In an effort to stick to some sort of budget and keep things lively, I dubbed this year “Thrift Store Christmas.” All that meant, in the end, was that I spent a lot of time in Goodwill buying Pyrex and crystal bowls I used as cactus planters, trimmed with vintage plastic Christmas deer and Santas […]

I’m typically the biggest fan of the seasonal sounds, but I’ve got to say, if I hear that Wham song one more time I’m going to freak out and tiny flocked Santas and 15 batches of sugar cookie dough will go flying. (Don’t ask.) So I’m geeking out and making a Christmas mix, which is […]

I know I shouldn’t let myself go there, but I can’t help it. I do it every time. My sister and her family were in town from Denver for the Thanksgivukkah Palooza last week — and we had a blast. My sister and I were never close, growing up, and we didn’t have cousins we […]

I have never considered myself a writer. Not since second grade, when I lost a poetry contest and realized I wasn’t all that — despite what my mother said (constantly). The first day of graduate school, I moved into a dorm with students from all over the university. “You must be the journalist!” the other […]

This morning Sophie and I toured a charter school in downtown Phoenix, our first visit out into “the field” as we look for a junior high for her. “That was fun!” she announced when we got in the car. “Really?” I thought to myself. “Because I feel like I’ve been through a meat grinder.” The […]

I have been immersed for months in a somewhat selfish pursuit: The task of finding Sophie just the right junior high. Parenting is selfish by definition, if you do it right. You fight and scrape for your kid. Damn the rest. That’s how I feel about charter schools, when it comes to both my girls. […]

I spend so much time angsting — over the past, the present, the future. But at the moment, not so much. As I type this, the temperature outside is perfect. And I’m outside in it. There are bubble lights and hot tea (that it’s barely cool enough for, but still) and I’m on my way […]

Please pardon the dust! Girl in a Party Hat is sprucing up a bit — mostly on the technical side, I’ve decided to join the 21st century with an email subscription method and a couple others bells/whistles. It should all be ready to go soon. For now we’re Girl in a Party Hard Hat.

If you have not seen this instructional video — made by Disney in 1946 — it’s worth 10 minutes of your time. I have heard that it was banned, but I haven’t been able to verify that. Apparently it won the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” and was shown to tens of millions of high […]

About halfway through the “how to teach your child with Down syndrome about puberty” seminar this past weekend, it dawned on me that everything I learned from puberty came from Judy Blume. Okay, if we’re going to get technical, you can throw in a reel-to-reel film they showed in third grade and a pair of […]