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My husband and I moved in with my grandparents to save money. The temporary adjustment period was worth it.

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I grew up spending weekends, school breaks, and holidays in my grandparents’ home, but moving into it years later with a husband wasn’t something I ever pictured.

We moved into my grandparents’ basement not long after we got married in spring 2025. We both traveled as kids and have gone on a few short adventures as a couple, but we’d never done any long-term.

With our lease ending in the fall, it felt like the perfect time to make a big change, and we started looking at flights to Japan.

I eventually came across a deal on December plane tickets that we couldn’t pass up, but the opportunity left us with a two-month gap to fill before moving away.

Short-term rentals and Airbnbs were too expensive to commit to, especially with a big move ahead. So, when my grandparents suggested we stay in their basement, only 40 minutes away from where we’d been living, it was easily the most practical option.

Being back in my grandparents’ home reminded me how much of my childhood still lives here


Decorations at the writer's grandparents' house, including a fan from Japan, painted handprints, and Polaroids of the writer.

Moving in with my grandparents as an adult brought me right back to my childhood.

Alessa Hickman



Even before we started unpacking, the house instantly brought me back to my childhood. My grandparents have moved a few times over the years, but no matter the location, their home always feels the same.

The dishes and teacups I grew up using are still in the cupboards. The same family photos and decorations are on the fridge and walls, with new additions that have been layered in over the years.

Then there’s Crash, my grandparents’ herb-loving budgie bird, who has a habit of landing on people (and plates) without warning. They’ve only had him for a few years, but their home has always included animals, so even a new bird felt completely natural.

Being surrounded by the memories, familiar faces, and sense of home that shaped my childhood felt grounding during this period of change.

Moving here as an adult meant learning how to fit our lives together differently


The writer's husband with a blue bird on his shoulder.

We had to adjust to new routines, boundaries … and my grandparents’ budgie bird, Crash.

Alessa Hickman



Living with my grandparents came with a series of practical adjustments.

As my husband and I prepared to move abroad, we packed up or sold almost everything we owned, and now found ourselves living outside the city, setting up temporary workstations, and cooking for four instead of two.

Before long, the basement had boxes tucked into corners, the kitchen cabinets were full of our spices and small appliances, and my plant collection had completely taken over the front entrance table.

Moving in also meant navigating new boundaries and having conversations about topics that didn’t come up when I was younger — like finances, household responsibilities, and how much space to give each other.

One of the first conversations we had was about food. Cooking is one of my love languages, so even before we moved in, I told my grandparents that I wanted to take on the family meals.

After so many years of being cared for in their home, it felt important to give something back in a way that came naturally to me.

Because I work remotely, we also had to have conversations about my work-from-home schedule. I had work deadlines to meet and calls to take, which meant setting expectations around when I would be working and when I would be free.

That adjustment took some time on all sides, but those early conversations ultimately helped us find common ground.

This time with my grandparents gave me a chance to appreciate family in a new way


The writer and her grandmother posing for a selfie and smiling in her grandparents' house.

The experience turned into a meaningful chapter of my life.

Alessa Hickman



As I’ve grown older and gotten busier, my time with family has naturally become shorter and much more spread out.

Between work, different homes, relationships, and planning a move abroad, so many visits have been quick moments squeezed in on birthdays, holidays, or weekend check-ins.

Having a stretch of time with family like this isn’t something that comes up often, and it made the simple moments with my grandparents feel more meaningful — sitting down for dinner together, cooking a meal we used to eat when I was little, or laughing at the stories we’ve all heard a thousand times.

This in-between season has been filled with memories, lessons, and changes that taught me how much growth can happen in familiar spaces.

As we start this new chapter abroad, I’m grateful that this time with my grandparents was part of our journey. It reminded me to embrace the unexpected moments, make the most of every experience, and start our next adventure with an open mind.




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Peter Kafka

Billionaires like Jeff Bezos can save The Washington Post until they decide they won’t. We need a better model.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

The cuts at The Washington Post are brutal.

They are brutal for the paper’s readers, who lose crucial coverage like sports and international reporting. And they are brutal for hundreds of Post employees, including lots of people whose work I pay to read with my Post subscription.

The Post’s cuts have also led lots of people to point out the obvious — that Post owner Jeff Bezos, who is currently the world’s fourth-richest man, worth an estimated $261 billion, could easily fund the paper’s losses … forever, without ever noticing the tab.

For the record: I also wish that Bezos would take his loose change and spend it on journalism.

Note that I didn’t say “journalism instead of” because when you are talking about Bezos-level wealth, you don’t have to choose: You can pay for journalism and rockets and superyachts and Venetian weddings and parties in St. Barts. (And yes, I realize that Bezos’ Amazon expenditures on things like the “Melania” doc are different from Bezos’ personal spending. The point is, he can afford it. In the same way that I can afford to buy a fancy coffee now and then.)

I’m also not weighing in on how much of the Post’s problems are the same problems facing every news organization, versus ones Bezos exacerbated by pivoting toward Trump. Or whether the new Post plan — focus on a handful of topics it thinks will resonate with a national audience, like politics and wellness — makes sense or is simply a too-late move already made by many Post competitors.

But the focus on Bezos underscores the problem the Post has been facing for years: It was a money-losing operation that relied on a billionaire’s goodwill. First, to buy it from its previous owners, who let it go for the price of a Joe Rogan podcast deal, and then to fund its losses for years.

Maybe Bezos really is sick of paying for the Post’s losses. Maybe funding the Post no longer syncs with a turns out, Donald Trump is actually good now, worldview. The point is that the Post has been in the can’t-win position of hoping Jeff Bezos would continue to fund those losses for years. Now he doesn’t want to. (Bezos has yet to comment publicly on the cuts; Matt Murray, the Post’s top editor, told his staff that the cuts are meant to help “reinvent The Washington Post for this new era. This work is difficult, but is essential.”)

Which, again, points out how precarious a position just about every news organization in the US is in right now.

There are a handful of really excellent publications, which are controlled by billionaires or very wealthy families — The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News — that are aimed at an upscale, national audience, and they are doing well. There are some thriving startups and niche publications that tend to focus on topics that rich people — or their employers — will pay to learn more about. (Several of them, it turns out, are focused on power and Washington, DC — a sector the Post should have owned.) And there are various forms of aggregators that make a living by repackaging news other people generate, like newsletter publisher 1440.

And that’s … kind of it. The local news market is so bad we routinely use the word “desert” to describe it. There have been many attempts to solve that, and people keep trying new ways to tackle the problem. I wish all of them well because we really, really need local news. TV news is contracting because TV is contracting. Magazines are now frequently “brands attached to hotels or travel agencies.”

Faced with this grim reality, it’s natural to look at Bezos and think: Just pay for it. And again — I wish he would. But relying on billionaire goodwill is a hope, not a plan.

Journalism — no matter how much we right-size, automate, and innovate — is expensive. And up until the internet, journalism usually existed in the US in spite of those costs because it was bundled with other things people (subscribers, advertisers) were willing to pay for.

Now that bundle has been torn apart, so we need both new models that support what we have today — and ownership structures that will be satisfied with self-sustaining businesses, not ones with huge profit expectations. If I knew how to do that, I’d be doing it. I just know that hoping a billionaire will fix it isn’t the answer.




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Kate Winslet says becoming a mother helped save her mental health after ‘Titanic’

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Kate Winslet has a secret to staying sane among the madness of celebrity: motherhood.

“I was very fortunate because I became a mother when I was really young,” Winslet said during an appearance on the podcast “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso,” which aired Sunday, December 21. “I was, you know, blessed to be taking care of this gorgeous little baby,” she said.

Winslet, 50, had her first child, actor Mia Threapleton, in 2000 when she was 25 years old. She welcomed her eldest son, Joe Anders, 21, in 2003, and her youngest, Bear Blaze Winslet, 12, in 2013.

Caring for her children, two of whom have followed her into the entertainment industry, helped her drown out the outside noise and public scrutiny she has endured over the years, she explained.

When the Hollywood star first became “very famous very quickly,” after starring alongside Leonard DiCaprio in the blockbuster “Titanic” in 1997, her mental health suffered, she said. Winslet, who is English, said she was bodyshamed and “actively bullied” by the British media and that she couldn’t “function like a normal person,” explaining that she would be followed into everyday places like the grocery store.

“I found it quite distressing,” she said.

The actor and director said it made her “really self-critical,” and that there were days when she felt like she “couldn’t face the day,” but being a mother “saved” her.

Winslet is not the only celebrity to cite her kids as a positive force on their mental health. In June, “Mad Max: Fury Road” star Charlize Theron, 49, told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that adopting her two daughters in 2012 and 2015 was “one of the healthiest decisions” she has ever made. And “Empire State of Mind” singer Alicia Keys has said that motherhood has helped her become more introspective and identify unresolved issues.

Winslet has been on a press tour promoting her directorial debut, “Goodbye June,” which was released in select US and UK theaters on December 12 and will be on Netflix on December 24. The screenplay was written by her son, Anders.

In the interview with podcast host Fragoso, Winslet said that “protecting” herself creatively has also helped her maintain her mental health while living in the public eye.

Since rising to fame in 1997, she said she has only pursued roles that would make her happy.

“I had the good sense to know that I loved acting and that somehow the most important thing in terms of opportunity was only to pursue things that I really want to do,” she said.




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