Growing up in Northern California, I've only seen snow at Christmas maybe twice in my life! I was always jealous of my cousins on the East Coast with their white Christmases.

I once saw professional soccer up there in Seattle, the Sounders. I went and saw that. I'm not a big soccer fan, but watching a live game is unbelievable. And then I went to Italy and saw a soccer match; it's something everyone should do once. It'll blow your mind.

Cooking is like snow skiing: If you don't fall at least 10 times, then you're not skiing hard enough.

When you love the competition, the opportunity to achieve at simple but challenging games, some people are really into it, and I'm one of them.

Quite frankly, Barack Obama knows what it's like to pay a mortgage and student loans. He knows what it's like to watch a beloved family member in a medical crisis and worry that treatment is out of reach. Barack Obama knows our struggles. And, my friends, he shares our values.

I was so angry at God for taking my father from me that I marched up to my mother before the funeral and told her I was going to quit nursing school. I just wanted to stop living.

Although both sides of my family were religious, I was never forced to practice the Jewish faith. I did not really rebel against it, but then, as today, I disliked organized religion. I have a strange inhibition about praying with others.

I'm just not one of those people who thought having biological children was that important, to me it was more about wanting to raise a child.