We celebrated our family Christmas this evening and the picture above shows my favorite present. Of course, I liked everything I received: the pack of panties, the bubble bath, the pumice stone and foot scrub, the gift card to Coffee Bean, the socks, face cream, Chai tea and new frying pan. But my favorite gifts…
Month: December 2012
A Cold Night + A Honey-Sweetened Cranberry Sauce Recipe
I am sitting in front of my fireplace with the fire blazing. It is cold for LA – 51 degrees with a light wind. Only chilly for other parts of the country, but for Southern California, it’s down right frigid, especially knowing it is getting down to 44 tonight. I am sitting two feet from the…
One Stop Christmas Shopping
Let me name a one stop gift buying store: IKEA. We went there today and, though I had to rush and not meander since I was with other people, I still found all sorts of great little buys for my Christmas list. I can’t go into exactly what I bought since my daughters tend…
Countdown to Christmas
Today was one of those days when I felt as if I were juggling a dozen different tasks in the air and getting none of them completely done. Frustrating since I am tired of dealing with work and task lists and am ready instead to shift my attention to Christmas and holidays. Alas, tomorrow may…
Life of Pi: A Sincere Grappling with Questions of God and Faith
This movie could have been awful. A boy, a tiger and lots of water… Instead, it’s visually beautiful as well as emotionally satisfying as the questions of life and death, belief and unbelief, and God or no God are seriously examined amid action, tension and humor. My husband, who had to be dragged to this…
A Film to Recommend: Flight
Today I went to see Denzel Washington in the movie Flight. I went with a friend who liked the movie well enough to see it for a second time. I went in cold, meaning I knew almost nothing about the film save that Denzel surely was an airline pilot given his “look” on the movie…
A Holiday Party
We just returned from our first holiday party. This was at Liz’s boyfriend Ron’s parents’ house in Hollywood. We had good food: chicken sausage lasagna and arugula and sun-dried tomato pizza and lots of good conversation. I only knew Ron, Liz, Rick and Cindy (Ron’s parents) when I arrived, but over the course of the…
The Calm of Ojai in Contrast to the Chaos of the School Shootings Today
Ray and I drove up to the orange grove in Ojai today to gather oranges for the holidays, and also to sort out furniture in our storage bins there to take to Texas for the 2nd floor turret room in Lyon House. We got up early and were on our way by 5:30 am. We…
“Christmas-Lite”
Here is our little Christmas tree here in CA. We are going “Christmas-Lite” this year, working to shift the focus from stress and spending to calm and sharing. We are limiting the amount of money for gifts with family and having a potluck with friends on Christmas Day. (This is after having an evening celebration…
Now I Am Really Finished!
You know when I said the Scholastic entries were all ready? Well, it turned out that they were not since one of my students ended up submitting five more entries. (This is a good thing.) However, between getting the Scholastic paper work done (read: ridiculous redundancies) and squeezing in a Fedex trip while working on…
20 Minutes a Day 