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Mental Floss •

8 Fascinating But Not-So-Jolly Legends About St. Nicholas

It is hard to imagine the cheery, plump version of Santa Claus emerged from Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Bishop of Myra who, as a nursing infant, fasted on holy days and whose bones were stolen after his death. Instead of a “right jolly old elf,” St. Nicholas is the patron saint of everything from brewers to pawnbrokers to murderers. Here are eight often terrifying legends associated with the saint that seem more like a script from Dexter or Game of Thrones. St. Nicholas, best known as the pa...
Texas Highways •

Go Reptilian at Crocodile Encounters in Angleton

Lurching out of the water to snatch the raw chicken dangling overhead, the full girth of Boots’ stout figure emerged, like a live-action version of Tick-Tock the Crocodile from Disney’s Peter Pan. “You never see an alligator that hefty in the wild,” says our 17-year-old guide, Caden Meyer. At 12 feet, 6 inches, Boots is the largest American alligator at Crocodile Encounter, a crocodilian conservation habitat in Angleton.


A rotating cast of enthusiastic guides led us through the lush, 26-acre...
Next Avenue •

Alzheimer's and Immigrants: Language and Culture May Compound Care

My dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis made me wonder how his experience as an Iranian immigrant would impact his medical journeyI have never doubted my dad's capability. He immigrated to the United States from Iran when he was 26, and went on to complete his bachelor's degree and navigate a career as an engineer. His life has in many ways typified the American dream.However, when I first learned of his suspected Alzheimer's diagnosis, one of my immediate concerns was how his experience as an immigrant...
Business Insider •

My husband has been a teacher for 18 years. This is the beginning-of-school motto our family lives by.

My husband is about to start his 19th year of teaching, our eldest is starting 7th grade, and our youngest is starting 1st grade. In our family's collective decades of experience, the one motto we try to embrace at the beginning of each school year is that everything is variable. Most of our parent friends try to control for all the variables — school, teachers, and sometimes even friends or classmates — and we've learned that it rarely works as intended.We are not completely immune to the urge...
Thrillist •

The Texas State Park with Its Own Grand Canyon

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, though it’s tough to compete against the Grand Canyon.Palo Duro Canyon State Park still tries. It's 27,173 acres but still manages to feel like a hidden treasure, even to lifelong Texans like my family. It’s certainly more undervalued (and less overrun) than its national park cousin. Despite being a long drive from most major cities in the Lone Star state, Palo Duro is the kind of place that inspires families in matching T-shirts to pose together at the ent...
Texas Monthly •

Lake Somerville Is the Disneyland of Texas State Parks

“Whatever your outdoor passion, you can pursue it here.” So declares Texas Parks and Wildlife’s enticing web page for Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway. Encircling an almost 12,000-acre man-made lake, the park sits smack-dab between Austin and Houston. This vast hub of open-air amusement comprises two units (Birch Creek at 2,365 acres and Nails Creek at 3,155 acres), the 13-mile Lake Somerville Trailway, and the 350-acre Flag Pond, a habitat for migrating birds.Other parks are more showy, li...
Texas Monthly •

Texas Parents Are Terrified for Another Triple-Digit Summer

“No more than ten minutes!” I yelled after my eleven-year-old daughter as she darted out the back door. It was late on an August evening, and the temperature in Houston continued to hover over 100 degrees, refusing to offer even a brief reprieve. Last summer was less of a breaking point and more of a languishing, as persistent triple digits kept our family of four increasingly confined to our home. The sun was so relentless that I often drew the curtains by noon. Right outside our door was a hug...
Business Insider •

When my 6-year-old asked to get her ears pierced, I took her to a professional piercer. It was much safer than the way I did it.

This year, we took our 6-year-old to get her ears pierced. My husband and I agreed early on ear piercings were an important part of bodily autonomy and would be the determination of our children.If our kids wanted them, we would take them to get their ears pierced. If our kids didn't want them, we wouldn't. Their age was up to them. They just had to be sure. I talked each of our daughters through the reality of the experience, doing my best to explain the pain was similar to a shot. It would hur...
Business Insider •

I've taken my kids​, 6 and 12, on dozens of camping trips. I enjoy them more than traditional vacations.

When it comes to a family vacation, there is nothing I love more than cramming our SUV with various gear, driving away from our house in the middle of the city, pitching a tent, and sleeping on the ground next to my entire family. The sleep is often mediocre, we all end up smelling a bit ripe by the time we leave, but the time away together surpasses any other travel experience.In the fall of 2020, during the height of pandemic hobby acquisition, our family of four set out on our first car campi...
Business Insider •

I never expected to meet my husband while working at a restaurant together post-college. It was surprisingly romantic.

The last thing I expected after graduating from college and moving back home with my parents was to find my soulmate.I took a job waiting tables at a local Tex-Mex restaurant while I killed time applying to the Peace Corps. Despite thinking I could leverage my English major into a job shuffling books at Barnes & Noble, they ignored my application. This restaurant was the only place I found willing to hire a rookie waiter. I intended to put my head down, serve fajitas, and get as far away from my...
Texas Monthly •

Most Dinosaur Tracks Are Hidden on Private Land. At Government Canyon, You Can Stroll Alongside Them.

Driving into Government Canyon State Natural Area is like entering a time portal. In this 12,244-acre preserve on the northwestern fringes of San Antonio, visitors can walk alongside 110-million-year-old dinosaur tracks, an 8,000-year-old rock midden left by ancient Texans, and a 140-year-old cottage built by German settlers—all on the same trail. Hikers wander across forty miles of trails atop the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, which is responsible for providing half the city’s drinking water....
Business Insider •

We told our kids Santa Claus isn't real, but they don't believe us

"I know you said Santa isn't real, but the third graders say he is," our 6-year-old daughter shared with us one evening. This confession took us by surprise.My husband and I decided early on we were not going to do Santa in our house. We had different reasons. My husband firmly believed in Santa Claus a little too long. When friends discovered his earnest letter in sixth grade, he shrugged it off as something he did for his mom's sake, quietly disavowing his childhood faith at the same time. It'...
Texas Highways •

Get Lost in the Pine Forest of Bastrop and Buescher State Parks

The Texas State Parks system marks its 100th anniversary this year. With 89 parks, natural areas, and historic sites to choose from, visitors can experience all kinds of outdoor activities. Each month, we’re highlighting one of these activities based on the season and special occasions around the state.
Usually, December in Texas is mild enough for tent camping, but our family happened to book a weekend in Bastrop State Park with a biting cold that nipped at my kids toes through their heavy boot...
Business Insider •

I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween growing up. Now, I live for costumes and trick-or-treating with my family.

When I was growing up, my religious, conservative mom didn't allow me to trick-or-treat, watch movies with witches, or dress up for school in anything even remotely ghoulish.As a kid, I cared less about the candy and more about the embarrassment of being left out of this iconic childhood tradition. I figured if I had kids, I'd course-correct by taking them trick-or-treating.I didn't expect to be a Halloween convert. The second my eyes hit the plush Carter's elephant costume in Costco when my old...
Texas Monthly •

Taking It Slow at Goose Island State Park

You might think you know what to expect at a Texas beach park: fresh salt air, the languid sound of water lapping on the shore, and a pretty sunset. Goose Island State Park, just north of Rockport along the St. Charles and Aransas Bays, has all that—and it’s also a master class in the Gulf Coast’s ecological diversity. Somehow the petite park encompasses live oak and red bay woodlands, pockets of coastal prairie, tidal flats, salt marshes, and grasslands in a compact 321 acres. This varied lands...
Texas Monthly •

Swing by Texas’s Smallest State Park to See Three Million Bats Soar From an Old Railroad Tunnel

Twenty minutes from downtown Fredericksburg—on a long, winding stretch of Old San Antonio Road that snakes past historic country schools, a vineyard with safari tours, and at least one ghost town—lies Old Tunnel State Park. At just sixteen acres, it’s the smallest state park in Texas. (The largest, Big Bend Ranch, in far West Texas, sprawls for more than 311,000 rugged acres.) But what Old Tunnel lacks in size, it makes up for in personality. After spending a pleasant summer evening there recent...
Texas Highways •

Brazos Bend State Park Provides Family-Friendly Adventure

On a rainy afternoon in December, our family set up camp in a soggy spot near a flooded campsite at Brazos Bend State Park. It was our first visit (and only our family’s third camping trip), and we were determined to give it our best attempt. Another family was packing up as we arrived, so we got permission to move sites. We lifted our tent and walked it over and down, like a game of Tetris, to a spot that did not require wading through standing water.
Located just outside of Houston, Brazos Ben...
Business Insider •

I've taken surf and piano lessons thanks to my kids' interests. After failing and later succeeding, I learned how to have fun even as a beginner.

Some parents want to relive their adolescent glories through their children. For me, I'm finding an opportunity to try new pursuits. Over the past five years, I started learning hobbies alongside my kids. I'm finding myself liberated from external motivations and fears and inspired by my daughters' seemingly unending wells of enthusiasm.The summer my oldest was 6, I signed us up for a single surf lesson. Surfing was always something I found intriguing and too cool for me — something for people t...
Business Insider •

I've gone on 32 trips in 5 years with my 2 kids. I've learned to focus on the good memories instead of the perfect vacation.

I've spent a summer backpacking across southern Europe, lived and traveled in East Africa for a year, and made an exhausting trip to Costa Rica with a toddler. I consider myself a seasoned traveler and am used to traveling with my kids at my side.In fact, I've made 32 trips with them over the past five years: 11 of these trips involved flights, 20 were camping trips, and one was a local road trip. However, it was a summer transatlantic flight to meet my parents in West Yorkshire that took me dow...
The Texas Observer •

Turning Anti-Asian Hate into Law

My dad, an immigrant from Iran, bought our childhood home before he was a citizen of the United States. My parents still own this home where their four kids grew up, and where their grandkids now splash in the pool and ride their bikes around the driveway. When I read the text of SB 147, a xenophobic bill seeking to prohibit the right to own property based on national origin, I immediately thought of that house and everything it took to get there.

The bill, authored by state Senator Lois Kolkho...
Texas Monthly •

Meridian State Park Offers Delights for Every Age

My family and I are only eighteen state parks in to our goal of visiting all 88. No matter what weather, adventures, or misadventures await, we always find something to enjoy. At some parks, this requires patience and creativity. This was not the case on the April morning when we arrived at Meridian State Park, fifty miles northwest of Waco. Like any good host, Meridian greeted us with fresh flowers—an almost immoderate bounty of bluebonnets. My family was intoxicated by their fragrance and char...
SheKnows •

Why My Husband & I Will Never Tell Our Kids They're Smart

When my husband and I found out we were pregnant, we quickly agreed on two things: a name, and that we would never call our kid “smart”.


Like many people, my husband and I grew up believing intelligence is a dichotomy: you’re either smart, or you aren’t. Same for athletics, musicianship, or artistic talent. These things were innate. However, what we were learning, both personally and professionally, was that it wasn’t our intelligence or talents that were fixed — but rather our mindset arou...
Texas Monthly •

I Fell in Love With Camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park

“I love you guys! Can I sit in the middle?” my four-year-old announced, as she hauled her chair to the campfire. My husband, Ben, cooked hot dogs while our ten-year-old and I huddled close by and snacked on chips. Our conversation turned to fire-building strategy and reminiscing about our previous camping trips. It was a cold, rainy Saturday evening in November, and we’d driven an hour west of our home in Houston to camp overnight at Stephen F. Austin State Park. After refreshing the forecast al...

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