This time of year is rife with “to-dos”: attend events, visit family members, entertain, buy and ship presents and try not to ruin (again) the magic for every child within earshot. It feels like we are all hurtling toward the holidays at warp speed – and some of us are doing so in ridiculous vehicles. You see, even though I’ve always been adamantly anti anything on my car, I find myself driving around this holiday season in a car adorned with soft-sculpture antlers and a giant red nose, thanks to a promise I made to my child last year and deluding myself into thinking it would never actually …

You know the defining moments in a lifetime that people remember with absolute clarity? Things like man walking on the moon, the Buggles video playing on MTV, the first time you used the word “Google” as a verb, and when you learned while emphatically making a point during a huge meeting at your first real job it is intents and purposes and not intensive purposes? Well, another of these moments happened recently with the announcement that Twinkies and Ho Hos were no longer going to be manufactured by Hostess. With that news, I immediately experienced a wave of nostalgia as these were a part …

On a recent afternoon, my husband and I were the Mystery Readers for our daughter's first grade class. Every Friday, different parents show up to read for half an hour and the kids don't know whose parent it will be until the reader knocks on the classroom door and the teacher opens it and reveals the surprise. Note: This is even more surprising for everyone involved when you are not wearing pants. (Which, apparently, our uptight elementary school frowns upon. Another lesson learned the hard way ...) In preparing for our first turn as Mystery Readers, we spent a lot of time finding …

On the return flight from a recent work trip to Las Vegas, my friend and colleague, Terri, was seated next to Callista Gingrich, whom she chatted up and befriended during the flight. She learned Callista is not only married to a former Speaker of the House, but is herself rather accomplished: She's an author and plays the French horn in the Fairfax Symphony. My friend had the time to learn all about her new chum while lounging in comfortably oversized seats and enjoying generously poured glasses of Malbec in the first-class cabin, where she was seated because when she reserved her flight …

Man, what an exciting sports weekend in this area! Football kicked off in a huge way with the 'Skins showing what they're bringing to the table this season — and that's a big, heaping plate of RGIII. Between Griffin and a Redskins defense that brought Saints quarterback Brees to his knees, the team took it anything but easy on the Big Easy and gave weary Washington fans a reason to feel hopeful for the first time in ages. Or so I hear, anyway. I did not watch one minute of the game because, as I've mentioned before, I'm not much of a sports fan. This is unfortunate, because it leaves me with …

As many students begin college for the first time this year, I find myself reflecting upon my own college experience and some things I wish I had known when embarking upon my own college journey. Therefore, I have assembled some Dos and Don'ts based on my own experiences into a handy clip 'n' save format below. (Parents ... you're welcome.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Do: Stack the beds in your dorm room to create more floor space and make it easier to live in close proximity with another person. Don't: Push two high-backed desks along the length of the bunk…

Inevitably, there comes a moment in all my relationships where someone asks me what my childhood was like. This usually follows reading a column I have written about being terrified of the telephone, or my older sister discussing my digestive schedule with my boyfriend or my tremendous need for validation.  And also inevitably, I find myself explaining what it was like growing up in my family not through a descriptive narrative but through a series of nonsensical anecdotes, as I feel it more effectively paints the picture. Take, for instance, this one trip in the car when my sister and I were…

Next month, we're going to upstate New York to celebrate our nephew's bar mitzvah. It was much easier to casually drop things like that into conversation when I still used my maiden name of Steenberg — a name that is not Jewish, incidentally, but a lot closer than the Spanish "Canedo." We are not a primarily Jewish family, but my husband's brother married a Jewish woman, so in accordance with Jewish law, their son is Jewish, too. In a related (heh) note, we were invited to a cousin's quinceanera a few years ago. Our families are nothing if not diverse. We're very excited to go to the bar …

In my role as a marketing professional, I've dealt with advertising and public relations agencies for years. In fact, if you must know my dirty little secret, I have actually worked for a couple of advertising agencies, but this does not mean I understand them and their self-consciously au courant ways. In particular, the trend that seems to require all PR and advertising people to sign their e-mail correspondence with the closing "Best," which, ironically, is simply the worst. Not "Best regards." Not "All the Best." Just "Best." Which, in addition to coming across as brusque, impersonal and …

This past weekend in the D.C. area was truly something. After the derecho Friday night brought hurricane-force winds and downed power lines and trees, we were left without electricity, Internet access and telephone service. I've never been happier in my life. It's not that I enjoy being reminded of my ridiculously short attention span, apparent when I continually flip on useless light switches upon entering a room, or that I particularly relish coming into the house from picking up yard debris in 100 degree weather to refresh myself with a tall glass of tepid water, it’s just that not having …

After recently having the walkway and front porch of our house redone, I realized that in the 11 years we've lived in Oakton, we have altered every inch of our house in some way. Each project is time-consuming and expensive and inevitably leads to more projects. It is exhausting, and I've decided I'm totally over it. So this past weekend, I did what I should have done a long time ago. I went house hunting. Don’t get me wrong — we're not looking to move. We wouldn't even consider leaving our current house until our daughter graduates from high school. Besides, after taking the plunge of co-…

In honor of Father's Day on Sunday, my daughter and I presented her dad with the gift of an overnight stay at the National Zoo as part of the "Snore and Roar" program they offer. Because nothing says, "We love and appreciate you" more than making dad set up a tent surrounded by a dozen hyperactive children. And making him sleep on a leaky air mattress. I say that like there is any other kind of air mattress. I participated in a Snore and Roar overnight campout one other time with my friend and her mom. And as with any new adventure, this one taught me a lot about myself. For instance, I …

There were a lot of things I wanted to be when I grew up: a dolphin, a Broadway performer, an interior decorator who worked exclusively in a black and white palette, and just like Loni Anderson on Circus of the Stars. Never once did I dream of becoming a doyenne, and not just because I had no idea what one was. At least not until this past weekend when I read a Washington Post magazine article about dinner parties in this area and it referred to women who host these well-heeled shindigs as "doyennes" and "socialites." And now I want to be one, too. (Said while stomping foot and whining in a …

You know it is not the most successful of your five consecutive Post Hunts when the highlight of the day is remaining upright during the event. This is admittedly a vast improvement over last year, when I blew that opportunity before the activity even began. While I was rushing to meet with my team who had already arrived last year, I texted to let them know that I’d just gotten off the metro and would see them at the main stage shortly. While focused on my iPhone, I was not focused on the sidewalk and thus missed a few steps and landed in a heap on the pavement. Worse? This occurred in front…

As the nine billion degree temperatures this weekend not-so-subtly announced, it’s summertime. The time of year that is marked by lazy days, barbecues, swimming in the pool, and this year … discovering what fabulous getup our Yeti is donning. You read that right. For the past two months, a two-and-a-half-foot-tall Bigfoot has resided on the property line between our next door neighbor's house and ours. You see, several weeks ago, when I wrote a column about how antisocial I am on airplanes, my next-door neighbor did not read past the first paragraph of the column. It was not my writing that …

Five days ago, I arrived in Italy with my husband and daughter for a family vacation. I have no idea why we selected Italy as a destination, as there is nothing to see, the food is barely edible and if one more person says 'Ciao, Bella' to my daughter in their crazy moon language, I don't know what I'm going to do. (Even more diabolical? They smile when they say this.) I'm kidding, of course. So far, it has all been as wonderful as we've heard and expected. Although here's a spoiler alert: You go through the entire Colosseum tour and do not even see one Christian being fed to a lion. Also? …

If you are ever presented the opportunity to discuss your bikini-area laser hair removal, family events where you saw your grandfather in boxer shorts and your parents driving through a car wash naked in front of a large group of people who you are then quite likely to run into at the local grocery store … I enthusiastically recommend doing so. As a matter of fact, it is exactly what I did last Thursday night at the Vale Schoolhouse as a guest of Vale Club for an event that raised money for FamilyPASS. And I don’t mean to brag, but in those couple hours, we raised a tiny fraction of a …

I really will try almost anything once. I am a firm believer that life begins at the end of your comfort zone; that it is not a spectator sport and that one should go big or go home. I am also a firm believer in avoiding clichés like the plague. This is why I'm absolutely qualified to talk about writing in front of a group of people — like I'm doing tomorrow night. Courtesy of a gracious invitation from the Vale Club, I’ll be doing my first-ever speaking gig to present some of my blog posts and columns at an event that benefits FamilyPASS, an organization with which Vale Club is affiliated …

Vienna Youth Soccer is the most unexpectedly hilarious thing I've experienced in this area since I dined at a quirky little well-reviewed restaurant on Route 123 and was told by the server, "We have four specials tonight ... I'll tell you about two of them." My daughter has now been part of a VYS team for four seasons and for each of the seasons that she’s played, her team has worn a different color T-shirt. As a group, the girls come up with a name based on this color — so in the past, they’ve been the Red Dragons, the Blue Dolphins and the Yellow Bees. I know … "Awwww," right?   And this …

Don't ever sit next to me on an airplane. I'm serious. Because you're a reader of this column, it's obvious you're an extremely intelligent, lovely person with a highly evolved sense of humor. All things I would never discover because I'd be busy performing a cost/benefit analysis on the Bigfoot Garden Yeti Sculpture in the Sky Mall catalog as a way of deliberately trying not to engage you in conversation during our flight. Yes, I am totally that person. I'm polite enough to seatmates. I won't monopolize the arm rest, climb over you countless times to go to the restroom, or listen to my music…