Category: If Only in My Dreams – December Series

In which we ask the question: what is our dream of holiday all about?

Why the Details Matter

I set the table with Clean, cut glasses, Christmas crackers Flatware. Before breakfast All the flat edges glimmer In anticipation. Do you ever wonder: What the hell is the point of Elizabeth’s blog? It’s this: details. It’s a place to read In The Details, as a way to understand ourselves, each other, the world. “Letters from…

Paying for Santa

Number four child was TRYING to whisper in Jolly Old St. Nick’s ear at the Santa Village when she was interrupted. Elf: “WHICH PHOTO PACKAGE DID YOU BUY?!” the elf barked at us. Me: “We haven’t chosen one yet,” I said. “We wanted to get in line before it got too long.” Elf: “WHAT?! Well,…

How We Remember Alone

When I lived in Kansas City, I was single. This meant that I spent a great deal of my energy and mind space being frustrated and unhappy about my “alone”ness. Like most young women (and men too, I guess), I really wanted to find someone special to connect with, to be with, so long as…

Real or Real-ish

In which I tried to explain to the kids that our little “artificial” tree is actually “real.” Existentialism 101 Me: We are putting up our tree this afternoon. Kid 1: Is it a real tree? Me: Well, yes, it is a real tree. A real tree in that it isn’t imaginary. Kid 1: No, I…

Gone the Mailbox

At the post office, the hated post office, where lines greet me and awful racks of greeting cards Line walls, ignored. The post office and its Perfume of desperation. The place where scales and stamps sit in dusty corners Like aristocrats awaiting their bloody fate. The post office, doomed, because It is about PLACE and…

Between Here & Handmade

I want things handmade. I want a life devoid of BPA-worries. I want the holidays decorated in popcorn strings and toes of knee-high socks filled with sticky penny candy and tiny oranges. I want to have the hot cocoa, but not the packaging the dried chocolate-flavored granules come in. I want to make the gift…

If Only in My Dreams: A Big Question Series

December is the month of dreams, of nostalgia, of memories, expectations, hopes and disappointments. We were all little children once… dreaming our dreams of light and mystery, wide awake under our covers. It doesn’t matter whether those covers were cotton or silk. We are still those children. Some of us still imagine the twinkling light…