Growing up

I think I've finally figured out what this blog is about.  It's about growing up.

More specifically, its about the experience of growing up, of looking around and realizing that adulthood's maybe not as cool as you thought it was going to be, and all that stuff you were quick to lay behind as a teenager is actually awesome.

To that end, I will be taking a gander at children's things through jaded adult eyes.  Sometimes it will be pure nostalgia (and will probably relate to something my kids have been up to lately), and sometimes it will be a deeper look at something we took for granted as children, as I did with my Mermaids post.  (They won't all be that long, I promise.)

Now for a quick plug: a couple of things I never grew out of were gummi bears and those frosted animal crackers.  Laurel Bushman is a California based artist who makes awesome charms and pendants based on them and other nostalgia foods.  Check them out here.  Full disclosure: she's my sister.

Forget Christmas, Save Thanksgiving!

Is it just me, or did the major retailers kind of skip over Thanksgiving this year?  It seems that at Target, Walmart, Starbucks, and so on, the Christmas decorations went up the day before Halloween, and that the Turkey day paraphernalia was relegated to a discount table in the corner, if it was displayed at all.  Interest in the holiday seems lower than any time in my memory - it seems like Thanksgiving should simply be re-named "The Thursday Before Black Friday".

It's a shame, because it's always been a favorite holiday of mine, since I was a kid.  Sure, it's not Christmas, with all the toys toys toys and greed greed greed; or Halloween, with all the candy candy candy and greed greed greed.  But Thanksgiving serves as a nice buffer between those two carnivals of self-indulgence.  Everyone sits together at the table with their families (however they choose to define them) and share in the fundamental act of community, sharing a meal.