My Favorite Holiday Tradition: Making Myriads of Kids Smile
To me, the holidays are all about the kids. At some point, we all reach the age when our parents have to get us up to open presents rather than the other way around. And once you reach this age, the holidays are a lot more fun when there are little kids around.
READ MOREMy Favorite Holiday Tradition: Stuffed Reindeer and Fishing Rods
Last year, we waited in line for an hour at the local mall. Meanwhile, we were subjected to nonstop trailers for a horrible holiday movie projected on big screens, and were surrounded by “themed” decorations based on the same film. Talk about the commercialization of Christmas. Anyway, after all that, my son took one look at Santa Claus and started crying so hard that his face turned the same color as cheery old St. Nick’s suit.
READ MOREChristmas Eve, Italian Style
I grew up in an Italian/Irish household. That meant Christmas Eve dinner was usually a mouth-watering feast of seafood delights and culinary delicacies. Antipasto (a wonderful assortment of meats, cheeses, and vegetables), shrimp fra diavolo, fried calamari, breaded flounder, baked scallops, homemade rice balls, and, of course, pasta. Lots and lots of pasta. Dessert was even better with 7-layer rainbow cookies, cannolis, and cappuccino.
READ MORE10 Little Things I Love About the Holidays
1. Giving gifts and cards. (Of course, receiving gifts/cards is a great feeling too!) 2. Decorating the Christmas tree. It’s always so much fun. 3. Baking. This is when I can take my time to massively produce baked goodies, like gingerbread man cookies, cranberry scones, and pumpkin pies. Yum. 4.…
READ MOREHow to Find the Jingle Bell Spirit
I used to gripe about the “inconvenience” of the holiday season. Too often, I felt that my work goals suffered because people I needed to get in touch with were simply not available. It sometimes seemed like everyone I wanted to talk to was taking a long lunch break to do Christmas shopping or had left work early to get ready for an office Christmas party.
READ MOREHow to Help Your Spouse Lose Weight
Researchers from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania teamed up to see if a weight-loss program delivered to one spouse could be “taken home” and have beneficial effects for the untreated spouse as well.
READ MOREMy Favorite Thanksgiving Tradition: The Best of Two Worlds
For my husband and me, Thanksgiving is an international delight. My family is Italian and Irish. His is Latin American. When he was growing up, my husband and his family did not celebrate our American holiday. But since they’ve moved to the United States, they have embraced it wholeheartedly.
READ MOREWanting Things
I don’t remember being thankful very often when I was a kid. I remember wanting things – lots of things – all the time.
I wanted toy trucks and cap guns and Lionel trains and baseball mitts. I wanted army men and model planes and erector sets. I wanted everything I saw advertised for boys on television. And everything other kids at school had, including boxed lunches and meat sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly in a paper bag.
READ MORE10 Things Edwin Huertas Loves About Thanksgiving
1. It really starts to “feel” like the holidays when Thanksgiving comes around. 2. I start Christmas shopping for my kids, and it is exciting to see all the cool new stuff in the stores. 3. Being a Florida resident, I get to enjoy the PERFECT weather we get this…
READ MORELearning From Real Heroes
Americans love to throw around the term “hero.” But what is a hero? We tend not only to ascribe the word to illiterate athletes, but to people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well.
READ MORE10 Things Jason Holland Loves About Thanksgiving
1. Watching B- and C-level pop stars doing a terrible job of lip syncing from tacky-fantastic parade floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Bonus points if they are “playing” an unplugged electric guitar. 2. Another thing about the Thanksgiving parade, which happens only when the weather is extremely cold…
READ MORE10 Things Jessica Kurrle Loves About Thanksgiving
1. The colors… burnt orange, squash yellow, brick red, shades of brown and dark green… make me think of Thanksgiving and fall in general. 2. Pumpkins! The traditions of roasting pumpkin seeds and making delicious pie. 3. Working so hard all day to create a masterpiece of a meal… just…
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