The Feast
At Disneyland's Carnation Cafe, on Main Street, my kids love to order the Peanut Butter Painter's Palette. They get to build their own sandwich from marshmallows, raisins, bananas, grape jelly, and peanut butter.I really should do more of this kind of thing at home, letting the kids choose from a bunch of healthy ingredients to create their own unique lunch or dinner entrees.But that always leads to a monumental mess, so I resist.Today, Thanksgiving, I may have to resort to peanut butter sandwiches if the turkey doesn't turn out. I'm cooking one for the first time.It will eith

The Best Kids and Family CDs of 2009
The Fids and Kamily Music Awards have been announced! That's the yearly poll that compiles a list of the year's best CDs for kids and families. I was happy to be one of the 23 judges for a third straight year.They Might Be Giants tops the judges' list once again with their fourth children's CD, Here Comes Science. It's hard to compete with TMBG and their appealing brand of quirky, catchy songs. But 2009 was a very good year for kids music, and the Fids and Kamily Awards list is a great place to start in your quest to find cool tunes for your young ones.Another

Disney Idol
One of the days we were in Disneyland, the usually tranquil Main Street was clogged with equipment and sets for filming of ABC's Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, with Ryan Seacrest hosting the festivities.It annoyed me for several reasons. Mostly, though, it was November 9th! I can take a few lights and garlands on the buildings, but a full-blown Christmas parade starring Santa Claus himself? No thanks. That's just way too early.So we didn't join the perky people on the other side of the street who, in between

A Man's Castle
Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland is probably the most photographed castle in the world.I certainly took my fair share of pictures of it on our trip.We were lucky to be there for the changing of the season when the castle is decked out in the ultimate in Christmas decorations.Oh, what I could do to my own house if I had the budget of the Disney Imagineers!

The Disneyland Flu
I'm still processing our recent trip to Disneyland and Southern California, both mentally and photographically.Thank goodness for those photos, because a big chunk of our vacation feels like a hazy memory right now.I blame the media.I had planned this trip a year ago, and saved up for it even longer, but in the months and weeks leading up to our departure it started to feel like there was a conspiracy to stress me out with scary news stories about swine flu.It sounded almost inevitable that our trip would be ruined somehow, either on the plane surrounded by coughing passengers