My absolute favorite show when I was little was, hands down, “The Brady Bunch”. I don’t remember when I started watching it (the five seasons originally aired from 1969–when I was one year old–until 1974 and then syndication began immediately, making the shows available almost every day for years and years), but I watched it all the time. I watched “The Brady Kids” (the animated show), “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour” (singing and dancing in kooky outfits? yes please!), “The Brady Girls Get Married” (reunion tv movie!), “The Brady Brides” (so wacky!), “A Very Brady Christmas” (classic!), and even “The Bradys”, the hour-long drama that aired in 1990, depicting Marcia…
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- Blessings, Childhood Memories, Family Fun, Favorite Things, Food, I've Got Mad Skillz, My Kid Has Mad Skillz, My Mom Has Mad Skillz, Review
Birthday Traditions: Make A Cake And Eat It, Too.
A couple of weeks ago we celebrated J’s 17th birthday. SEVENTEEN. As in, “My younger–and last born–son is seventeen.” It would be really hard for me to believe if there weren’t a trail of rainbow-colored crumbs all over our family photo albums*. You see, around here birthdays mean one thing: beautifully decorated rainbow cakes (the insides are tinted in various colors). It’s a tradition my mom started, and what I love about it is the thought that goes into it, resulting in the birthday honoree feeling extra special. I remember how creative my mom was with birthday cakes when we were kids. Over the years, she made me a Holly…
- Childhood Memories, Confessions, Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?, Food, My Mom Has Mad Skillz
Old Habits Die Hard.
When he was little, J–like so many other young kids–had a strong aversion to bread crust. Unfortunately for him, I had a strong aversion to making a sandwich and then cutting off the crusts for my kid. Call me mean if you want, but I just figured that if he didn’t like the bread crust that much, he could just eat around it. I did help him out a little bit, though, by cutting his sandwiches into quarters on the diagonal. This way, he could nibble what he considered “the good stuff” all the way down to the crust. That picture above, though? That was my sandwich, from yesterday’s lunch.…
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The Love Boat
Back in the late 70’s through the mid 80’s, my sister and I were always in the same place on Saturday nights: in front of the television, watching “The Love Boat”. The weekly adventures of Captain Merrill Stubing (Your Ship’s Captain), Julie McCoy (Your Cruise Director), Issac Washington (Your Bartender), Doc Brinker (Your Ship’s Doctor), Gopher Smith (Your Yeoman Purser), and the parade of special guest stars that appeared each week (like Charo, Meredith Baxter Birney, Florence Henderson, Sonny Bono, and so many others) kept us glued to our seats from the intro song–which, at nearly two minutes, was clearly created in the days when the powers-that-be weren’t concerned about…
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In Concert
Considering that Jim is into heavy metal and rock, D is into alternative and rock, J is into electronica, and I’m into pop and electronica (mostly), the fact that there are a few select recording artists that all four of us really, really like is pretty amazing. Related: I will tell you that Jim and I have dreams for our boys. Concert dreams. For years, we have told the boys that their first concert would be that of one of these select few artists, so we could all go together. You see, I have always wanted my sons’ first concert experience to be wonderful, because I am a little embarrassed…