You know, for years I warbled the lyrics of "The 12 Days of Christmas," without really thinking about them much. Obviously, the true love of the story had some unorthodox notions of gift giving, what with the bird obssession and all. But cows? Milkmaids? Sheesh.

The milk, however, goes well with cookies and this is prime baking season, after all. So today, I'm grabbing my college kids and together, we'll whip up batches of pumpkin chocolate chip bread for gifts, and cookies, cookies and more cookies to fill out our holiday dessert platters. Here's hoping they go with those eight buckets of milk.

For more 8th day of Christmas fun, check out these 12 Days blog posts from About.com's parenting and family guides: Read more...

No idea why the true love of "12 Days of Christmas" fame was so fowl-obsessed, but wow, that's a lot of birds. Somehow, swans always make me think of ballet -  must be the "Swan Lake" effect. But the thing about winter break is that once the holidays are over, kids who attend colleges on the semester system still have weeks of break left, and once the whirlwind of the holidays has subsided, it can be quite an adjustment. So the trick is to make the most of those weeks by scheduling some family fun: nights at the theater, snowy outings, the list is endless. So this year, our family's list of outings includes neither "Swan Lake" nor "Nutcracker," but instead, twists on some of those old chestnuts. We just caught Mark Morris' "The Hard Nut," with its hilarious reimagining of the old Nutcracker story - I swear, one of the dancers was doing moves from Beyonce's "Single Ladies" during the party scene. Big fun - especially with fun-loving teens and 20somethings. And hmmm, maybe a little Reduced Shakespeare ... or that staged production, that turns all of Hitchcock's movies into a single evening of witty theater ... or...

For more 7th day of Christmas fun, check out these 12 Days blog posts from About.com's parenting and family guides: Read more...

I suppose it's a swell gift if you live on a farm, but six honking geese a'laying would violate the zoning laws in my town. Still, those goose eggs make me think, one of the great joys of the holidays is leisurely brunches with the kids back home. It has to be brunch, given what time college kids wake up on weekends! The only thing is ... what to do with those eggs? Fortunately, the new "Bubby's Brunch Cookbook," by Ron Silver, landed on my desk the other day and wow, that's a yummy looking thing. (More details here, including prices and such, in case you're interested.) Bubby's is a New York mainstay, not only for the chic Tribeca breakfast crowd, but the late night, post-party crowd as well. So, I'm browsing brunch ideas this morning, and Bubby's buttermilk-soaked - blackberry jam- and cream cheese-stuffed, then rolled in crushed cornflakes - French toast sounds divine. So does this one for a baked French toast casserole with, yes, cream cheese and berries from my colleague Diana Rattray, About's guide to Southern food. Yum. All perfect fare for family festivities or those college kid reunion parties.

For more 6th day of Christmas fun, check out these 12 Days blogs from About.com's parenting and family guides: Read more...

We've talked about pears, French hens and calling birds. But those five golden rings, with their glorious, extended chorus, always made me wonder. Onion rings? Construction paper garlands? Or, ulp, wedding bands?

It's Friday and finals are drawing to a close - well, for everyone except my poor youngest son who still has two more tomorrow. Everyone's coming home and even the most mundane tasks are suddenly exciting, even the grocery shopping. Everyone is madly shopping - for turkeys, cranberries and, perhaps, onion rings for that green bean casserole - and many of them are doing it with college kids in tow. I'm hearing about recent grads who are now engaged - those rings, again - or heading off to the Peace Corps, Teach for America, grad school and jobs. Take a moment, amid the hustle and bustle of the season, to mull those hopes and dreams and good fortune. We're all part of the circle of life - five golden rings encircling family, friends, colleagues, community and planet.

More 12 Days from About's Parenting and Family Guide Sites

• The Twelve Days of Baby Products by Heather Corley, About Baby Products
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Coloring by Beverly Hernandez, About Homeschooling
• The Twelve Days of Christmas for Kids by Katherine Lee, About Child Parenting
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Printable Tags by Sherri Osborn, About Family Crafts
Read more...

OK, these birds are a bit much, but we're up to the calling birds at last. Not sure what a calling bird is, but I do know what a calling teen is and the havoc they wreak on your cell phone bill if you don't have unlimited text messaging. On the other hand, I adore being able to stay in touch with my kids so very easily by calling, texting or instant messaging on Facebook. So if you're looking for a free, but thoughtful gift for your children, you might consider this: there are all sorts of etiquette issues when parents venture online onto their children's social networking sites. And boning up on those caveats - thou shalt not friend thy children's friends nor write on their walls - would be a pretty terrific gift. (That, plus a new iPhone or at least a cover for the old phone, right?)

More 12 Days Fun from About's Parenting and Family Guide Sites

• The Twelve Days of Baby Products by Heather Corley, About Baby Products
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Coloring by Beverly Hernandez, About Homeschooling
• The Twelve Days of Christmas for Kids by Katherine Lee, About Child Parenting
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Printable Tags by Sherri Osborn, About Family Crafts
Read more...

Three French hens? Seriously? OK, we're going with the French theme here and I'm thinking, the best way to de-stress, whether it's finals week for the kids or holiday prep time for the grown-ups, is by taking good care of yourself. And the best way to do that is by eating right. So... may I suggest some French hens? Or more precisely, a little Coq au Vin (er, Hen au Vin?) and a night off with the "Julie & Julia" DVD?  The chicken recipe comes courtesy of Rebecca Franklin, About.com's guide to French food.  The DVD review hails from About's guide to home video, Ivana Redwine (and may I just say, what an excellent last name for a Julia Child movie reviewer?) And don't worry - those dirty dishes and the endless to-do list will keep till morning.

More 12 Days Fun from About's Parenting and Family Guide Sites

• The Twelve Days of Baby Products by Heather Corley, About Baby Products
Read more...

Just a few more days and our little darlings will be done with finals and heading home for the holidays. Meanwhile, we're all still giggling over last week's awesomely awkward episode of "The Office" - one of our family's favorite shows - in which the office mates swap Secret Santa gifts. Andy Bernard, who is absolutely smitten with Dunder Mifflin receptionist Erin, decides to give her all 12 days of Christmas, with predictably terrible results. "Is it my fault," he demands, "that the first 7 days all involve birds?"

Andy, I feel your pain. I got away with talking about pears yesterday, but turtle doves? TURTLE DOVES? I'm fairly sure that sending my college kids pairs of turtle doves is not going to help de-stress them during finals week. What may help, though, is a reminder that sometimes taking a break from the studying is the best thing you can do. Going for a walk, watching a favorite show - "The Office"? - or playing a favorite board game clears the brain and let's you return to the task  refreshed.  That's true for college kids during exam cram, as well as parents frantically trying to fit holiday prep around everything else. So here's a list of 10 fun, de-stressing activities, many of which cost nothing at all. (Hmmm, board games are on the list but now I see there's even an "Office" version of Clue - details here, along with prices, in case you're interested - in which players have to guess which character killed Toby Flenderson. I'm guessing ... Michael ... with the George Foreman Grill... in the warehouse.)

Meanwhile, here's more "12 Days of Christmas"...

Parenting and Family Guide Sites

• The Twelve Days of Baby Products by Heather Corley, About Baby Products
Read more...

We've been singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" around our house and wondering, of course, what kind of nut job would send anyone so many birds, let alone the singing, tootling, leaping entourage. But the song is inspiring my About.com colleagues to fashion a series of day-by-day riffs on the 12 day theme.

This being the finals week lead-in to the holidays, I'm starting with 12 de-stressing, healthy treats for the teen or college kid in your life. No partridges, but there's a pear in there - from the Fruit Guys, Frog Hollow Farms or your favorite market!

Here's more 12 Days fun from About.com, starting with that partridge and his famous tree:

Parenting and Family Guide Sites

• The Twelve Days of Baby Products by Heather Corley, About Baby Products
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Coloring by Beverly Hernandez, About Homeschooling
• The Twelve Days of Christmas for Kids by Katherine Lee, About Child Parenting
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Printable Tags by Sherri Osborn, About Family Crafts
• The Twelve Days of Christmas for Babies by Jennifer White, About Baby's First Year
• The Twelve Days of Kindness by Jennifer Wolf, About Single Parents
• The Twelve Days of Christmas Preparations by Carrie Craft, About Adoption

Guide Sites from Other Channels

• The Twelve Days of Christmas Decorations by Lisa Hallett Taylor, About Pool & Patio
• The Twelve Laundry Stains of Christmas by Mary Marlowe Leverette, About Laundry
• The Twelve Trees and Shrubs of Christmas by Vanessa Richins, About Trees and Shrubs
• The Twelve Fishy Sightings by Shirlie Sharpe, About Freshwater Aquariums
• The Twelve Cats of Christmas by Franny Syufy, About Cats

There's been considerable buzz in recent weeks about colleges whose budgetary bloodletting doesn't extend to their athletics departments - or more precisely, their football programs. The average Division IA state university gives its football program an extra $8.5 million a year to cover costs - the average private school budgets $12.5 million for the same purpose. But at UC Berkeley, where layoffs, furloughs and program cuts have slammed academic programs and students are vehemently protesting a 32% tuition spike, officials just admitted that they forgave $31 million in loans to their athletic department, over and beyond their usual multi-million in contributions, in 2007. Now comes word from the University of Texas that they will be paying their football coach, Mack Brown, $5.1 million a year. That's $700,000 more than USC's Pete Carroll and $800,000 more than Oklahoma's Bob Stoops - and more than $5 million more than the average Joe makes, huh?

Got a kid contemplating grad school? Then there's likely a GRE or Graduate Record Exam in his future. Many graduate schools require this SAT-like test, which includes verbal, math and writing sections. But there are changes slated to go into effect for the GRE in 2011. There's a full analysis of the revised GRE on the Inside Higher Ed web site, but here's the nutshell version:

• Those dreaded analogies, which were banished from the SAT a few years ago, are being eliminated from the GRE too. You remember those, right? Apple is to tractor as baseball is to... diaper, Tasmania or world peace?
• The computerized exam lets students skip questions and come back later, a major boon to test takers and one that was not available before.
• Forget the 200-800 scoring scale. The new exam's verbal and math sections will be scored from 130 to 170.
• Less geometry. More data analysis. Calculators at last!
• And more time. Sorry folks, but the new exam is 3 hours, 45 minutes.