"12 Dads of Xmas" DAY 6: Andy & Charlie (howtobeadad.com)

1. Why don't you start by introducing yourself to our readers (Name, Kids (How Many / Names), Occupation, Location?)
ANDY
Andy Herald
3 Sons - Cody 14, Max 12 & Lucas 3
Graphic Designer
Pasadena, CA

CHARLIE
Charlie Capen
1 son - Finnegan 3.
Actor/Digital Arsonist
Los Angeles, CA

2. When does "the Holiday Season" start for you?

ANDY
October 1st. I consider Halloween part of the holiday season. One sort of rolls into the next.

CHARLIE
As soon as my wife starts force-feeding us holiday music. Also? Starting the holiday cheer at the end of July (I'm talking to you Costco) is bullshit.

3. What do you and your family do to keep the magic of Christmas alive? 
ANDY
Decorating and Christmas music always get us into the swing of things despite the lack of seasons here in the Los Angeles area. Frank Sinatra is the family Christmas standard though my wife poisons the well with Celine Dion from time to time.

CHARLIE
We've established a number of traditions on and before Christmas that maintain the magical sentimentality of the holidays. Most of them involve food or long walks. All involve chocolate.

4. What's your favorite holiday movie?

ANDY
"It's a Wonderful Life"

CHARLIE
I want to say "Treevenge" but my final answer is "It's a Wonderful Life" and "White Christmas".

5. Is there anything you always wanted for Christmas as a child and never got?

ANDY
Power Wheels, those electric miniature cars kids could drive and crash into other kids with.

CHARLIE
Respect? Actually, I really wanted to get fireworks and Power Wheels but never got them. That's why I drive around in an SUV firing Roman candles out of my muffler.

6. Holiday Tree or Christmas Tree: Real of fake? Discuss. 

ANDY
Real. Noble Fir or better. Accept no substitutes. Unflocked. I'm super serious about my Christmas trees. Everyone else can do WHATEVER they want.

CHARLIE
Real. They have sap pockets you can pick at and those aluminum trees they had in Charlie Brown Christmas are bunk.

7. Do you have any unique holiday traditions? 

ANDY
Consumption of massive quantities of eggnog.

CHARLIE
We don't have many unique ones like sculpting statues of Santa Claus out of frozen cider or candy cane dart games. We read "Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve and hug a lot, though.

8. So, like us, you have a blog where there's more than on contributor. I was curious how you do it. Who does what, how do you share the work load and how do you find the time?

ANDY & CHARLIE
We have a pretty rad complement of skill sets between the pair of us. Andy handles design, graphical media and the coding aspects. Charlie takes care of the video production, social media management and outreach. We both write and counsel each other on the direction of our work. And we Voltron mind-meld on the creative of nearly all media. Both of us write a narrative post each week, and switch off between doing 3 posts or 2 posts respectively.

We have a firm rule that if one of us is freaking out or having a shitty week, the other has to remain stable.

So, we seriously balance each other out. But how do we find the time? We don't. We invent it. Through sleep-deprivation, mainly.

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