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I love the holidays.  I especially love traditional Christmas carols (the older, the better), stockings over the fireplace, and the choirboy angel ornaments my mom bought the year I was born.  I adore candlelight, winter stars, and the scent of a fresh Christmas tree from a grower we always go to in the Sierra foothills. Give me

Shortly after my younger child turned two, I decided not to go back to work as I had originally planned, but to continue at home with my kids.  My older child was nearly five, so I bought a few primers and some Cuisenaire rods and began teaching ...

Do you have children or grandchildren?  Are you already thinking about which toys you want to buy them for Christmas?  Are they already thinking about what they want to ask for?

Here's an interesting experiment. What happens

Does your phone help you relax?  A lot of people think so.  We turn to our phones for news, entertainment, connection, and relaxation. All good things. But there's evidence that excessive phone use makes us more impatient, more irritable, and less present for the real people and events in our lives.

What qualifies as "excessive" use? Well,

How many of you have started Christmas shopping?  When I went into Target today (for laundry detergent, TP, and other staples), I was greeted by Christmas décor throughout the store, even though Halloween is still in the future (not to mention Thanksgiving).

But according to retailers, the next season is already here.

This trick, which makes shopping seem n...