It’s Tuesday – Day 2 of working from home with my kids, ages 4, 8 and 9 – and I’m already exhausted. Truly.

What should you do in an active shooter situation? It’s a question I never seriously considered until Aug. 3.

It’s the third year I’ve written this annual list of our most popular stories, and every year I have started the column the same way: National news in (insert year) was relentless. And it’s not looking any better this year.

WinterFest in Downtown is one of my new favorite holiday traditions. Now in its fourth year, it’s grown into a truly delightful family outing (or romantic evening).

I’m sitting in the waiting area of an El Paso hospital scanning news headlines and a sweet, instrumental version of “Rock-a-Bye Baby” comes on. I’m a bit slow, but when the clip plays again a little later, I get it: The lullaby announces that a baby was born.

The morning was still black as we walked on to the launch field; the sun had not yet climbed over the Sandia Mountains. Thousands of people wrapped in jackets or blankets, nursing cups of coffee, covered the 78-acre field.

Think of a great city and you can probably think of a park it is known for: Central Park in New York City, Hyde Park in London, Lumpini Park in Bangkok, Zilker Park in Austin and many, many others.

Running free at one of her favorite places at the El Paso Zoo, the Foster Tree House Playground, my 4-year-old daughter suddenly became aware of another presence in her path.