New holiday happenings Bryant Park is no longer home to NYC's only FREE ice-skating rink. The South Street Seaport is set to debut a new, no-cost rink on Friday, November 29, the same night it lights up its Christmas tree. Update: Sadly, the folks behind this rink have decided to charge admission. Residents in zip codes 10038 and 10005 get 50% off admission (proof required). We're bummed too!

In NYC, we don't just light up trees and menorahs for the holidays, we illuminate buildings and our brains, too. On Thursday, December 5, the Museum of Mathematics will turn the nearby Flatiron Building into an illuminated demo of the Pythagorean Theorem. Come out and marvel at the math show or volunteer to hold one of the hundreds of glow sticks. Visit the website for more info... or to find out what the Pythagorean Theorem is (no shame in looking it up).

For the first time in more than a century, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are set to coincide. The next time this will happen? Oh, approximately 75,000 years. So you may not get a lot of use out of your Menurkey, a brilliant turkey-menorah hybrid invented by a Manhattan nine-year-old and exclusively sold by the The Jewish Museum, but oy, is it adorable.

Healthy eating in Brooklyn (of course) Looking to buy your food locally and ethically but don't want to commit to a food coop or schlep your produce home from a CSA? Then GoodEggs.com is for you. Launched in San Francisco, Good Eggs is now up and running in Brooklyn, and delivering groceries directly from local farmers and food makers to your door. Jealous Manhattanites? The program hopes to launch in your borough next spring.

School news When NYC first made kindergarten mandatory for 5-year-olds, many parents of children with late-in-the-year birthdays worried about them starting school while still age 4. On October 31, the Department of Education passed an amendment resolving that your local superintendent and principal have the final say about which grade your child should be in. Of course this poses some questions, like when and how petitions for alternate placements should be filed. Best course of action: Talk to the principals of the schools your interested in.

The New York Public Library recently launched a series of new FREE after-school programs at select branches. The offerings include Enrichment Zones for homework help, Literacy Leaders for reading assistance and Innovation Labs for tech-based projects. Get the specifics and find out how to register on the NYPL website.

Odds & ends Tickets for the Family Film Series at Lincoln Center recently went up $1 to seven bucks (still a deal) but you can now buy a discount package of three flicks for $15. That's just $5 a ticket to see new classics like Babe and ET.

If you're pregnant or thinking of having another child, don't miss a FREE screening of The Business of Being Born on Saturday, November 16. The eye-opening documentary about the commerce of childbirth in this country will be followed by a Q&A with a professional doula. Just don't bring the kids!

Cirque du Soleil announced its new spring spectacle at Citi Field this week and it sounds pretty grrrl-reat! Amaluna will be directed by 2013 Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus (Pippin) and feature an overwhelmingly female cast. Seventy percent of the performers will be women! Tickets go on sale this Friday, November 15 at the CIrque du Soleil website.

And looking way ahead (like more than a decade), the city recently revealed renderings of what the East River esplanade will look like. The greenway between 38th to 60th Streets is set to have a bike lane, a pedestrian path, planters and seating, all built 30 feet away from land but able to withstand waves, wind and storms. The project will open in stages and be completed by 2025. We look forward to enjoying this... with our grandkids