If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
This year, remind yourself that you do a lot for your children every single day. Keep your efforts turned inward, and resist the temptation to use others' experiences as personal motivation even when it seems like everyone else is giving their kid the perfect holiday.
Visiting Italy during the Christmas season offers two bonuses: You'll avoid the high summer season tourist crowds, and you'll get to see the country decked out in all its holiday finery.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, has all you need to get into the festive spirit with carolers, musical performances, special holiday gallery exhibitions and fun for the whole family.
Even if you haven't ever been to Vermont, you've got some Green Mountains in your mind. I know you do. There's that image of a town with candles in windows. There are those trees tapped for sugaring. And there's that swirling nighttime snow.
Time stood still. The whole room was shocked, especially Santa, and he quickly made his exit. I heard my Dad talking to him outside before coming back in to deal with me. It was his best friend, a man who had always been wonderful to me. It was the end of innocence, and I was ashamed.
I told the photographer about our situation. About missing someone from our family. She gave me an idea of how everyone could be in the picture together, even Joey and the new baby.
For many gay people, spending the holidays with their families is an uncomfortable, nerve-wracking experience that means repressing their true selves to avoid conflict, taking a step backward on the path to self-acceptance they fought so hard to forge.
Under Article 2, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the President of the United States "may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them" into special session. Presidents have used that authority only a handful of times in the modern era.
As I write this post, I face a steep mountain. I don't mean the kind you have to climb. I mean the kind you have to sauté, bake, roast, chop, stir, mash and shop for. I'm talking about Christmas dinner, the "traditional" Christmas dinner that my mother made for fifty-some years.
Once upon a time, I told my then-husband I wanted a divorce a few days after Thanksgiving. That first December was hard. This is what I've learned since then about the first post-split holiday season, and I offer it to you.
Finally, today, it is snow that is falling and, for a moment, the world is as it should be; it is December and the skies of Michigan are filled with the splendid wintery whiteness. Still, no one is talking about a white Christmas.
Being unemployed during the holidays can take twice the toll on someone looking for work. If you know a person whose job search spirits you'd like to lift, here are some thoughtful gifts to help them land a job.
My great granduncle used to answer Santa's mail. For decades, letters that kids addressed to Santa Claus went to the post office's Dead Letter Office. But in 1913, my grandma's uncle approached the postmaster with an idea of how to answer these wishes.
It's never too late to make things right in the world and try to be better people and, most importantly of all, pay your blessings forward.
American leadership is critical to fighting climate change -- not just here at home but around the world. And leadership means that we can't let the fossil fuel industry undermine clean energy by continuing our dependence on coal and oil.
