“Marley … was dead – to begin with.” This line from Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” used to kick off Christmas for me for many teenage and early tween years. I had wrought a tradition of my own to go to a theater in downtown Stuttgart, Germany, to listen to British actor Brian D. […]
Home from Home: Tranquility
Are you feeling stressed out about running your Christmas errands (and doesn’t the verb “running” already describe the reason so well?!)? About stressed-out people taking it out on others with road rage or nagging in long supermarket lines? Are you hoping to just get the holidays over and done with? Though you really love them […]
Home from Home: Backyard Visitors
Last May, a few blocks away from where we live, a black bear was treed and removed by the Lakewood police and fire department. I was at home and had no clue that the giant animal had waddled down one main road after another without interception. Funny enough, it worried me less afterwards than what […]
Book Reading – Changed Hours, Additional Dates
As the reading of local author Susanne Bacon’s readings at The Sock Peddlers LLC in Lakewood continue, it has become clear that there have to be made some changes to the cozy event. As of December 7, it will start at 6 pm already. And there will be two additional Thursday night events on December […]
Home from Home: Advent
I guess it is pretty much the same for Germans and Americans – most of us love the Christmas pre-season that is called advent. Though most of us also don’t want it around in the stores when it’s still summer. Advent and Christmas carols have their season, and this year, when Thanksgiving is almost two […]
Home from Home: Train of Thoughts
Trains have something nostalgic about them. So do train rides – not so much those for the sake of commuting to work in suburban areas as those undertaken for leisure. Maybe it is because their pace is so steady and calm. Maybe it is the landscape you pass through and wouldn’t see from any car […]
Annual SHMA History Hunt winners drawn
From the end of June through the end of October, the first SHMA History Hunt has been in place at the Steilacoom Historical Museum. Initiated for further visitor involvement with the pioneer museum’s documentation, the quiz with three levels of difficulty and duration led around the museum grounds and historical downtown.
Home from Home: A Pilgrim Fest
Thanksgiving is one of those wonderful fests that are celebrating a harvest successfully finished. The ancient Greeks had their festivals as well as the Romans, and I’m pretty sure that any culture with agriculture and livestock breeding celebrates another year of successful farming as the cycle is fulfilled once more.
Home from Home: November Moods
Ask Germans to name the bleakest month of the year, and you will probably end up with a unanimous vote for … November. It’s as if the year, once a balloon, had lost all its air and remains but a floppy rubber bladder that stretches, but holds nothing. November – an accumulation of fog, drizzle, […]