When I was just a little Canadian kid reading novels I used to get dreadfully confused when I read in them that people would start putting their Christmas decorations up after Thanksgiving. I thought that there were a bunch of crazy Americans that put their Christmas decorations (even their trees!) up before Halloween. I did eventually realize that Americans and Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving at different times. Ours is in early October and yours is in late November. After learning that things made much more sense (and I decided y'all weren't as crazy as I originally thought).

Let me set the scene for you. It's Christmas morning. The kids excitedly wake their parents with squeals of "Santa came! Santa came!" The family heads to the Christmas tree to open presents. Mom grabs the camera to record the memories forever when she realizes her kids are wearing mismatched, ragtag pajamas. The moment is not so picture perfect anymore. It doesn't have to be this way though. With a little foresight, you can get adorable (and even green) holiday pajamas well before the "Kodak moment."

Lately I've found that my life feels like when I move forward I'm knocked back behind the starting line and I get frustrated. Despite all my work meditating, holding a positive and optimistic outlook and taking action, sometimes it's just hard. But you know what? Really it is OK to be in that moment and just feel it.

Today's the day when many American families will finish a big meal, only to find a huge turkey carcass staring them in the face. What to do with that leftover turkey? Make turkey stock and turn it into mouth-watering and nutritious turkey soup, of course. I've scoured the interwebs looking at turkey soup options, and here are my top ten picks. Of course, this is a subjective list, and no one person can ever find all the good recipes for turkey soup, so if I missed your favorite turkey soup, please tell us about it or share the link in the comments.

Despite the Puritanical origins of Thanksgiving, I decided that it is a pretty good feminist holiday. First of all, it encourages copious eating. Given the complex relationship that many women have with food thanks to insane societal pressure to be thin, thin, thin, any holiday that gives people permission to eat is good in my book. (Of course, the key is to not later feel guilty about indulging.) I plan on eating piles of delicious foods today. Hurray! But what are other feminists doing for this American holiday?

 As many of you know, CNN is airing their CNN Heroes tribute tonight at 9:00 pm (Eastern).

Right now, if you're living in America, you're probably on your way to a Thanksgiving dinner. Or maybe you're chewing a bite of turkey. Or you've holed yourself in the guest bedroom so you can read some blogs rather than socialize with your cousins. Because this is a universal truth: family-oriented holidays are hard when you've run into a wall with family building. And this is true for the multitude of holidays stretching from Thanksgiving (Canadian or American) to New Years.

And by gaycation I mean, when you reach your destination you will be surrounded by gaymos, en masse. And for my want, lesbians as far as the eye can see. Gorgeous women of all shapes, sizes and walks of life. Saturated in teh gay; lesbian movies, lesbian music/musicians, lesbian comedians, celesbians. You know, gaycations. Gay vacation, like; Dinah Shore Weekend, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Women's Week at Provincetown, a lesbian week at a resort, a lesbian cruise...travel designed with the gay gal in mind.

It's that time of year again when we start to wonder how to indulge those special car-loving women in our lives. It doesn't matter whether you're shopping for your wife, mother, or daughter; sister, cousin, or aunt, why not pamper her car -- or pamper HER while she's in her car? We've gathered this collection of fun and luxurious gift ideas to help you ensure her holiday happiness. We're warning you, most of these great gifts glitter!

Since I spend almost every day of every year photographing at least something, around this time every year, I'm always torn between buying gifts for people, or actually using the huge archive of images that I have at my disposal to give meaningful gifts to friends and family.  And so this year, as I start to do a little research for the types of gifts that I'm considering giving, I thought I'd share some of my finds with you.

Today I've cooked and baked and generally warmed up for the "main event" tomorrow, which will include more baking and cooking and then a whole lot of eating. To me, Thanksgiving will be complete when the first child sinks a finger into a mound of mashed potatoes. In the meantime, we have family visiting and I'm loving the laughs and jockeying for space in the kitchen as we enjoy each other's company. For countless Americans, though, the big meal is merely a warm up for the main event the next day. Love it or hate it, shopping on Black Friday is a sacred ritual for many.

If I've asked it here once, I've asked it a thousand times: is nothing safe for our children anymore? One week it's toxic baby bottles, the next it's dangerous playgrounds, the next it's finger-amputating strollers, the next it's baby-killing cribs. And, always, the poisonous/choke-hazardous/child-harming toys.Almost makes one want to flee to the hills and take one's chances with the child-eating bears.