Stories from Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas is a magical time; just ask the toddler taking in a fully-decorated Christmas tree or home illuminated with thousands of twinkle lights. What a shame, then, that without special care, that same youngster can be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers during the holiday season...

Thanksgiving weekend we had visitors, nephew Josh and family. Josh and Jenny have three, two daughters about seven or eight years and their younger brother. Ann had on hand a bag of oranges, the small sweet mandarin variety. Actually our favorites are the "little sweeties" which are a cross between the mandarins and something else but it was a little early for them to be available...

Erving Goffman called it "front stage-back stage" behavior and it means many different things. Sometimes we say different things to different people. For example, we might tell someone we love them and tell others we don't. Sometimes we say the same things to different people. ...