Creating rituals and memories

January 17, 2010 by Joelle Kaufman

In my mind, there are a series of memories I want my children to recall as adults. Baking challah every Friday for Shabbat where they do the braiding and the smell fills the house. Making homemade chocolate chip cookies from scratch (which entailed finding a recipe we like - thank you Trader Joe). Skiing together in Big Sky (or any other mountain). Some memories I try to create proactively and others I hope to remember from the moment.

Understanding my parents

January 11, 2010 by Joelle Kaufman

I spent an inordinate amount of time in my twenties trying to understand my parents. Until I had children, it was a pretty futile sport. Not quite sure why it was so important anyway but I felt that understanding my parents was a path to understanding myself. It was much easier to do once I had a child.

Over our ski vacation, I had another epiphany about my parents that made me smile - I realized: