That’s Prima Donna Daughter there to the left of Santa, cheesin’ for the camera. They’re joined by Mrs. Claus, an Elf and four other reindeer (don’t ask me what happened to the other three reindeer – I couldn’t get a straight answer.) They were “in costume” for one of the songs her class was doing in the assembly...

The other day, I mentioned IzzyMom’s Consumer Culture and Kids post reminded me that I struggle with a similar issue related to Christmas and it’s been on my mind again this year. The issue is the consumerization of Christmas. Each year, I get more and more pissed off with the social pressure to spend, spend, spend on Christmas presents. It feels like...

As luck would have it, I missed posting yesterday on the last day of NaBloPoMo. In spite of that, though, my NaBloPoMo mission was accomplished: I got back into the swing of blogging, in spite of the continuing drama that I let pull me away. And I made some new blog friends – even better! Today I have a new mission: make it look like Christmas around here....

Neither did I. He WAS in it, but the camera panned so quickly through the group, we didn’t actually see HIM. This is Spy Nephew who lives in Maryland and is 16 (son of Spy Sister – “Spy” because both my sister and her husband work for the NSA and can’t talk about their jobs – for real. We call them SPYS-R-US, collectively.) He...