The End of the Year

So here we are: it is the first of January in the year 2013.

It’s been a slow and leisurely day, allowing us to make all the last minute preparations for our leap back into ordinary life tomorrow.  Closing out the 2012 blog is one of the things I need to check off on my list to feel I’m launching into 2013 with a clean slate… but there are a lot of other things I need to accomplish, so forgive me if I’m a little breezy here.

We pick up in mid-December — Maddie got a Hello Kitty umbrella as one of her Advent gifts and it became an accessory that accompanied her everywhere.

Every year I try and try, like all parents, to get a single decent shot of my children together in front of the Christmas tree.  I didn’t get the perfect shot I wanted, but here are the best of the bunch:

Yes, it was a small tree this year.  The girls pre-empted me by making it clear before we even left the house to choose our tree that my habit of picking out oversized trees was not going to be allowed to continue.  So I agreed to abide whatever tree everyone else agreed on.  When we got to the lot, Molli Malou bounded out of the car, ran over to the trees, looked one over, and announced that she had found our tree.  Trine and Maddie concurred.  It was a pygmy tree, as near as I could tell — probably with a formal name like “Dwarfus Embarrassimus” or something — but I had no veto power, so we took the poor sickly thing home and dolled it up as best we could.

Okay, okay, I exaggerate.  Sorry.

It didn’t come out that bad at all:

Once again Vibeke & Jørgen joined us for Christmas Eve dinner.

And after dinner came the dancing around the tree.

The preceding shots were made possible by means of blackmail: you want to open your presents?  Give me a lovely smile in front of the tree!

And then… payoff!

At one point Trine looped Gert and Mette into the festivities simultaneously, with one on her iPad and the other on her iPhone.  They were even able to see and hear each other.  I ought to have tried to get Deep River or Chelmsford in at the same time, but was obviously busy taking pictures.

Finally Christmas Eve came to an end.

My friend and frequent business associate Mads Wilson is the chief marketing officer for Copenhagen Suborbitals and has been (successfully) trying to woo me into volunteering some time and effort for their marketing efforts.  On December 30th I dropped the girls off at Tivoli and drove out to Refshaleøen — a little island just off Christianshavn — to watch them test their new engine.

This is a zoomed shot of the test area from pretty far away.

This next shot is unzoomed just to give a sense of how far away we had to be to watch safely:

Rather than upload my little video of the actual test I will refer you to Copenhagen Suborbitals themselves: go ahead and google them on the web proper, or friend them on Facebook, and you’ll have access to their much superior videos (sorry, no external links in here to keep the spiders and robots out).

After the test we had to wait for cool-down and a safety inspection, at which point we were allowed closer to the engine.

The cannister on the left is liquid oxygen, that on the right is alcohol.  (As Mads put it, “Basically the thing is half-fueled by schnapps.”)

I’d never seen, heard, or felt a real rocket engine firing before.  This was just a prototype, and wouldn’t have launched an actual rocket more than 9 or 10 km into the sky, but the sound was astonishing — as was the way the ground (and my molars) vibrated even from this distance.  It was something to behold and I look forward to doing what I can to help them become the first non-profit, volunteer, open-source project in human history to put a man in space — and get him back to earth safely!

Hey — a visit from Nana and Pop-Pop!

Now we’re caught up to yesterday, New Year’s Eve 2012.  Here is our pyro booty:

I was a little disappointed in our batteries and the tubes, but the rockets were pretty impressive.  More on that later, maybe.  Meanwhile: how was our night?

Since it was just going to be the four of us, and since three of us are girly girls, Trine and I decided we would have a very girly girl New Year’s Eve: we would force naps on the family at from 2-4pm, then kick things off with some sauna time, then shower, then lounge about in our robes and paint (almost) all our finger- and toenails — I opted out of that — then dress up very fancy and begin our very fancy evening of fancy food, fancy drink, and fun and games.  The girls loved this plan.

… but we got so caught up in our leisure we almost missed the Queen’s speech at 6pm!

(She made two notable and now widely-discussed points: the first, that we cannot be perfect employees, perfect parents, enthusiastic hobbyists, in perfect physical shape, and looking young into our 60s, and it is unrealistic and unhealthy to tell ourselves we can; the second, that we need to protect ourselves and especially our children from confusing the online world with reality.  She actually knocked Facebook by name.)

Umm… the girls were allowed to choose their own “fancy” outfits, so I take no responsibility for Maddie’s coordination.

Trine went for the wet-n-wild look:

And me, well, as usual, I’m just all class:

The next pic is actually now my favorite picture of myself and Molli Malou ever.

It is just such a relief to be in a whole FAMILY of hams!

They play so sweetly together when they’re not trying to tear each other to pieces…

Maddie discovered that her tiara makes a very interesting set of glasses.

…which reminded her that she had actual glasses that were even more fun.

Elton John, right?  Tell me that wasn’t your first thought.  Of course it was.

Not being egocentric or anything, just got so exasperated with there never being any photos of me (go back and have another look at the Christmas pics!) that I got very insistent on being well represented last night.

At about 10:15pm we made our way down to Sofie’s house — just three doors down — and were there until about 2am.

Maddie didn’t make it to midnight: I took this picture of her about 11:30, and as you can see she can barely keep both eyes open simultaneously.

And this picture was taken about — no, not about, I can see the time stamps: it was taken exactly one minute later:

Finally it was midnight and we hurried outside to blow things up in the awful wind and rain:

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So there we are: we end 2012 with a picture of Molli Malou preparing to detonate a Class B explosive.

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(No, I don’t know what a Class B explosive is, or whether that rocket is one, it just sounded better than “an explodey thing.”)

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2013 is a crazy year for anniversaries: Nana and Pop-Pop’s 50th anniversary, my 30th high school reunion, and the 10th anniversary of my one-year move to Denmark are all coming up.  It will also be the 5th anniversary of our move to Værløse, which is a little weird: neither Trine nor I have ever lived in the same town — much less home — more than five years in our adult lives.  Knock wood, ’cause we’re happy here! 

Maddie will begin preparing for “zeroth” grade, Molli Malou will enter third grade (and begin studying English!).  We will have a few weeks in the states for the first time since 2011.

It’s going to be a very busy start of the year for me personally, since things are hopping at Issuu and I have committed to a longish Hitman-related assignment for IO Interactive — and I am also hoping to find time to keep up with my writing, volunteer for Copenhagen Suborbitals, and squeeze myself back into a regular workout routine (so I can hopefully squeeze myself back into my favorite clothes).  I am not insane and realize I will not be able to achieve all of those things while still being a decent parent and getting at least 6 hours of sleep a night, so I am cutting myself slack wherever I can — including granting myself a one-to-three month sabbatical from feeling any pressure whatever to update this blog.  That doesn’t mean I won’t, only that I won’t feel badly if I don’t.  The girls aren’t changing as rapidly as they used to and there aren’t many big events coming up anyway.  And anything that needs to be shared quickly visually can be posted on Facebook.

So here’s to a wonderful 2013!