Three Resolutions for 2009

The last day of 2008 -- are you making New Year's resolutions?
Here are three resolutions you might want to consider:
* Resolve to stay in touch. Use snail mail for letters and post-cards, e-mail, Skype phone calls, a family blog -- just promise yourself you'll contact your children and grandchildren regularly to show your interest in them and express your love for them.
* Resolve to give them the gift of your own self. Share your family stories with them. Copy and pass on those family photographs tucked away in an album or drawer. Get those old family films transferred to a DVD and give a copy to your family. Be sure to add an explanation of what the stories and photographs are about and why they matter to you.
* Resolve to grow in understanding of how your children and grandchildren perceive the world. Listen as much as you talk. Learn more about how things are changing. Stay in touch with what's happening, and ask them about it.
Resolve to keep growing!

Making a List, Checking it Twice . . .

What's on your Christmas list this year? Have you thought yet about what you really want?
Making a List on the Hearts at Home website has some suggestions for things you might want to consider!

Crazy at Christmas?

Has Christmas frenzy hit your family?
As a grandma, I remember all too well what it was like to have a houseful of excited children during the Christmas season -- they would get more and more wound up as my husband and I would get more and more tired.
Now I watch as those very children parent their own children, and wrestle with the same excitement and fatigue.
In Taming the Christmas Crazies on the Hearts at Home website, I've offered practical ideas for making the Christmas season a little more sane for everyone. Hope you'll check it out and find some new ways to enjoy the celebration!