Apparently American culture is more self-centered than ever. Starting Christmas evening and continuing through the night, I received dozens of emails from online retailers. And they all began their subject line with, “DIDN’T GET WHAT YOU WANT THIS CHRISTMAS?” Yes. Let’s encourage ungratefulness and materialism ON CHRISTMAS DAY, giving us all every opportunity to feel […]
Blog Roll
Top Ten Moments of Christmas.
It was a good Christmas. Many of our past Christmases have contained moments (or longer) of frustration and unmet expectations, which became exponentially blown out of proportion because of the fact that it’s CHRISTMAS DAY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD and ALL IS SUPPOSED TO BE COMPLETELY IDYLLIC. You know, like a kid busting her head […]
How The Disney Stole Christmas.
“Pick something from Disney,” Chris said. “It’ll be a safe choice.” I was desperately thumbing through NetFlix, looking for something, anything to entertain our children for the last hour before bedtime on the worst parenting day of our lives. Chris and I had both woken up with the stomach virus Saturday morning. We were incapacitated, […]
How to End a Plague of Bats.
November is a costly month for our family. In 2012, on the fifth day of the ill-fated eleventh month, Ali had a slight bathroom flood. That created 184 days of construction, renovations, and water damage mitigation. In 2013, on the seventeenth day of the eleventh month, a mutantly giant bat invaded my son’s room, alerting […]
So You Heard It’s My Birthday…
Hi! Noah here. Clearly, you’ve arrived to celebrate my third birthday and wish me tidings of great joy. And I’m totally down with that. That’s what the comment section is for…down at the bottom of this post – after I’ve made your year with a review of mine. But the servants have been complaining that […]
When Santa Traditions Need to Go.
It took Ali six years to work up the courage to actually speak to Santa, so this year, she eagerly prepared for her second visit to The Man, The Mystery, The Legend. She began early to work on her Christmas list. Then she trashed that list and started over. Because one can never revise their […]
50 Restaurants in Crappy Photos, Round Six.
‘Tis the season for eating out – I declare it. Because who has time to cook? I’m far too busy addressing envelopes for my Christmas cards that haven’t arrived yet and panicking about their ship date. So anyway. Let’s move on to food. 21. Avo & Dram The first thing I need to tell you […]
Educational Diversions.
If you haven’t deduced it by now, I’ll spell it out: my oldest child is a full-on geek. This quality makes her the easiest part of the homeschooling equation (especially after installing the attitude chart.) We’re ahead in several of our books because she often asks to keep going, and the poor child is so […]
DETERMINATION.
That’s what it takes to achieve the mailing out of Christmas Cards. I am convinced that the twenty-nine step process of Christmas Card Creation is the single most trying test of adulthood. (At least this week.) And, being that I have a severe aversion to being late to any function, the fact that I cannot […]
A Series of Unfortunate Events.
He’s stinking cute. But he thinks too much. And also? He’s a toddler. And toddlers break things. He’s actually always been a rather careful kid, though – bred from the highest of OCD stock, he had no choice in the matter. He carefully closes every door, turns out every light, sorts his toy boxes when […]