on the ship overnight, so that was quite an adventure for sure.

The next morning we had tickets for all 7 of us for breakfast with Santa at a department store. There had been some discussion of going to get kid #2 off the battleship to come with us, but we decided he didn’t have to go. So it was breakfast for 6 (they still set the table with the fixed menu for 7 and my other kids ate all the good stuff off the extra plate…). It was all right as these things go — the little kids got balloon animals and we took pictures with Santa. I’m still trying to figure out the breakfast with Santa experience we’d enjoy most around here. We used to like the Longwood Gardens one, but then they stopped doing it for a bit.

After, I took three of the kids shopping for sibling gifts at Target. Let’s just say we survived the experience! I dropped those three kids off at home, picked up kid #2 from the local scout house, then hung out for about 2 hours until it was time for the choir holiday concert.

This wasn’t so much a concert as a service of lessons and carols — with readings, and a brass quintet. It’s been fun to sing with my 17-year-old in this ensemble, and I thought the choir sounded quite good. Some pieces are familiar, but every holiday season I learn new ones, like a Norman Dello Joio Christmas Carol that is based on a GK Chesterton poem. My husband came to hear us (leaving the little guy with the other kids – an upside of older children) and then we came home to watch the Eagles game and I did Christmas Legos with kid #3. This set is taking longer than any have in past years because my Lego helpers have gotten older and busier.

But so it goes…The thing about the holiday season is you do so much of the same year to year, but things can’t be the same because we change. Now it’s on to a week of holiday concerts for the kids, more choir rehearsals, and then it will be weekend #3…

Back in September, I posted my 2024 Fall Fun List — a list of things I wanted to do to enjoy this fleeting season. Here’s an update on how I did.

Visit New England twice. I did! I went to a work-related gathering in Portland, Maine in early fall, and had a lovely run along the water and saw the northern lights. Then in mid/late October my husband and I went to Mount Desert Island in Maine. We stayed in Bar Harbor, hiked through Acadia, ate lobster, and ran the Run MDI half marathon. Lots of beautiful fall scenery there too.

Run long. I finished the half marathon, though it was fairly painful. I have not been motivated to run long since then! But I did do several longer runs during my training on a local nature trail, and those were quite nice.

Bike. I did bike solo a few times on a trail near here. We did not go as a family, despite buying another big kid bike (it has yet to be used). However I have been biking around the driveway with my 4-year-old! BOBW listeners have heard my ad about the Guardian Bike, and he has definitely figured it out. He asked if he could ride his own bike during a family bike ride — we shall see, as the trails are a little scary sometimes, but he could absolutely go on the Tag-along behind me. Of course, now it’s going to be cold for the next four months but…eventually.

Hike. My husband and I did the Gorham Mountain trail in Acadia, so I think this counts. My friend Joy and I have walked on local trails several times too.

Visit a botanical garden. I did do a lunch time picnic at Stoneleigh, and I went to Chanticleer several times, usually on Friday mid-day. When I created my “realistic ideal week” at BLP Live, I tentatively put in that Friday around lunch could be my “little adventure” time for doing things like this. There should be upsides to self employment!

Go apple picking. Wow, this seems like ages ago, though it was just mid/late September. We bought 3 pecks of honeycrisp apples at a local place. There was a lot of whining as it was a hot day, but we did it. And we ate through all our apples. I think we’ll go somewhere less crowded next year.

Watch a football game. Just snippets here and there on TV. I have family members going to a real one over Thanksgiving, but not me. Oh well.

Take family photos. We did, in a studio in late September. I now have the proofs and they are lovely (well, mostly – I don’t like viewing myself from some angles!). I’m not allowed to show random family photos anymore with older kids, but I’m happy to have these.

Enjoy BLP Live. I did! I love the beach and it was a great gathering. This will probably become a late fall tradition.

Listen to Vivaldi’s “Autumn.” Yep, and wrote several autumn-themed sonnets. I am thinking I might actually continue my 2-lines-a-day sonnet writing habit for another year. It’s pretty easy to do, and the discipline of writing sonnets weekly means occasionally I write one I like.

I’m now working on my holiday fun list, so stay tuned for that! If you made a fall fun list, how did you do?

In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sara McCarty, head of Run Wild My Child, shares tactics for getting outdoors together. From toys that will make your backyard more fun to things you can do in the dark, this episode is all about the outdoors for people who don’t plan to do 2-week hiking trips.

In the Q&A we tackle a question of when to buy a Halloween costume for kids…in order to avoid Halloween regret.

Please give the episode a listen! Our Patreon community will be meeting up today at noon, eastern, to discuss all things meal planning. We’d love to have you join us. If you’re reading this after noon, no worries, the meet-up will be recorded.

In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I discuss all things summer. We discuss our own plans, and our usual planning tools (yep, the Camp Spreadsheet is back!). We talk travel, Summer Fun Lists, summer fashion, favorite treats, and more.

In the Q&A, we advise a listener who is trying to choose the best after-care option for her soon-to-be kindergartner. Please give the episode a listen and let us know what you are excited for this summer!

In other news: Did you know that Best of Both Worlds has a Patreon community? Lately, we’ve been discussing snacks, teen summer plans, where we shop for clothes, and more in our discussion forum. We’ll also be gathering (virtually) next Thursday May 25 for the next installment in our book club, discussing Gretchen Rubin’s Life in Five Senses. Please join us!

So, theoretically we could have gone somewhere though I often find it hard to plan for this one. It’s only a few weeks after Christmas. I often have been planning spring break and putting together the summer spreadsheet and I am just…planned out.

We’ll wind up doing something — we always do — but as I’ve been thinking through options, I’ve been pondering what makes a weekend feel “good.” A key part of it, I think, is that everyone in the household has something they are looking forward to.

I, personally, have some things I am looking forward to, but I want to make sure the others do too. Here things get complicated. My 14-year-old has tickets to a show, so he’s good. The 2-year-old is going to a birthday party (his first!). My husband is usually happy if he can go to the gym a few times, though he does like to ski too. My daughter said she wanted to go to a restaurant (we went to Moshulu for brunch a few weeks ago and she was really taken with the idea of going out for brunch…). Unclear on the 12-year-old and the 7-year-old. I’m sure both would like to have lots of video game time, which they will get, but the 7-year-old in particular is having his screen time limited currently (honestly the 12-year-old should have it more limited) so we’ll need to go a little deeper on their requests. Or I guess I can feel that as long as they are getting some video game time they’ll have something to look forward to!

Anyway, it doesn’t always happen, but it’s something to aim toward. That means adults too! Of course, a key part of having something to “look forward to” is that it is planned in advance. That means thinking through the weekend a few days ahead of time. In the past I’ve suggested carving out a time on Wednesday to think through the weekend, which can work, though with a 4.5 day weekend earlier is probably better. Maybe next year we’ll plan a trip somewhere warm…

(Though it is actually supposed to hit 60 degrees on Friday! Spring may get here yet!)

Would you agree with this “everyone has something to look forward to” idea as a weekend principle?

I will preface this by saying that I really enjoyed the tubing itself. Flying down the mountain was just exhilarating, and since I’d been watching the Winter Olympics luge/bobsled/skeleton events, I was making a point of tucking in my feet and pushing off with multiple short strokes, and so whatever kid I was doubling with and I just flew. The weather was beautiful — a light snowfall in the morning making the mountains glisten like they were frosted, with the temperature hovering right at 32 degrees.

However…we only wound up tubing down the mountain three times. And the transaction costs to make that happen were substantial. I am not talking money (though there was that) — the energy itself was immense.

For starters, it turns out you need to be 36 inches to go tubing, and the little guy is 34 inches. So we chose a day when we could get a babysitter for him.

Theoretically all our ski/snow stuff should be in certain places but it was…not. Plus when the kids go skiing, they have ski boots, but we needed real boots for this adventure. Finding them in the right sizes for everyone required hunting through stuff that had not been unpacked yet.

We drove the hour and 15 minutes north to the ski place, and had a bit of a snafu on whether 6 waivers were signed. Fortunately, this got solved fairly quickly. But nothing else was quick. We were not the only people at the mountain. A nice snow-covered 32 degree weekend day brings crowds. So every time we got to the top it was a 20-25 minute wait to go down. After three times the kids had basically had it.

If you figure each of the runs was about a minute (maybe) then that was 5.5 hours of total time for 3 minutes of tubing for each of us. Plus the getting ready craziness. (There was a WaWa stop afterwards, so maybe we subtract that from the 5.5 hours).

So are these adventures worth it? A complex question. It would have been an easier day if we’d stayed home, especially if we were going to get care for the 2-year-old. On the other hand, time was going to pass one way or the other, and the feeling of those swift flights down the mountain with the powdered sugar snow on all the nearby evergreens is probably going to be one of my memories of this winter.

I don’t know if it’s clear in the balance what is worth it, but that is why I have the rule to have “one big adventure, and one little adventure” each week. It is easier not to do things, but doing things tends to create the memories that define time. This weekend has still featured a lot of down time and screen time. So probably best to do something else, and the rule nudges that impulse along.

Did you have any adventures this weekend?

In other news: “One big adventure, one little adventure” is Tranquility by Tuesday Rule #6. In case anyone wants to mark their calendars, the book will be out on October 11.