SQUATTERS

SQUATTERS

Well, it took the management five weeks to get an exterminator to set traps for the rats. Meanwhile I was tearing my hair out, worrying that the four-legged squatters were chewing the kids' beautiful Christmas stockings to pieces. When I decided I couldn’t wait any...

read more
DOLLHOUSE CHRISTMAS

DOLLHOUSE CHRISTMAS

Those of you who’ve read “about” (the author) on my menu bar have seen the cardboard dollhouse I created for Arielle when she was little. For the holiday season, however, I fashioned the alternate living room above and snowy yard below. The inhabitants are "Kelly"...

read more
HOLIDAY CRAFTS

HOLIDAY CRAFTS

Every year in the run-up to Christmas, I make trips to Michael's, Crate and Barrel, and East Bay Nursery to look for things the kids can decorate to make ornaments—wood or glass or ceramic shapes of stars, Christmas trees, wreaths, etc. I also buy plain pillar candles...

read more
OH, CHRISTMAS TREE

OH, CHRISTMAS TREE

From A Patchwork Memoir:

It’s hard to find the perfect tree. In the first place, it’s got to be a noble fir, which staunchly hangs onto its needles—rather than a fickle Douglas fir, which can’t be bothered…

read more

GLITCH-FREE

This being the close of my first year of blogs, I’ve decided to do a retrospective of holiday seasons past—relevant vignettes from A Patchwork Memoir, old Christmas cards and letters I sent, childhood photos, holiday crafts I’ve done with my godkids, and maybe even a children’s Christmas carol I wrote…if there’s a way to create a link, that is.

Dear friends and family,

Well, the rains have set in, and it’s finally gotten too cold to wear sandals—

read more
SPEAKING OF CHRISTMAS

SPEAKING OF CHRISTMAS

There were only two bedrooms in the Raymond apartment, so Doug and I shared the one with peeling yellow-flowered wallpaper. Under the narrow window was our terrarium with all the lizards we’d caught and, in time, a hog-nosed viper and a giant millipede. Besides the...

read more