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Keeping up with the Karlssons: July 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Tuesday, July 15, 2014. Ten Years in Tandem. On Fourth of July weekend Mattias and I abandoned the kids in Milpitas and drove north to Mendocino to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Never ones to celebrate with gifts, we splurged on an ocean view cottage in the village of Elk, and drank our way through the Anderson Valley wine country on the way up. The Elk Cove Inn. We got there early enough to see river otters with babies, nesting cormorants, and baby ducklings and ...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: November 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Wednesday, November 12, 2014. Ranking just below Christmas, Halloween is my second favorite holiday of the year. It could be the cooling weather, or the crafting of costumes, or that the entire month of October turns into a conglomerate celebration: Falloween. We don't have the dramatic color changes or larger-than-life Fall festivals we had back in Virginia, but we're finding ways to celebrate. This year, we explored local farms and parks in the Silicon Valley. For the fir...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: December 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Thursday, December 18, 2014. Soon after we finished our Thanksgiving leftovers, we hopped onto the Christmas train headed straight for Jul-time Insanity Land. I'm not a huge shopper (I actually become repulsed by retail every November/December), but I am a stickler for traditions. So, the decorations must go up on the first of December! He was right. We got some apple cider, visited the farm animals, and started deliberating on the perfect tree. Last year. In addition to tr...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: March 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Saturday, March 8, 2014. For Christmas, Uncle Jonas and Auntie Lauren gave the boys a trip to Alcatraz. We'd talked a lot about the prison on the rock, and they were thrilled to take a boat to tour the prison. We were thrilled that their present required no space in our apartment! We chose to go on Super Bowl Sunday, figuring we would avoid the crowds. Wrong! It also happened to be one of the coldest, wettest, and windiest days this winter. One of the best parts of the muse...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: March 2015

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Thursday, March 19, 2015. A few weeks ago we escaped the city for the redwood forest, less than an hour from the hustle and bustle of the Silicon Valley. Our friend Amy proposed a group camping trip to Mt. Madonna, a Santa Clara County park that rents out furnished yurts amidst redwood trees. 3 families with kids, plus my parents got there just before dark. Just in time to enjoy grilled sausages and s'mores for dinner. Afterwards we had lunch and a surprise birthday party f...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: January 2015

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Sunday, January 11, 2015. The turn of the year is always a blur. I like to use the end of the year to motivate myself to tie up loose ends, purge our closets, and clean the house. It is also a time of celebration, with Mattias birthday coming just 2 days after the new year. This New Year's Eve we hosted a small, quiet celebration at our place with sushi and video games. After lunch everyone was tired and there was a lot of crying, so instead of heading home we said "Fuck it...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: June 2015

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Thursday, June 25, 2015. Forgotten Blog: April Slow Down. Wow, this draft got lost in the Blogger dashboard in all the hustle and bustle of March and April. I may have mentioned that March was one of the most stressful times in my life. (My fault, part over-commitment, part people-pleasing). It was quite fitting then, to run into this happy snail on a very early morning before work. A few weeks later we celebrated DogFest, a fundraiser benefitting Linus' school, at nearby D...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: August 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Thursday, August 28, 2014. Sweden Adventure Part 3: Grimstorp Gård and Nässjö. Grimstorp Gård is a big field with a house, and a little offshoot of pavement that only slightly indicates a bus might stop there. We rented a renovated farm cabin to share with the East Coast Karlssons for the rest of the week. A few days later we celebrated my 34th birthday on the patio, in the best way possible: no fuss, very few gifts, and a homemade cake. Nearby there is a small lake to swim...

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Keeping up with the Karlssons: October 2014

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Keeping up with the Karlssons. Friday, October 31, 2014. Living Small, Livin' Large. I always feel silly inviting new people into our home and giving them the "tour". Standing from our dining room table I'm able to point out the kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and bathroom by pivoting my body 90 degrees. But it's efficiency that matters, and we sure do know how to use our space. Friday, October 10, 2014. Despite the Kings Fire, that burned just a few miles of the Karlsson cabin, we made the trip with th...