In a perfect world, all of the people I love would crowd around my mother in-law's hand-me-down dining room table every Christmas Eve, holding hands and singing fahoo fores in matching Christmas jammies while fat snowflakes floated harmlessly to the ground outside our windows and the exact right presents sat beautifully wrapped under the tree. [...]
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 [...]
Christmas does not knock gently on our front door, it kicks it wide open like a tipsy old friend saying just a little too loudly, "Oh My God! I've missed you!!!" It comes at us like a bear hug in a crowded grocery store, the kind you see coming out of the corner of your [...]
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 [...]
Like everybody else, I will be very happy to say goodbye to 2020, when I went the whole year without seeing my immediate family all together under one roof, even for a night; and watched people I love struggle to rebalance their relationships on solid, common ground in a brutally divisive climate; and worried every [...]