December 2023

I started blogging when Olivia was 4 and Mateo 2, writing stories about who they were and what we did and how it felt to be their mother.

Toward the end of the pandemic, I had an idea to compile the blog posts into a book for them—because who doesn’t love to read a book where they’re the subject? I only got as far as copying and pasting the hundreds of entries into a giant Word file before some duty called and I abandoned the project.

Then on December 22, as I thought about what to give my kids for Christmas—really deliberated over what I wanted them to receive from me—I realized what I wanted to give them was a record of our life together. My version of that life, to be sure, but, I figured, better than nothing.

While I was too late to have the manuscript bound into a fancy hardcover volume, there was still time to rush to Office Depot where a friendly associate in the business center printed my 325 pages and secured them with a black plastic spiral.

I titled the tome OUR TINY UNIVERSE and ordered 2 copies, one each for the now 21-year-old Olivia and 19-year-old Mateo.

The best part of Christmas was watching them read it. Oh my heart.

Just finished reading PINEAPPLE STREET by Jenny Jackson. Loved it!

The blurb by author Kevin Kwan says it best: “Truly the smartest and most deliciously fun novel I’ve read in ages.” Available at your public library or wherever books are sold.

Sad to learn one of the last big-screen movie theaters in our area has closed. The kids and I have spent many happy hours there, most recently to see Barbie with Mateo and Killers of the Flower Moon with Olivia. I get it: large public screenings are obsolete. And at a few matinees, I was literally the only person seated.

We’d hoped to watch Napoleon, but not meant to be. End of yet another era.