Reinventing and Remembering Holidays: Christmas Card 2010
The world we bring them in to:Sometimes you have a feeling that a kid has no chance but to be a nerd.
Reinventing and Remembering Holidays: Christmas Card 2009
Because a family portrait is a great way to capture the special times of your life
Reinventing and Remembering Holidays: 3 years ago today
Don’t fuck it up boy..
3 years ago today I married the love of my life, after going to college together on a small RI campus with a lot of the same friends and never meeting (that we remember). After attending alumni events of 40 or less people for years in Atlanta and never meeting (that I remember). After literally interrogating her after a volunteer event that we do each year for high school students. After traveling for a month once getting her number and deciding it had been too long to call..
AFTER ALL THAT, she called and asked me to have coffee “designer to designer”.
It turned out to be one of the most productive phone calls I’ve ever had.
The Boss (and me)
Her siblings and family from the UK “Voguing” in the photobooth
Reinventing and Remembering Holidays: 1st Birthday
The Party: With his 1st birthday coming up I began to think a lot about the birthday parties that I had and went to ask a kid. I remember a lot of great times, themes and activities, but also a lot of forced times, themes and activities too. So as I planned my son’s the thing that was most important (to me) was to make sure he would enjoy it, and secondly that we and our guest would as well.
Luckily for me, at the age of 1 it’s pretty easy to keep the little guy happy with food, toys and people (check, check, check). The fact that he probably will not remember any of it took off a lot of the pressure as well and in the end we just invited people that we care about and made some yummy food.
The Cake: I have to admit that I got a little obsessed over the cake. My wife’s Mother always made great birthday cakes, from what I’ve heard and seen in pictures, and since she is no longer with us I wanted to pick up the torch. The only complication is the fact that I’m not much of a baker despite loving to cook. So I spent about a month looking at cakes, making a board on Pintrest and looking at books about cakes. And I found some great cakes.. just none that I felt comfortable trying to pull off.
So I made a few test cakes, much to my pregnant wife’s delight, and they all seemed OK, but nothing as amazing as what I had been looking at. And then it hit me on the day before his birthday, it’s about him eating the cake at this point not what the cake looks like to the rest of us. So I abandon all my plans of fancy fondant balloons and inedible decorations and just made a simple yummy cake. And thankfully he, and the other kids, seem to really like it. So I guess I will wait until next year to start on my themed cakes.
The After: As someone that loves to entertain and throw parties I was surprised by the fact that I REALLY enjoyed his birthday much more than other parties and how important it was that things be enjoyable for my little guy. This was despite the fact that many other parents told me that after the first one or two birthday parties that they threw that they were calling it quits until the kid(s) got older and really wanted the parties. This seems like a real shame, since not only do I have some great memories at my birthday parties, but also at my friends.
Reinventing and Remembering Holidays: Easter
Easter: Yesterday was our first Easter with our son and it brought up a lot of questions, such as, How do we to celebrate? What traditions do we want to start and/or continue from our childhood? and the all important How do we want to handle the Easter basket?
The Basket: When I was a kid the my Mom always wrapped my Easter basket in cellophane and had it next to the bed when I woke up, as if the Easter Bunny had left it for me (despite the fact that I was never led to believe in the Easter Bunny). My wife had a similar experience, so we thought about doing that, except for the fact that at 1 he might not fully get what was going on. So instead we opted to give it to him at the end of brunch so our friends could enjoy watching him open it and play with everything. We also ended up finding the Easter basket that I was given from birth and used up until I no longer received Easter baskets and it was in good enough shape to us for our son (basket pictured above).
Easter Tree: My wife said that when she was a kid her Mom always did an “Easter tree”, which I had never heard of, and that whit her Mom’s passing she had received all of the ornaments. The actual tree has long since gone so we bought some pussy willows and made an arraignment that I thing came out quite nicely (Tree pictured above).
That other stuff: We have been fighting a somewhat winning battle to keep battery operated toys (or anything plastic that was produced post-1988) out of our house, however the Gund dancing chick that sings Yakety Yak by The Coasters did manage to make it’s way into the celebration thanks to the Grandparents (Duck pictured above).
The Day: All in all it was a pretty nice day which ended in our son taking his first steps on the porch while we enjoyed the afternoon and friends and a few adult beverages. It could not have been any better, and I think next year we will try the basket by the bed and introduce the hunting of eggs.. I can’t wait!
