I’m typing this on the afternoon of December 31, 2018, with less than nine hours to go in the year for those of us on the west coast. Big plans for tonight? Nope, I may watch the ball drop in New York — since it’ll be just 9 p.m. here — and then toddle off to bed with my dog. It’s likely I’ll sleep right through midnight, unless folks are unusually noisy in my ‘hood. As a child, being able to stay up to see in the new year was highly coveted. I don't recall my first experie

As someone who’s Jewish, you might think I have no firsthand stories about Christmas to share — but you’d be wrong. On two different occasions, I celebrated Christmas because of who I was living with at the time. It was really fun searching for the perfect tree, and then decorating it with ornaments and lights. I’d always thought it would be cool to have a Christmas tree at home, but of course that was never in the cards for my family. The real trees added a scent of the outd