Write down all the nice things your family does this year
Start writing down all the wonderful things your partner does, or your children do. Note all the small acts of kindness that might otherwise later be forgotten. Keep track of them with the objective of writing them letters at the end of next year, detailing all the...
Fortune-telling
My great-grandmother kept a diary. Every year she started a new book. I happened to inherit her diary from the year 1908. One of the very first entries in January, she mentions going to a neighbor to have her fortune told. To be honest, she mentions this half a...
Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913 – history of a poem and a song
(Image credit: Karen Arnold ) On this Christmas Eve, I wanted to share this beautiful poem which has been set to music several times. The version you are probably most familiar with is the arrangement sung by John Denver on The Muppets Christmas album. That version...
Consider setting some of your children’s gifts aside for later
Can a child have too many gifts? Consider saving a couple of the children’s gifts for your emergency gift closet, rather than putting every single thing under the tree. Here is a story of my own, to help illustrate. I have 2 young daughters, a year apart in age. When...