Our traditional Thanksgiving always begins with the Macy’s Parade and the appearance of Santa Claus at the end of the parade kicks off the holiday season in a big way. My mother would take one glance at Santa and say, “It’s all downhill from here.” No matter how much preparation had been done, no matter how detailed the plans and contingency plans, once Santa arrives in Herald Square sometime around noon, it is full steam ahead. There is no turning back. By Friday evening, th

I believe that there should be certain humility when proclaiming gratitude. Perhaps it was the Puritans that instilled that spirit, ironically. Therefore, with all humility, I offer much gratitude and thanks for all my many blessings of home and hearth, friends and family, my animal companions, and my faith in the Spirit. Please take time to stop and count your blessings. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

I have been fortunate to travel a lot around all these United States. Being a lover of history, I have been fortunate to travel to a lot of historical sites around all these United States. Seeing the place where the events happened, smelling the air, hearing the sounds it very helpful to make the experience and the storytelling very real. (I have not visited Valley Forge in the dead of winter nor have I crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve but you get the idea.) Seeing

A Baking We Will Go: This is Why We End Up With 75 Dozen Cookies When my mother was in her prime, she loved to cook and bake and fuss over all the holidays but Christmas was her favorite. In order to get the baking done in a reasonable amount of time and still have everything fresh for the holiday, she would begin making all her various cookie doughs on a Saturday morning in early to mid-November. She would have already decided what she wanted to make and how much and then st

November 13 – Friday the 13th Fridays the 13ths have always been okay with me and that may be because I own a black cat and a black rabbit. We have a good time. We are family. Party on, Friday the 13th! (And we’ve never seen a single one of those movies)

I always remember Armistice Day. I think “Downton Abbey” really did it right, when near the end of the second season, the family and the downstairs crew paused in the Great Hall to remember all those fallen and wounded at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh year. Up until the last several years the First World War was kind of a mystery to me and now I know much more. With the 100th commemorations happening it is so much more meaningful to know the facts and

I’m not sure where I got hooked on the Thanksgiving Dinner Menu idea but boy, did I get hooked. I have a rather large file of tear sheets of nothing but Thanksgiving menus and recipes. I remember Thanksgiving was the first big family meal that I fixed by myself. I was probably 15 or 16. I just cooked what my Mom and Dad told me but it was very first turkey. I was exhausted and not really hungry by the time we all sat down but I was hooked. Okay, a confession: I don’t really l

What makes this holiday changeover different from some of the others is we remain in the same season but we go directly from one holiday to another on a much bigger scale. Halloween is our second biggest holiday with a large amount of boxes and packing up to do. There have been years that Thanksgiving was happening at another house so it was an easy to take your time and pack up leisurely time. There were several years I went directly from Halloween to Christmas as a surprise