Holidays

I was talking with a friend this morning who said, “I’m already exhausted… and the holiday season just began!” She went on to say that she barely had time to enjoy Thanksgiving because she spent so much time…

I recently got an email from two of my siblings asking my opinion on a family matter. Apparently, one of our aunts used to send a tub of popcorn to each of her grown-up nieces and nephews, every Christmas…

One by one I picked up the memories wrapped in each ornament and hung them on the tree. Pictures materialized in my mind of a beloved’s head bent while creating these ornaments in his shop, little fingers gingerly gluing a star on a felt Christmas tree, a friend’s offering of a token of nature, a sister’s foreboding of a life passing. These are my company in the dark days of December. Read More

When I host a party, I do my best to provide a variety of foods to allow my guests to choose at least a couple of options that meet their nutritional restrictions. I also ask my guests what food allergies or sensitivities they have so that I can make sure I avoid them. Read More

Early this morning, I got up to do my exercises and mediation before heading to the airport for my annual Christmas visit at my best friend’s family’s house in Spokane, WA. Before I put the last bits and pieces in my luggage for the long drive to the airport, I checked my inbox. Read More

When you think of the holidays, is food one of the first things that comes to mind? Some of us can’t wait to cook, bake and eat all of those things we don’t make the rest of the year. Read More

Christmas, much like the other holidays, is a time when people look forward to the comforting nature of tradition, but when a death happens, the tradition is disrupted. Read More

I was originally going to title this post “Surviving the Holidays,” and we all would immediately know what that meant – not gaining a million pounds and still be talking to our family when it’s all over. But if our goal is just to ‘survive,’ then if we achieve our goal, we survive. How satisfying is that? Read More

As a child, I wanted nothing more than to sit with the grown-ups at the holiday table. But as the oldest of my four cousins and one brother, that was not possible. I was the designated President of the Little Table; the gatekeeper, if you will, between the two worlds. Read More

Maybe it’s just me, but the holiday season can be an emotionally tricky time. As the mother of an adult son on the Spectrum, and a member of a family with different ways of seeing the world, I need a strategy to deal with the potential awkwardness…