Christmas lights will break your heart…and maybe burn your husband’s retinas. At least, that’s been my experience, and I have had about a billion frustrating Christmas light experiences, so I ought to know. Hubris and the really bad juju of a dead squirrel got me this year. Here is my story: Last Friday, noting the [...]
I love when holidays snuggle up to weekends and you can hit the snooze button on life for an extra day or two. I especially love when some of the people with whom you've made holiday memories can stick around a while and savor them with you. In a holiday full of them, one particular [...]
Some of the great, timeless pleasures of this holiday season are the lights that herald it -- twinkle lights, Edison bulbs, candles, incandescent strings. They hang from trees and houses like merry messengers of joy. I love them all. Though we've had our moments, and I wrestle with my own most years, I still think [...]
We strolled through Christmas past, present and future yesterday on a post-Packer game trip to see Bruce the Spruce and the Green Bay Botanical Garden. Do you remember Bruce the Spruce? I do. For me he is the ghost of Christmas past, a large, somewhat terrifying tree that stood at the entrance of the children's [...]
An unlikely pre-game activity warmed us up in all kinds of ways Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Led by our gallant host, we left the loud, brash world of football behind for a little while and took in the Phipps Winter Flower Show at the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens. The contrast could not have been more profound. [...]