Christmas is loaded with expectations, isn't it? Christmas shopping, decorating and entertaining. Typically we knock ourselves out trying to make it the "perfect" Christmas. And year after year we end up with the same empty feeling, like Christmas wasn't as personally fulfilling as we'd hoped. Why is that? Let's look at a few of our expectations. ...

Have you ever sat in a group of people and listened to someone describe a family member whose own agenda takes over from the rest of the family?  We have family members like that.  One family member has driven past our home numerous times a year and stopped in only once in eight years.  (We live five minutes from the freeway.)   We drive 3 ½...

What does the Christmas season promise you this year? We all have an expectation even if we rarely pull it out to look at it. For some it’s the expectation of a credit card bill that takes too long to pay. Others dream of just the perfect gift to buy. Some dread to go shopping. Some delight in family visits that are all too rare. Others...

The holiday season is a popular time for big-budget blockbuster movie releases. Here are the top movies from holiday week 2009: #1)  Avatar ($75 million) #2)  Sherlock Holmes ($65.4 million) #3)  Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($50.2 million) #4)  It's Complicated ($22.1 million) #5)  Up in the Air ($11.8 million) (Source: MTV...

If there’s one question I hear over and over again this time of year it’s this: what do you want for Christmas?  Amid the gift and the wrappings there is something about this time of year that gives us permission to dream, to be extravagant to hope for something more. Christmas is a time for dreaming, for wondering, for optimism.  I know...

I have lived at least three days' drive from my grandparents and most of my extended family my entire life. Though it didn't surprise my mother, I know it was hard for her when I followed in her footsteps and moved across the continent from her and my dad. The independence that motivated her to move from Virginia to Ontario, Canada, sight unseen,...

You could say that I am the complete opposite of the Grinch. I LOVE Christmas! "The whole Christmas season”.   If it were up to me Christmas lights would go up in October, the baking would begin as soon as cooler weather hit and everything would get a coat of glitter.  There is only one thing I do not like about Christmas: the mall. It’s...