What more can I say?

“It smells like plastic,” I said. “Well, it is plastic,” Ray replied matter of factly, as he draped red and green lights over the fake tree. I didn’t mention that my throat was starting to itch. RED AND GREEN. Not a tasteful white, or some cool “in” color. But I had vowed to myself that […]

“Gosh, I didn’t expect to cry,” a mom said, wiping her eyes as we walked out out of the school cafeteria after the kindergarten holiday show. “Yeah, I know,” I mumbled, grateful it was dark so she couldn’t see my own dry ones. I actually had expected to tear up, had packed extra Kleenex, but […]

The other day at Brownies, we talked about traditions. The girls went around the room, naming their own, and I talked a little about  Hanukkah. (That wasn’t on the agenda, but I whined after I heard the troop leader say she was going to have each girl put an ornament on her tree. It’s hard […]

The other night at the office holiday party, I gulped two glasses of sangria (seriously the best sangria I’ve ever had, and that includes La Grande Orange in Phoenix, which is saying something — I’ll post the recipe if I can wrest it out of the host) and for about 10 minutes, I was pleasantly […]

Good news, and just in time for the holidays: Bratz dolls may soon be no longer. Not for the reasons I’d ban them — the lips that look like they were plumped with collagen, the hips barely covered with slutty skirts…. But for some detailed legal reasons you can delve into here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081204/bs_nm/us_mattel_bratz Hey, whatever […]

I can’t believe it’s been four months. Four months of kindergarten, to the day — tomorrow. And this is just the second piece I’ve done for the radio about Sophie’s kindergarten experience. If you read GIAPH you know the schtick already, but this will allow you to weigh in on whether you think I need […]

I had to get some advice from my mother in law. “OK,” I said, “tell me what to do.” “Well, you have the girls write the letters and then we’ll send them Santa’s letters in reply. We have the paper all ready.” “But where do I have them send the letters?” I asked, confused. “Anywhere. The […]

The other day, I wrote about an event (the light parade down Mill Avenue) that exceeded expectations. So it’s only fair to share the dark side of the weekend. Well, not so dark. But definitely on the darker side of pink. It seemed like a great idea to take Annabelle, Sophie and their 5 year […]

I looked around Saturday evening and noticed that just about every Brownie troop in town had chosen to dress as angels for the parade down Mill Avenue in Tempe that kicks off our holiday season. I felt badly for the woman who cut out 30 sets of cardboard wings for our troop. The girls did look […]