by Carolyn Bickford
The Santa Clara County Parks department recently launched a “Healthy Trails” program with a list of trails to hike in the local parks. Since I love taking my children outdoors, I was all over that, and in a lull between…
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Peter’s been in a throw out the old, bring in the new mood over this Christmas break, which I believe was, at least in part, inspired by Tim Gunn. Since paring down his closet, Peter’s also ripped out obsolete wiring;…
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I’ve never taken my children to a circus, and we’ve only been to the San Francisco Zoo and the Oakland Zoo once each. I sometimes wonder if I’m depriving them of one of the requirements for a full and memorable…
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For about 10 years now, a treasure hunt for Christmas presents has been part of our family tradition. Peter and I take turns planning one for each other. Neil, who loves puzzles has gotten in on the action and has…
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For the last two weeks (if not longer), Kelly’s been jumping into our bed early in the morning, asking “is it Christmas yet?” No, I have to tell her, not yet… But thanks to Mental Floss, I found something that…
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Mount Holyoke used to have a January session: two weeks in which you took a specialized course you’d never think of taking during the regular academic semester. I loved it, and even dropped in on courses that weren’t mine for…
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It’s quite obvious that we have a lot of immigrants from Mexico and South America, and in the capitalist way, many businesses have sprung up to service them: we have locally-produced Spanish radio, television, and newspapers; many businesses advertise that…
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This year, I thought I’d reached the heights of Christmas crafting by making our own Christmas crackers. For most of my life, I’d been intrigued by this peculiar British Christmas delight, and I’d read many a story in which children…
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Lately, Peter and I have been enjoying digital video. We can watch foreign shows without having to worry about regional DVD formatting; we can pick up TV shows we forgot to schedule on our PVR (or which weren’t recorded because…
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Every year, I vow to do less at Christmas, and every year it still ends up hectic. Because of an early Thanksgiving, most Christmas duties seemed to be done, but now it’s the week before Christmas, and everything’s going on….
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