Another Reason To Love the Bay Area

Sara and Hank keeping warm by the fire, originally uploaded by hjw3001.

Turns out San Francisco is the home of the only beach in California where you can have a bonfire legally. So Henry suggested we drag our dried up christmas tree out there to burn last night. We got there right as the sun was about to go down. I loaded our sleepy little Hank into the Moby wrap and zipped him into my jacket and we proceeded to march along Ocean Beach, searching for an open fire pit. Turns out we weren't the only ones to have this idea last night -- all the pits were full of trees on fire already. As we were wondering what to do two little girls ran up to us and asked if we were looking for a place to burn our tree (uh -- what gave you that idea??) and invited us to join their families at the fire pit they were using.

It was such fun. Henry and Jeff, who met us down on the beach for the burning, loaded the tree into the pit and lit it on fire. It went up in flames in no time, and I felt very comforted knowing that that tree had been in our home for several weeks... hmmm... reminder to water the tree more often next year?

I wasn't expecting tree burning to be such a family event, but it really was. There were kids all over the place, and dogs, and everyone seemed to be using this as one last opportunity for some holiday cheer. Seeing as I slept through new year's eve, I sort of felt like it was an opportunity to mark the passing of one more season, and the beginning of a new one. On the way home we brainstormed how we can make this a family tradition for years to come, that's how much fun it was.