Does your Christmas spirit get lost in the frenzy this time of year? Is your household so hectic during December that it could drive even Bob Cratchit to tear out his hair? Well, you might as well face the fact that not even the Grinch can stop Christmas from coming; so we must learn strategies for surviving the holidays with our sanity (and our...

As a nutritionist, I surprise people with my motto: if you're going to indulge, then do it right (have the full-fat version) and really enjoy it! I believe healthy eating includes food high in cream, butter, sugar or salt....just not every day and not every meal. It gets a little trickier during the holiday season with parties, potlucks and bakeoffs...

What does the Bible teach about aging parents? My father is 82, and my mother 78. Their health is starting to decline. The problem is that they do not want to have home health care, or anyone in the house as far as that goes. They want no mention of an assisted living arrangement, and they do not want to come and live with me and my spouse. I have...

Messages in bottles have been the stuff of folklore for centuries. Dying, desperate sailors have hurled them. Curious children have launched them. Nicholas Sparks wrote a novel based on them, but don’t read it—or watch the movie—unless you already have a prescription for antidepressants. The story I find most interesting about such bottles,...

I never did believe in Santa Claus. My parents rejected the materialism that is so often peddled in the name of Christmas and kept the holiday pretty low key. I've always been grateful for this lesson, and rather cynical about those wild eyed Christmas fanatics running amok in the malls. Since the thought of receiving gifts from a fat, bearded...

Robyn was angry and confused. She had just discovered that her much beloved roly-poly red robed Santa Claus was a marketing ploy invented in the early 20th century by Coca Cola to encourage consumerism. She was angry because she had been duped by the commercialization of what should be the most meaningful season of the year. She was also confused...

Over the next 20 years, an unprecedented number of Canadians will reach retirement age. In fact, by 2020, it is estimated that over 20% of the Canadian population will be 65 or older, and more than 425,000 people will be retiring annually.  Are you among them? Is the finish line of the rat race looming in the not-too distant horizon? If so, we have...