In the Netherlands, they celebrate Sinterklaas on December fifth, and every year there are critics about Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). When the international media picks it up, the Dutch are painted as Most Racist Ever. I hope I can explain the Dutch stance on this subject a little.
There is a magic to shopping on Black Friday. You can’t just go; that’s how people get into trouble. Yes, I know most stores pull back their good sales they are having the week before and only have limited items on sale with some really good deals. Stores know people are caught up in the […]
Welcome back, Persephoneers! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Aside from a few toddler meltdowns when my little one got a bit overwhelmed by all the new stuff, a toy that turned out to be really obnoxious, and eating way too much ham and stuffing at dinner, my holiday season went surprisingly […]
Having wrapped up a great Christmas, which included some very thoughtful and well selected gifts from loved ones, I’m reminded of some of the truly blech gifts of Christmases past. Gift giving is not the point of the holidays, I realize, but it is an important tradition for many. And since we’re going to be […]
There is likely at least one person in your life, whether it be parent or spouse or child, who is and always will be impossible to shop for. Every year it becomes more and more difficult to think of a creative, meaningful gift that won’t just wind up in languishing in these people’s gift-vortex basements. […]
I come from a large Polish Catholic family, the kind where the first wave of immigrants had 6 or 8 or 10 kids and no one has really gotten around to breaking that tradition yet. (Sometimes, I think people talk sadly behind my back about my lone offspring.)