Family – Page 3 – Gemma D. Alexander

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Iceland, Iceland Airwaves, Icelandic music, music festivals

Live from Reykjavik – Iceland Airwaves at Home

My first trip to Iceland was for the Iceland Airwaves Festival in 2012. It was a lifechanging experience for me for many reasons. It also seemed like a pretty kid-friendly festival, so I came home fully intending to come back another year with my family. And although I’ve made it back to Iceland many times, once with kids in tow, I’ve never managed to catch another Airwaves. During the pandemic lockdown, I realized that my oldest only has one more year of high school, which seems like a deadline for all sorts of family things. I swore to myself that the next time it’s safe to go to Airwaves, I’m taking the whole family no matter what else may be going on. A few days later I saw that Airwaves had gone online with a two-day virtual Live from Reykjavik mini-festival.

How I Roll

One year, I took my mom and my daughters to Victoria for a girls’ weekend getaway. We ended up buying so many books they filled our suitcase and we had to put our clothes in garbage bags on the ferry home.

Two years later, the three of us went to Portland for another weekend. But this was no ordinary girls’ weekend. Portland is home to Powell’s, and this weekend was a pilgrimage.

We spent hours at Powell’s both days we were in town. I spent so much money that the bookseller who rang us up gave us an honorary 10% discount. I spent the entire savings at Powell’s the next day. The receipts from those purchases are more than two feet long and hang above my desk to this day.

But for this trip, I came prepared. I brought a bookcase.

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Halloween

Neighborly Halloween

Halloween was my favorite holiday growing up. But now that I have my own kids, it feels like the pronunciation I hate has become accurate – “hollow”. One year I handed out these full-disclosure homemade treats. It felt like I was resisting the defanging of Halloween.

I only thought the day was sanitized back then. Oh well. At least kids will be allowed to wear masks with their costumes again this year.

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Doe Bay, Doe Bay Fest, family festivals, family travel, music festivals

Ok Village

My family has been incredibly fortunate during the pandemic. Unlike so many other people, we haven’t suffered any significant material losses. All we can complain about is missed traditions, like my daughter’s final Village Day at her elementary school. But complaining about those seems wrong in the midst of everything that’s going on.

This photo shows my youngest daughter’s ear protection and wristband from Doe Bay Fest 9. We’ve gone to almost every Doe Bay Festival since we discovered it in year 6. This year would have been lucky 13. How ironic.

The wristband says

Ok village, raise me

It’s a reflection of the DBF spirit of community that makes parents feel safe letting their kids run around the festival unsupervised. They can’t get lost because on that weekend the whole resort is packed with hundreds of people. And at Doe Bay, you know that those people are all keeping an eye on whatever kids are within visual range. If a kids falls off a rock or out of a tree or gets a bee sting – someone will notice and they won’t hesitate to help.

I’m not a particularly social person, so for the most part the whole quarantine experience has relieved more stress than it has caused me. But I’m sad there is no DBF this year and really hope it’s back on next summer. Because at least once a year, almost as much as the music, I miss the village.

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pandemic, pandemic homeschool, Sisters Scents, summer vacation, virtual travel

Summer Expectations Vs. Reality

You know those “Expectation vs. Reality” memes? I need one for my summer. I mean, I already knew it wasn’t going to involve exciting trips to far-off places or music festivals. But I thought, based on our success with remote learning during the school year, that I could pull off an interesting and educational summer at home. I certainly had big plans that seemed cool when I made them up. And I don’t think the summer we had was bad. It just didn’t look anything like my plans. What else is new, right?

Category Archive Family

Live from Reykjavik – Iceland Airwaves at Home