Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024/January 2025 i Reader's Digest

IF I NEED a little pick-me-up, all I have to do is look around. A wooden sign on my mantel reminds me that “Love Never Fails.” A plaque in my bathroom says that “Every Day Is a Fresh Start.” When my son was younger, our shower curtain read “Be Awesome Today!” I like to think it helped us all remember to at least strive for that. I'm not alone in my decor preference, or in my belief that words have great power. In her book Foolish, comedian Sarah Cooper writes about her mom's words of wisdom, all pilfered from signs and pillows around her home. Our excerpt starts on page 32. My mom—a giver of many words of wisdom, in plaque form and other wise—is a hero of mine. She…

“HMM,” MICHAEL ARMUS muttered to himself. He'd just set foot into the Bank of the West in Woodland, California, and felt the tension. “Something's not right.” It was a little before 11 on a sunny May morning in 2023, and the 69-year-old retired auto body painter was there to deposit a check. Normally, whenever Armus visited, he'd be greeted with loud salvos of “Hi, Mr. Armus!” from the tellers, with whom he loved to banter and share his admittedly corny jokes. But today, none of the tellers acknowledged him. Nor did the bank's manager, who sat at his desk with his head down and seemed to be whispering into his telephone. As Armus approached the teller windows, he noticed the three employees had similar worried looks on their faces. He…

My GPS has a soothing British accent that I love. But occasionally I question its sense of direction. Recently, I was driving with my husband and the GPS kept instructing me to turn onto out-of-the-way side roads. Exasperated, I said, “Why does she keep telling me to take a longer route?” My husband was more sympathetic. “To be fair,” he said, “she's not from around here.” —SANDRA RANKIN Milan, MI Christmas decor isn't meant to be sleek and minimalist. It's supposed to look like joy threw up in your house. —X@ROASTMALONE_ Every year for Christmas I buy my nephew something that has to be assembled, because watching my brother struggle to put it together is my Christmas. —X@DANREGAN_COMEDY My family and I were gathered around the TV watching an old…

WHEN PUFF PASTRY hits a hot oven, its hundreds of layers levitate to flaky and delectable new heights. It's all thanks to steam, escaping in tiny bursts from water in the dough. A close cousin to the croissant, which contains yeast to help it rise, puff pastry runs solely on its own steam. The dough itself is made by a painstaking process called lamination, involving butter—and lots of it. Bakers roll out the dough (a basic recipe of flour, water, salt and sometimes eggs), grate shards of butter on top, then repeatedly fold the dough over and roll it flat again. This process of rolling and folding creates the countless layers, but it's even more involved than it sounds. THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BEEF WELLINGTON WEIGHED MORE THAN 50 POUNDS. “The…

For ALL THE good things that happen around the holidays, there's one thing that's not so happy: The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that more deaths related to cardiac events happen on Christmas Day than any other day of the year. (That's followed by Dec. 26 and New Year's Day, according to one study.) Another study found that heart attacks peak on Christmas Eve, around 10 p.m., and tend to be most common in people older than 75. “We don't know exactly what triggers this increase in heart attacks during the holidays. It's likely a combination of factors,” says Johanna Contreras, MD, a cardiology specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Winter weather can contribute, as it restricts blood flow, but Dr. Contreras also points to holiday…

As he pushes his wailing child through the supermarket, a young father repeats softly, “Don't get excited, Josh … Don't scream, Josh … Keep calm, Josh.” A fellow shopper, impressed by the father's calm demeanor, says, “You should be commended for trying to soothe your son.” The father replies, “I'm Josh.” —CATALOGS.CO I have a deal with the lottery. For $2, I tell them what numbers not to pick. —Submitted by BRADFORD GRANT BOYLE Lincoln City, OR Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper. —Actor/Author QUENTIN CRISP A dive bar opens across the street from a church and the minister implores his congregants to pray for its destruction. A week later, the bar is struck by lightning and burns to the ground. The irate owner…

IN THE WARMER MONTHS, Nancy Daybell of Heber City, Utah, grows and sells flowers from her 2-acre property. But during the winter, she plants a little holiday magic in the form of a drop box for letters to Santa Claus. It all started three years ago, when Daybell decided to convert the cash box she used for her flower sales into a mailbox. She decked it out with festive decorations and advertised its unique postal route (direct to the North Pole) with a sign out front. Daybell receives dozens of what she calls “the most adorable letters.” In many of them, the kids don't even ask for toys, instead asking Santa to make it a good holiday for others. She writes back to every child, taking care to retrieve the…

Last Christmas Eve, Devitt Kane and Eric Ramey, two highway maintenance crewmen with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), spotted a busted trash bag on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 2 near Leavenworth. “Anything in a bag along the highway usually isn't good,” says Kane. The bag's contents stunned the WSDOT veterans, but in a good way. Inside were tennis shoes and toys, spilling out of ripped gift wrapping. Kane and Ramey brought the bag to headquarters, but nobody had reported the gifts missing. The two made a Facebook post, hoping it would land in front of the right eyes—and soon. Christmas morning was only one sleep away. “I remember being a kid myself,” says Kane, “so it was like, ‘We've got to try to get these back to…

Can't Burst My Bubble I have played sports my whole life, and was fascinated by bubble soccer, where each player wears an inflated sphere (the “bubble”) around their upper body. It looked so fun to bounce off of one another. While visiting the Adidas campus in Portland, where my daughter was interning, we came across a game of bubble soccer. I was elated when asked to join. I certainly spent more time being knocked around and rolling across the field than knocking down others, but I had the time of my life. —KELLY BOYNTON Amelia, OH Pick Up a Pen Years ago, I began writing down things I'd love to do at some point: Dive the Great Barrier Reef, hike Banff National Park, visit the foreign exchange students from Japan…

THE YOUNG COUPLE rushed around their home that Wednesday morning, concentrating on the unfolding day, looking forward, the way they'd always navigated life and love together. Kris Lehmer and Brandon Smith, then in their early 20s, were a throwback to a more innocent time. ey had met at a Houston summer choir camp. Born four months apart, he was 15 and she 16 at the time. She thought he was cute. Camp gossip said he had a crush. Emboldened, Kris called Brandon and invited him to the roller-skating rink. Back in school, they wrote notes to each other and talked seriously about marriage, convinced they were soulmates. During those high school years, they went skiing, to the zoo and to the science museum. Kris told Brandon he was the first…

TV “The person in the first scene of a police procedural is either a victim or a witness,” explains Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang), a server yearning for a grander life, during Interior Chinatown's open. When Wu sees a passerby snatched off the sidewalk by henchmen, viewers learn that he is in fact a witness in a satirical police TV show called Black & White. But Wu is no secondary character: He forges his way from background to fore and turns from waiter to witness to hero. A meta comedy that any CSI or Law & Order enthusiast will enjoy. (Streaming on Hulu Nov. 19) —Caroline Fanning…

Whether you love to bake or you only pull out the cookie sheets this time of year, you can find inspiration and community with Bakeable from Taste of Home. Bakeable is an online community where bakers mix it up and share tips, recipes and photos of their creations. Join the monthly Bakeable challenge and try our sister publication's most beloved recipes alongside the editors who've helped perfect them. The December challenge, a modernized white fruitcake recipe, is a holiday party show-stealer, sure to win over even the fruitcake-adverse. Join at tasteofhome.com/bakeable. “I really related to your article “How Hobbies Help Us” (September 2024) about how pastimes can help us heal. As a kid, I listened to classical music because it's what my dad liked, but I didn't realize how much…

A History Lesson A few years ago, in a Maryland thrift store, Anna Lee Dozier found a small ceramic vase that looked vaguely Mayan, like “some kind of tourist reproduction thing,” she told WUSA in Washington, D.C. She paid $3.99 and took it home. During a visit to a museum in Mexico City, she saw vases similar to the one she had bought. Intrigued, she sent photos of her vase to the Mexican Embassy and received confirmation that it was a priceless Mayan artifact perhaps 1,800 years old. When the embassy asked for the valuable relic, Dozier agreed, telling NPR, “It's important to recognize things with such cultural value to an entire country.” She had another reason to be rid of it, she said: “I have three little boys. I…

♦ “A bottle of wine and hip implants.” ♦ “Measuring cups.” ♦ “Signs that say ‘Bless the Home.'” ♦ “A Dyson vacuum.” ♦ “Panera Bread gift card. People in their 30s love soup!” ♦ “Old-people candles that smell like ‘home' or ‘back then.'” ♦ “Expensive meats.” ♦ “A coffee mug that says ‘Don't talk to me till I've had my coffee' because they're all coffeeobsessed millennials.”…

Being stationed overseas during the holidays can be depressing. When I was in Okinawa, Japan, one Marine was determined to brighten our spirits by creating a real Marine's Christmas tree. It was a single leafless branch stuck into a tree stand. A red ribbon was tied to a limb, and hanging from that was a brass rifle round. A sign on the tree read: “A Cartridge in a Bare Tree.” —PAUL HAUSCHEN Latham, NY As I steered my small Coast Guard boat along the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., a passenger pointed at my navigation screen and asked, “What is this octagon shape here?” After a brief pause, I said, “It is a pentagon … and it is the Pentagon.” —MARK SUTTON Carthage, MO Baked goods sent from home were…

With a 5-year-old who loves to procrastinate at bedtime, a 2-year-old who wakes up during the night, and a cat who thinks 3:30 a.m. is breakfast time, I needed better sleep! Studies credit tart cherry juice with improved sleep, so I drank it every night for a week. My sleep improved the first night and kept getting better. I felt sleepy about an hour after drinking my first 8-ounce glass. I wear a health tracker and saw that both my deep and REM sleep increased. On the final day of my test, I hit 7½ hours of sleep, something I hadn't done in months. Tart cherry juice needs a new name, because it wasn't as tart as I'd expected. It is high in sugar and isn't recommended for people with…

'Twas the night before New Year's And all through the house, The wife said, “I'm freezing!” “I'm hot,” said her spouse. Her hands were a-shaking, Her teeth all a-chatter. She thought to herself, He's mad as a hatter. So she in wool socks, And sweatshirt and pants, Grabbed an armful of quilts And swallowed her rants. And she heard him exclaim As she strode out of sight, “Happy New Year's, my dear!” She mumbled, “Good night!”…

On a chilly November afternoon in a strip mall parking lot in Mishawaka, Indiana, a woman named Cindy had just climbed into her car when a young woman carrying a microphone approached, introducing herself as Emily Kennedy, a meteorologist with ABC57 News in South Bend. “I'm looking for someone who might know somebody that could use a miracle,” Kennedy said. After a moment's thought, Cindy remembered a Facebook post about a man in Buchanan, Michigan, whose house had burned two days earlier, leaving him and his two sons homeless just before the holidays. She'd never met the family, she said, but they'd been on her mind. “Do you think you'd be able to take us there within 57 minutes?” Kennedy asked. “Me, take you there?” “Yes.” It was a big…

PATRICIA GALLAGHER was a lonely empty nester in 2009 when she got the impulse to visit some nursing homes for Christmas. She called two places, asking if she could come and read “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the residents. They gladly welcomed her. And she didn't arrive alone. “I gathered up all the stuffed animals that I had accumulated from my kids over the years, and I brought the stuffed animals with me,” Gallagher told CBS. She then handed them out to the seniors so they could hold on to some soft friends while they listened to the classic poem. “When we went to gather them so we could go to the next nursing home, no one wanted to give up their teddy bear or their stuffed animal. They…

LAST YEAR, giant inflatable yeti popped up on Highview Street in Richland, Washington. Then another. And another. It was all part of a friendly cross-country rivalry to spread the most holiday cheer. The competition started when local dad and self-described “Christmas joy spreader” Steve Lee saw an article about Monroe Street in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the past couple of holiday seasons, that neighborhood had amassed more than a dozen inflatable Santas. “I thought that was a shameful display. I thought we could do much better, much more quickly—because why not?” Lee jokes. So he ordered boxes of 12-foot-tall, light-up, inflatable versions of the Bumble, the monster-turned-lovable Christmas helper in the 1964 animated classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. No one had yet used these abominable snowmen to cheer up their neighborhood,…

Karla's Choice By Nick Harkaway A beloved literary character reappears, as Nick Harkaway, son of legendary espionage writer John le Carré, brings his father's fictional spymaster George Smiley back to life. In Karla's Choice, Harkaway captures the nuance and moral probing his father did best, while imbuing his own gloss of modern sophistication to this tale of Cold War maneuvering. The novel fills a gap in Smiley's story, taking place one book prior to the events of masterpiece Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Readers fresh to le Carré and his legendary hero will find themselves rushing to catch up. —Ben Winters How to Winter By Kari Leibowitz Psychologist Kari Leibowitz moved to the Arctic Circle to study the negative effects of polar night (when darkness can last for months) on mental…

SINCE 1940, STEUBENVILLE, Ohio, has lost more than half its population. But beginning in 2015, the city found a way to bring people back to its downtown: life-size nutcrackers—209 of them as of last year—all built and painted by local volunteers. During the holidays, the once-desolate downtown teems with neighbors and tourists enjoying the colorful characters, which include depictions of Ebenezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes and hometown hero Dean Martin. Of the crowds, businessman Mark Nelson told the Washington Post, “It was like a miracle happened.”…

LASK WEEK, FROZEN cookie dough saved me from myself. It all started when the new neighbor across the street backed a U-Haul truck up to his house, walked a Ping-Pong table down the ramp and left it on his front lawn. He is a college student, and if you live in a college town, you understand that a Ping-Pong table on a front lawn is not just a Ping-Pong table. It's a beer-pong table. For those unfamiliar, beer pong involves bouncing balls into an opponent's cup of beer, thereby forcing that person to drink its contents. I wouldn't know the first thing about it if I hadn't spent years living on the other side of town, closer to the university, where beer-pong tables riddle front yards. At the time, my…

AFTER MY DIVORCE, I remember finding out I wasn't going to get child support. We don't have kids, but I still wanted child support, you know? I wanted inner child support. And so I was crying and crying and hugging my mom and she hugged me back and said, “Sarah, don't sweat the small stuff. And guess what? It's all small stuff.” And I was like, “Mom … that's the sign above the couch. I turned around and pointed it out to her. “Did you just read that to me?” That's when I realized that my mom is just like the guy at the end of The Usual Suspects. She's just been reading the HomeGoods decor around the house to give me advice. Once I called her and said I…

YOUR BEST WALKING BUDDY One of the appeals of walking as exercise is that you don't need any special equipment to do it. But there's one piece of gear that might be worth a try, according to a study in the journal BMC Geriatrics. Researchers in Nigeria, South Africa and Germany examined data from a variety of walking programs for older adults. They found that the programs that used pedometers or other fitness trackers to set goals and measure steps were more effective at lowering the risk factors for stroke. People who participated were more likely to reduce their blood sugar and systolic blood pressure (the top number, the most important one for heart health), and increase their activity. Eat for Longevity There's another part of the world, besides the…

Friends Yuri Williams and Rodney Smith Jr. spend the weeks leading up to Christmas crisscrossing the country. They visit all 50 states, making house calls to kids who are sick or disabled. The pair arrive with plenty of toys, and in costume, both of which delight the young recipients. In past years, Williams has dressed up as various superheroes and other beloved characters— including Spider-Man, Deadpool and the Mandalorian—while Smith dons the attire of a Christmas elf. Though Williams has been spreading joy this way for years, the impetus to do it came from a joyless place. In 2009, he lost his mother to cancer. “I fell into a five-year depression,” he told Good Morning America. But he dug himself out by honoring his mother's memory through charitable acts, including…

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF Holocaust survivors live in New York City, many homebound, on their own and with little income. These seniors sometimes can't afford to celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah with family—or food. Enter Met Council, New York's largest kosher food pantry network. The nonprofit, which provides 20 million pounds of food throughout the year, goes into overdrive during the holidays: Volunteers add gifts and handwritten notes to the thousands of boxes they put together and then hand-deliver. CEO David Greenfield told CBS, “We had a teenager who struck up a friendship with this 90-somethingyear-old Holocaust survivor, and they keep in touch. And she really feels like she has someone in her life not just that she cares about, but cares about her.”…

AS NICOLE AND NATHAN PARRETT drove their family of five back home to Fargo, North Dakota, after visiting family in Texas in December 2022, they had two tearful toddlers in the back. Why? Well, during the visit, they had fallen in love with a stray dog that wandered by—and kept coming back. At first, Nicole told the kids to be wary and not to touch him. “But he was just so pleasant to the kids,” she told WDAY News, “and that's what won us over.” Together, the family gave the dog a bath, some food and even a name: Country. With each passing day, the kids grew more attached. So when it was time to leave, the waterworks flowed. Little did they know, their Grandpa Mike was cooking up a…

'Tis the season to be jolly … and for many of us, that may mean indulging in a glass of eggnog at festive cocktail parties, a glass of wine at celebratory dinners, a flute of champagne to ring in the new year. Alcohol consumption in the United States rose during the pandemic, especially among women. But drinking has since returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in the last few years there's been another trend happening: an increase in people who are interested in cutting down or cutting out alcohol completely. More and more people are choosing to toast with a mocktail or a glass of club soda, as new studies show that alcohol's effects on the body may be even more harmful than previously thought. “People are starting to recognize the…

1. circadian adj. (sr-'kay-dee-uhn) A at dawn B gently rocking C 24-hour 2. noctambulist n. (nok-'tam-byuh-list) A sleepwalker B sedative C night nurse 3. roust v. (rowst) A swing in a hammock B get out of bed C pile with blankets 4. oneiric adj. (oh-'ny-ruhk) A prone to insomnia B pitch-black C referring to dreams 5. vigil n. ('vih-jl) A night watch B night owl C night-light 6. soporific adj. (sah-pr-'i-fik) A lavender-infused B causing sleep C nightmarish 7. reverie n. ('reh-vr-ee) A daydream B bedtime story C afternoon nap 8. torpid adj. ('tor-puhd) A unconscious B sluggish C rigid 9. berceuse n. (behr-'suz) A baby's cradle B mint tea C classical lullaby 10. repose v. (ruh-'pohz) A toss and turn B lie at rest C hit snooze 11. compline n. ('kahm-pluhn) A neck pillow B beauty sleep C evening prayer 12. tenebrous adj. ('teh-nuh-bruhs) A dark B early C tired 13. estivate v. ('eh-stuh-vayt) A snore loudly B sleep through summer C interpret dreams 14. hypersomnia n. (hy-pr-'sahm-nee-uh) A…