Years ago I attended my daughters’ cheerleading competitions.  These contests were amazing for the electricity and energy in the room, but also for how supportive the girls were to those that were essentially their competition.  When a team took the stage, EVERYONE in the room exploded with cheers and applause. As I reflect on this [...]

Say you’re flying an airplane headed from Los Angeles to Boston.  You’ve already mapped the course and filed your flight plans.  You’ve calculated your speed and estimated your time of arrival.  Now, you’re in the cockpit and you’re watching the compass to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.  (You could have set the [...]

I love this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to Christmas.  It comes and goes so fast, so I leave my decorations up until the end of the week, as I try to enjoy just a little more of that wonderful time.   This week is also a [...]

Do you have some family heirlooms that you’re not willing to pass on just yet?  They might be a framed photo, grandma’s teaspoon collection, or grandpa’s war medals.   Most of us have some!  I have little pocket diaries from my Civil War ancestor, Tilton Eastman Smith, old photos, grandma’s china, grandma’s handmade ceramics, a quilt, ancestors’ [...]

Did you come home from Christmas with more family history memorabilia and now wonder what to do with it?  Or maybe you had it all along and still wonder what to do with it? If you walked around my mother’s home, each little shelf or corner is a vignette of things she has collected from [...]

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Now for today:  The presents under the tree have been unwrapped, the goodies devoured, and you’re beginning to think about cleaning up and making some New Year’s Resolutions.   I’m guessing you probably plan to eat healthier, get more exercise, drop a few pounds gained over Christmas, and [...]

… and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Merry Christmas Everyone!

No room for Mary being great with the Christ child to be born in Bethlehem.  That message from the first Christmas resonates for us today and reminds us to make room for others. Here’s an example:  When I was a teenager, my dad had been driving down a street when he spotted a homeless man huddled [...]

… To Grandmother’s house we go.”  This song paints a peaceful sleigh ride picture of the journey home.  It’s not always so, however.  Sometimes it’s a trial just getting home for Christmas! One year I had been living in Utah working on my Master’s Degree at Brigham Young University.  Since Bruce was still working and [...]

Will you be going home for Christmas?  When my dad was a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II, each letter he wrote home repeated the hoped for “Home for Christmas.”  For two years that hope did not materialize.  When the Vietnam War was raging and the draft snagging, Bruce’s number came up [...]