Kerstin's Birthday and that other Holiday in December

December 25th was just like any other day, except that we slept in late (as late as Alden would permit us, anyway) and cleaned the house all morning. We moseyed our way to Karen's house by mid-afternoon, once naps were taken and lunch was eaten and mashed into the newly cleaned rug. We got to her house around 2 and opened presents at 3 or 4, since Karen's oven was failing and I had to run back to our house to bake the bread. It was a really nice, low key day with no holiday pressure or expectations - exactly what we wanted and needed. Karen doesn't do Christmas trees, but prefers to decorate her ficus instead. I like this approach so much better. The idea of killing a tree just so you can gussy it up in your living room for a few weeks seems really dumb and wasteful. And anyway, decorating a live plant seems much more symbolic. Karen made a wonderful paella with local seafood and a fresh cranberry relish.

Alden liked the lights and liked his new toys and books. His favorite new book is Richard Scary's Best First Book Ever. An absolute classic, but a bitch for the bedtime story-reader, because it takes about a half an hour to get through the whole thing! It's still a great book and brings back all sorts of childhood memories. Lowly worm was an instant favorite with Alden.Kerstin had a birthday on the 29th. I got him this geeky T-shirt with an equalizer built into a panel on the front. It is wired to a small control that fits in the pocket of your jeans or your jacket. The lights bounce and flicker to the sounds in the room. It struck me as a project Kerstin would have had in graduate school, so I got it for him to bring him back to those happy years.

He lit up his current age in binary on the birthday candles left over from Hanukkah. The cat's out of the bag - at least for all you geeks out there who know how to read it. Karen graciously took Alden for the evening and Kerstin and I had a lovely adult dinner at his favorite local sushi restaurant.