i can’t remember when i started making gingerbread houses… it’s probably an extension of my love of my childhood dollhouse. i do know that making them with my children is one of my favorite christmas traditions. they are messy and sticky and my kitchen gets a thorough dusting of powdered sugar every year, but the extra mopping and wiping is worth it. we eat way too much candy, lick loads of frosting off our fingers (i always tell our recipients not to eat them, just use them as decoration!) and we usually feel a bit sick afterward. some years are more structurally successful than others - more than one house has had to make due with a cardboard wall as a result of a “kitchen earthquake.” the candy roof design has evolved as well. in the early days they were a kaleidoscope of random candies and today there is careful thought put into the layout of licorice squares, lifesavers, gumdrops and mike and ikes. the recipe is the same as the modern one we did last year… just a more traditional pattern.
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REPOST: a christmas miracle (around the HOLIDAY CARD!)
in hank, holiday, photography, family
every year, we send out a holiday card featuring the kids smiling and laughing together. they DO laugh and smile together pretty frequently, but hardly ever when we are shooting these photos.
“FEO, FEO” lucy (when she had no teeth) yelled downstairs in alarm a few years ago, “the christmas clothes are out… i fink we have to do the card today!” then a series of loud groans as they commiserated together.
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thanksgiving GRATITUDE! x0x0x
(THANK YOU dad for teaching me the importance of a good NAP! x0x0x)
in addition to stuffing and cranberries and baking pies, thanksgiving is, of course, a time of gratitude. 2025 has been pretty tumultuous for me with the loss of my darling father (and how BANANAS our whole world has become!) but on this holiday, i am intensely GRATEFUL that my father was in my life for fifty-six years. i know that many people don’t get that kind of time with their parents and it was truly a gift.
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my FAVORITE thanksgiving recipes! x0x
(hank LOVES dressing up for thanksgiving!)
even though the corona is STILL effecting us all (nearly TWO YEARS later… HAY SEUS!) the pandemic has made me really grateful for a lot of things i took for granted PP…
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REPOST: yom kippur, the day of atonement, is coming!
(hank thinking about his transgressions during the year)
* i am reposting my story about yom kippur as it is approaching… it’s not always SO much fun to think about all the things i’ve done wrong, easier to think about what hank or my children have done wrong, but that’s not really the way it’s supposed to go…
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HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful father! x00xx
(me and my dad in front of the giant sedan he never had trouble parking)
despite being an economist and a statistician with a super solid understanding of probability and odds, my dad was also a DREAMER. he really believed in luck (especially his own, which he called, “rhode luck”) so he regularly bought lotto tickets. several nights a week, on his way home from the city he would pull over at max’s liquor and get lottos with our birthday numbers. he DID have luck, at least for parking, because he always seemed to get a spot right out front in his BIG sedan, even though san pablo is one of the busiest streets in berkeley (like the way the lead character in a movie always pulls up smack in front of the bar or restaurant in a crazy city without ever circling or even having to back in to the space.)
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REPOST: easter brunch
* this is the first year we will be in california for easter since i was really young… i am not sure who is going to make the buns and the quiche - me or mom - but i am so happy to be able to celebrate with my family. unfortunately, TT will be back at school but i have a direct line to the easter bunny so i know that theo will still get his basket in the dorm. HAPPY, HAPPY EASTER everyone! x0x0xx
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HAPPIEST 15th BIRTHDAY my darling lu! x0x0x
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest babela bu! this will be the FIFTEENTH time we’ve celebrated you and that feels like a LOT but also like it happened in a blink. i LOVE you so my beautiful, hilarious, SPICY girl… you keep me (and most everyone else) on my toes delighting and surprising me with your fierceness, your out of the box thinking, your creativity and your absolutely GIANT heart! wishing you a year full of love and peace and good books and early bedtimes (just what every teenager wants!) i love you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep! x0x0xx
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REPOST: the order of a seder
* this is the first seder we will be celebrating in california. i am just beside myself that my darling boy will be home from college for a few days and will be able to celebrate with us. of course, we will also have my sweetie girl in attendance. i will not actually be hosting this year as we have been invited to the home of one of my dearest, oldest friends. i might have to stay late and vacuum HER house at the end of the night because vacuuming up the matzo crumbs is an essential part of the seder “order” for me! HAPPY, HAPPY PASSOVER all! x0x0xx
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my childhood plates! x0x
(i LOVE these fun dishes… even the box is adorable!)
i am just beside myself today because my rainbow heller plates and cups and bowls arrived. i grew up in the 70’s with these guys - we had large yellow plates, small orange plates and both yellow and orange cups and bowls. i was a pretty simple eater (i still have the palette of a five year old) so my mom would cut up veggies and fruit and cheese and meat and i would make “faces” out of everything on the orange plates before i ate it. i have big memories of cheerios or mint chip ice cream in the bowls. and i loved laying my fingers against the curved cup handles when drinking my milk. at some point after we got older, my mom replaced the plastic set with ceramic plates (still yellow!) but i always thought the heller ones were more fun. and now i have my own collection just in time for outdoor dinners on the deck. how many of you grew up with these too? x0x
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happy, happy mother's day! x0x0x
(back in days when all of my loves would end up in the same bed by morning…)
i LOVE being a mama… especially when my kids are asleep! they look like little angels (even now that they are teenagers and hank is technically middle aged.) their rhythmic, peaceful breathing (hank’s sounds more like a train) is really soothing and makes me feel like everthing is right in the world. i do not have a consistent meditation practice, but when i do it, i always crawl back in bed with my sweeties and lay one hand on someone’s chest so i can feel it going up and down. these days that sweetie is usually hank because my other babies sometimes tell me they need “space” and sometimes they even lock their doors! luckily hank never needs space. when they wake up we never know what will happen. sometimes they are delightful and sometimes they are less so. even when they are less so, my love for them feels so BIG it’s almost painful. i am so GRATEFUL to be the mother of these lovey darlings. loads of LOVE to all of the mothers and those who mother. x0x0x0x
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REPOST: the order of a seder
* this is the last seder i will be hosting in our boulder house… i have so many wonderful memories of passover celebrations around this table and i am so grateful for all of the lovely friends who shared in them! HAPPY, HAPPY PASSOVER! x0x0x
seder means “order.” there is an order to every aspect of the passover celebration from the way the seder plate is prepared to which course is served first and second and third to what prayer is said, what song is sung, what question is asked and when. even though i am not jewish, i have been hosting passover dinners for nearly twenty years. inevitably i mix up at least one aspect of the order. sometimes i even schedule the seder for the wrong evening - the jewish calendar is confusing and i am not always sure if “begins at sundown” means the dinner should take place that night or the next. i give myself a pass on this as a shiksa mama raising jewish children. i have enough trouble with simple time telling (my mom thinks that’s because i had the chicken pox the week i was meant to learn it in first grade) and adjusting to different time zones and daylight savings.
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HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY my darling lucy! x0x0x
i am flabbergasted to share that my dearest, darling baby girl is FOURTEEN years old today. i honestly can’t believe it. maybe because she is my youngest, i never anticipated that she would actually grow up. but in her powerful, spicy, hilarious, cheeky way she has marched ahead and become a full-on teenager, a YOUNG WOMAN even (i can’t say “lady” - she burps and swears like a sailor!) this last year has been a doozy with loads of changes and milestones both for lucy and for our whole family: her bat mitzvah, theo preparing to leave home for college, ALL of us planning a move to california this summer, lucy’s grammy worthy lashes, theo’s mustache, the sale of both of our boulder homes, the purchase of our new berkeley house and lu preparing to attend my old high school… JUICE THE JACKETS! i have already pulled out my old cheer uniform for her - maybe she will wear it for halloween?
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REPOST: easter brunch
my whole life there have been two essential easter recipes served at our brunch: my mother’s mushroom crust quiche and her easter buns. they are both a little trashy… the quiche has smashed up saltines in the crust and the buns are made with the dough that comes in a can you bang on the counter to pop open. but they are both delicious. the quiche (or KWEE-CHEE as theo used to call it) LOOKS a little more elegant, but the buns are never pretty. the filling always squirts out and the jam slides around so they are just a mess. i have tried and tried to clean them up to no avail. when new people come for easter, they usually bypass them on the buffet and i have to force them to try one… no one has ever been disappointed. AND they are both still yummy, cold, the next morning as leftovers. happy, happy easter all! x0xx
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girlie weekend (with hank of course!) at THE BROADMOOR! x0x0xx
(how PRETTY is this hotel nestled into mountains?)
there are few places i like to visit as much as the broadmoor. my heart just soars when i am there and i feel kind of giddy. set against some group of colorado mountains and centered around a big, beautiful lake, it is unbelievably scenic. the interior spaces are so detailed and intricate and layered you are always discovering something new. on this visit, i really started noticing all the swans. aside from the actual swans who live on the lake, there are swans throughout the resort painted on the walls, tiled into floor mosaics, featured in oil paintings and even edible meringue swans available at the little patisserie. i HAVE been watching “the feud” featuring truman capote and his swans obsessively, so maybe that’s why i was so drawn to them.
Read Morehappy, happy valentine's day! x0x0xx
we’re sending you all so much LOVE on this valentine’s day! x0x0x
photo: heather knierim of HBK photography
aloha! x0x
since theo is a SENIOR this year (honestly, it is HARD for me to even write that as i am already torturing myself with anticipatory grief when i should probably just be enjoying him) we are trying to do all “the things” before he goes to college. so we went to hawaii over the holidays. i have not been in at least thirty years and the kids and first have never been so it was pretty exciting.
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PRAISE JESUS we made it to january! x0xx
(artwork: lesik aleksandr)
i DO love the holidays and thank goodness because we do them ALL: thankgiving, sinterklaas, hanukkah, my birthday (i DON’T love this one as much!), christmas and new years. i love baking the cookies, making the gingerbreads, lighting the candles, driving around to see the lights, putting out our clogs, decorating the tree, hanging the stockings, eating the latkes (i DON’T like making them - too messy!), hiding the shelf elves and their reindeer friend, going to the parties, delivering the cookies, sending the holiday cards (although this is always a loaded task!) receiving the holiday cards (much more FUN!), giving the gifts, enjoying my mother’s sticky buns, finding out who got the monkey and spending time with family. but i am always EXHAUSTED by the time we get to january and so grateful to bunker down and have a super quiet month (after i have VACUUMED up all the pine needles, which is my absolute favorite post-christmas task.) wishing you all a quiet, restful month with lots of sleep and TV! (my recent favorites: lessons in chemistry, black cake and the gilded age.) x0x0xx
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HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR! x0xx
wishing you all peace, happiness and beautiful experiences in 2024. x0x0xx
REPOST: the monkey
(even at 15 my grandmother seemed to know exactly what she wanted)
my paternal grandmother was fierce. she lived the way she wanted and you pretty much just went along. she liked things a certain way and if something wasn’t to her choosing she would wave her hand, say, “oh FISH!” and carry on as she deemed appropriate. you didn’t really want to get in her way.
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