Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t enjoy receiving a gift? I haven’t. Gifts are a delightful part of life. As a gift giver, we try to find that special something that will be fit the bill, based on our knowledge of the person and our intuition about what they might like. Some people are…
T’was the Night Before Christmas by Victoria Freeman Several years ago I conceived of the best possible Christmas gift for myself and my spouse and possibly for other Naikan-savvy grandparents. To use the Mad Men cliché, “it is truly a gift that keeps on giving.” It encourages daily doses of thankfulness AND then becomes the…
Decorating the holiday Christmas tree can be a great family activity. When our daughters were young, we designed an approach to decorating the tree which became one of the most mindful and enjoyable activities of the season. Both our daughters are in their 20’s, but this tradition has served us well for more than fifteen…
When my daughters were younger, they played basketball. One afternoon, the week before Christmas, Linda and I sat for an hour on a hard, plastic bleacher seat in the high school gym and watched their game. The game was competitive, the referees were above average and there was an amazing moment where my younger daughter’s…
White Christmas is a film my family has watched together since our girls were toddlers. With Bing Crosby’s voice, Danny Kaye’s comedy, some wonderful music, and great dance routines, it has become a beloved holiday classic. And much of the story plays out in Vermont! A few years ago we saw White Christmas performed as…
Sensory Salvation by Linda Anderson Krech Gregg and I took our second bike ride of the season together last night. In previous years we would start biking in May or at least June, but this year is not like previous years. On that we can all agree. I am thrilled to be biking…
We can’t be thankful for the empty shelves at the supermarket, but we can be thankful for the food we are able to buy and the farmers, drivers and employees who got it there. We can’t be thankful for the restrictions on our movement, but we can be thankful for those who honor those restrictions…
The beginning of the New Year is seen as a transition for many of us. It’s a time to step back from our life to reconsider where we’ve been and where we want to go. In some respects, it’s really not a very big transition. It’s a much bigger transition to get married/divorced, have a…