More Seasonal Stories
- The dishwasher broke down the same week we were hosting fifteen people for a holiday dinner. Hand-washing every dish for a week straight taught me more appreciation for that machine than I ever thought possible.
- The neighborhood's annual chili cook-off got more competitive than expected this year, with three separate people bringing fire extinguishers as a joke. One entry genuinely required medical attention afterward, in the form of a lot of milk.
- A neighbor's tree fell into our yard during a storm, missing the house by only a few feet. Cleanup took an entire weekend, but we've genuinely never been more grateful for a near miss in our lives.
- The kids spent the entire snow day building an elaborate igloo instead of a regular snowman, following a video tutorial closely. It actually held up structurally, and they were disproportionately proud of the engineering involved.
- The neighborhood block party moved indoors due to rain for the first time in a decade, cramming forty people into one garage. It somehow became the most memorable version of the event anyone could remember.
- The kids insisted on a real Christmas tree this year instead of the artificial one we'd used for a decade. Pine needles turned up in unexpected places well into February, a fact we now factor into every future decision.