Newsbriefs
Gingerbread Adventures Teaches and Entertains Children
In the interactive Gingerbread Adventures exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, children learn about the different plant parts used in creating one of their favorite holiday snacks, gingerbread. The Everett Children’s Adventure Garden is home of Gingerbread Adventures, through January 10, 2010.Vibrant vignettes of a gingerbread town deck the halls of the Discovery Center. A gingerbread jazz band, ice skaters and a gingerbread farmer are among the colorful characters displayed in the exhibit.
Popularity: 34% [?]
Be Inspired… Give from the Heart this season
by Frances Lefkowitz
Presents allow us to express our love and gratitude. Why, then, do we get so stressed out over them, and how can we bring sense and significance back to the season? Though many complain about the commercialism of the holiday season, no one—not even the two-sizes-too-small-hearted Grinch—would wish to get rid of presents.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Healthykids: Gifts for Good Instilling Generosity and Joy in Children
by Elisa Bosley
Every December, parents like me lament the “gimme” culture that so easily overtakes the holidays. But with environmental and social justice issues gaining ground and everyone rethinking economic priorities, introducing your child to opportunities for alternative giving can make a world of difference.
Popularity: 34% [?]
greenliving: Throw a Green Party Eco-Entertaining Made Simple
by Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell
Whether you are still experimenting with ways to live green or are an experienced pro at an increasingly eco-friendly life, a party décor checklist is good to have on hand. The ultimate goal is hosting a zero-waste gathering, one that embraces only products and items that can be consumed, reused, recycled or composted.
Popularity: 36% [?]
consciouseating: Better by the Dozen Bake up Holiday Cheer with Decadent, yet Healthy Cookies
by Melissa Williams
Whether chewy or crunchy, eaten straight or dunked in milk, cookies are a perfect accompaniment to holiday parties and chilly nights gathered around the fireplace. This year, indulge family and friends with a batch of these tasty treats, updated by using unrefined flours, natural sugars, and nutrient-boosting ingredients, including dried fruit, heart-healthy nuts, vitamin-rich pumpkin, anantioxidant-laden organic dark chocolate. To cut unhealthy fats, these recipes also substitute unsweetened applesauce and egg whites for some of the butter. Such creative twists gladly transform cookies from a guilty indulgence to a healthier treat—true comfort food for a joyous season.
Popularity: 5% [?]
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN’S Holiday Train Show Offers Green Gift to New York
By Tom Citrano
New York is brimming with holiday traditions. From the Rockefeller Center Tree, to the Radio City Holiday Show, to the ice-skating in Bryant Park, every family has activities they like to enjoy at this time of year. And over the last 18 years more than a million of them have ventured out to the New York Botanical Garden to enjoy the Holiday Train Show.
Popularity: 81% [?]
localgreens Over the River and Through the Woods
By Robin Mattson
As Thanksgiving draws near, I begin to put the menu together, daydreaming about the various culinary possibilities. This year, as in so many years past, I will journey to Crescent City, California to visit with my family. It’s a beautiful, sleepy little town on the northern coast, where the few remaining members of my tribe have chosen to live. If we’re lucky we will catch the beginning of the Dungeness crab season before we leave. It’s a great location if you like things pulled from the cold Pacific Ocean or caught in the cool clear waters of the Smith River, which happens to be one of the cleanest rivers in the country
Popularity: unranked [?]
Localgreens:Carve Yourself Into Some Sweet Sugar Pumpkin Pudding
By Robin Mattson
My CSA produce has gently shifted to autumnal rewards, lots of apples, winter squash like sweet sugar pumpkins and a variety of root vegetables, such as carrots, beets and potatoes. The colorful kale also continues to arrive, along with a huge head of cabbage. Depending on the weather and time of year these CSA pick- ups can be overwhelmingly abundant even with just a single share of the farm’s crops.
Popularity: unranked [?]
fitbody SHALL WE DANCE?
by Lee Walker
Fr
om the mambo’s sultry hip shimmies to the foxtrot’s long, sweeping steps, ballroom dancing has captured today’s fitness spotlight as a shining venue for shaping up, improving cardiovascular health and losing weight. The renewed interest is especially high among people 18 to 49, says Leslie Spearin, a rhythm champion and traveling consultant for Arthur Murray International, Inc.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Mainfeature
Coming Home to Yourself
When Your Home Expresses Who You Are
by Judith Fertig
Illustrations by Jill Butler
Home. It’s a small word for a universal idea, one that resonates deeply with complex individual meanings and associations.
Regardless of whether home is a room, apartment, cottage or mansion, how homey it seems depends first on two physical factors: light coming in on two sides and a view of greenery or sky, according to Clare Cooper Marcus, professor emerita of the departments of architecture and landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley.
Popularity: 10% [?]