Navigating motherhood in an intercultural and interfaith family.
The Christmas Card is one tradition I hope is never fully taken over by technology. As a kid, I loved watching for Christmas cards in the mail, taking turns opening them, and then displaying them each year on the living room shelf--later, on a cord in the kitchen doorway. I still love to send and receive paper mail.
Read MoreThere was once a young girl who was the daughter of a salesman and a seamstress. Her father traveled often, so the girl spent most of her days playing or reading in the corner of the dressmaker's shop while her mother worked. Each morning, just before dawn, the girl and her mother would ride the bus into town. Most of the time, the girl napped, her head leaning against the window. But during the Christmas season, she loved to look at all of the decorated store fronts as they drove past. Each day, the square had a few more decorations--first the lights, then the garland, the figurines, the bows--until every window and every light post was devoted to the season.
Read MoreWhat's Christmas without a little joy? A little laughter? A little Why did we do that? a few days after?
Read MoreThe best traditions happen by accident--one impulse creates an association, forms a memory that persists from one year to the next. Each time we repeat the impulse, new memories attach themselves to the existing ones and the associations deepen. Before long, we can no longer imagine life without it. Such is the story of the Christmas Tree we know today.
Read MoreSo far this month, I've focused on holiday traditions, writing about Christmas movies, decorations, and treats. What I haven't written about so far is the true meaning of Christmas. Here are 8 words that remind me of what this season is really about--
Read MoreOne of my favorite parts of the holiday? The sweet treats. Cookie cutouts, oatmeal carmelitas, fudge, peanut butter balls, Butterfinger bells (which I have yet to find in the northeast), the list goes on. And on.
In celebration of the most delicious Christmas tradition, here are 9 Naked Christmas Cookies--
Read MoreWe had a date planned for Thursday night to make pizza, sip wine, and watch a Christmas movie while putting up our holiday decorations. Then life happened in the form of resume deadlines and networking phone calls for him, and a giant, un-mendable hole in the pizza dough for me. At nine, we ordered a pizza with only sauce and topped it ourselves, watched an episode of House of Cards, and postponed the decorating until Sunday.
Read MoreYou know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
You know Conner and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,
But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?
Read MoreLast month, I found some family photographs from when I was growing up that (accidentally) matched older photographs from my mother's childhood. As you can see in the collage above, our holiday traditions have carried over from one generation to the next as well! (I love that the Christmas trees in the two upper-right photos look like they're two halves of the same tree.)
Read MoreHere's a fun fact for your Friday:
Amar and I went on our second first date ten years ago this coming week. (The first first date was sometime in high school--we went to the movies with a group of friends and sat next to each other on purpose.) Coincidentally, our second first date was also to the movies. We saw the fourth Harry Potter. I wasn't sure if it was a date-date or a friend-date, so I planned on arriving early and waiting to see if he would buy my ticket. Instead, I ran late, he'd already bought both tickets by the time I got there, and I spent a good part of the movie searching for other clues as to what kind of date we were on.
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