Have a happy weekend!

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Phew, that was a full week!

 Just a little recap of some highlights…
Some scenes from Thanksgiving (Was that just one week ago?)
How to do faux Latte Art
5 National Parks to put on a destination wish list (and some more great suggestions from readers)
Spending the day in Berkeley, California, with kids
Four holiday gift guides: Gifts for Him, gifts for her, gifts for the (traveling) kiddo, and gifts for everyone else.

Have a wonderful weekend! We’re off to get a tree!

P.S. A sweet little video I caught of the kids. (Skyler is 10 months old today!)

[Photo taken in the UC Davis Arboretum]

 

Hither & Thither Gift Guide: For Everyone Else

gift guide everyone else

  1. These Japanese Ceramic Plates are a mix of porcelain and clay and look like practical works of art. Consider starting their collection with a teapot.
  2. Everyone needs their very own set of Alphabet cookie cutters, right?
  3. I’ve seen these salt & pepper mills in person and they’re impossible not to touch—so pretty. Rumor has it they work well, too, with an adjustable grind: substance and beauty.
  4. Give them a gift card for a custom portrait of their family, their pet, or their new home.
  5. Wouldn’t you smile if you opened a box to find this? A rainbow of 1″ bulbs.
  6. Why should the kids be the only ones to enjoy the bathtub?
  7. It seems like every day there’s a new, ridiculous holiday! I think this would be especially spot-on for your friend who reads (or writes) blogs: the 2015 Calendar of Silly Holidays.
  8. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
     by BJ Novak (I’d like to read it! Wait. Am I supposed to be shopping for someone else?)
  9. Wish them a bright and sparkly new year.
  10. Savon de Marseille even looks clean.
  11. Pair a serious cheese with a little levity: 3 Blind Mice Cheese Knives. 
  12. The next best thing to an Aveda head massage. Just the smell of this tea is relaxing. (Confession: sometimes I go into the shop at the mall just for the tea sample.)
  13. Board games are always a good idea. Settlers of Catan, Taboo, Pictionary, Balderdash, and Trivial Pursuit are dependable for friends who are… game.
  14. Soup mugs. Throw in an offer to make grilled cheese sandwiches and creamy tomato soup.
  15. Gags like hand buzzers and whoopee cushions make for unexpected, silly gifts—perfect for a favorite office mate.

Here’s last year’s selection. As well as this year’s Guide for Her, for Him, and for the (traveling) Kiddo. (Don’t forget to enter the giveaway on that last one!)

P.S. I also have a curated selection in my shop on Great.ly, if you’d like to take a look.

Berkeley with Kids: Ride a Steam train in Tilden Park & other top picks



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In routine traffic, it takes under an hour for us to drive into Berkeley. And yet every time we visit, I wonder why we don’t more often. There’s so much to do and see in this beautiful town, and a reason why so many UC Berekeley grads return to live there. (Many never leave.) When I was in college (at Davis), I would often go to visit friends, eat at Crepes-a-go-go on University, or have a slice of pizza in the Gourmet Ghetto, on the median in front of the Cheeseboard. Now, as a family, we’re likely to end up at the shops along Fourth street or in beautiful Tilden Park at Little Farm.

So the other day, after returning to Tilden Park and riding Tilden Park’s Redwood Valley Railway Steam Train, I asked my friend Amy (who lived in Berkeley when her daughter was Hudson’s age) to help me with a list of ways to spend the day in Berkeley—with kids.

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