Menlo Park-Atherton, CA|News|
After Christmas Sales and 6 Things to Buy Now
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.

I've been a reporter and editor since 1991, mostly in the Bay Area, where I've written news and feature stories about numerous issues and towns.
Before I came to Patch I was features editor for the Oakland Tribune and online breaking news editor for InsideBayArea.com, where I launched an experimental website about local bands called bandsofthebay.com. I've also worked as a reporter, copy editor and page designer for daily papers in Oregon and Nebraska.
I'm a native of Omaha, Neb., where I come from a long line of newspaper men and women. I have a bachelor's degree in journalism from San Francisco State University, where my claim to fame is writing the lead story in the college paper about the Loma Prieta earthquake, which I incidentally sat through while conducting an interview in our student newsroom.
I live in Pleasanton with my two great kids and lots o' animals. My idea of happiness is to be climbing hills in remote East Bay Regional Park spaces.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.

Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
Better start shopping now, most after-Christmas sales end Jan. 1.
From brazen home burglars to rich kids on Instagram and a little girl with a puffin, we reveal the Top 20 S.F. Bay Area Patch headlines of 2013.
Last year was a "nose to the grindstone," one psychic says, but 2014 will be "perky."
Last year was a "nose to the grindstone," one psychic says, but 2014 will be "perky."
The rankings might surprise you.
The rankings might surprise you.
Kwanzaa is celebrated in the United States from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, 2014.
Kwanzaa begins today and ends Jan. 1.
It's just not the holidays without a corny TV fireplace log and some classic holiday music.