Remember when you were approaching the teen years and had a regular pattern of calling out, “I’m bored!” I do! It’s just something about that age. While we can’t always entertain our kids, we can use helpful tools to fight boredom. I refer to them as “boredom busters.” It’s a tip I give to my friends who are parents of tweens. A “boredom buster plan” for you, your kids, and their friends can help you all survive downtime. Let’s start…
When I was a child, I had a simple wish for a holiday gift exchange. I asked for a calligraphy set so I could begin learning the craft and sharing homemade cards with others. My heart was set on it, and soon, my wish came true as the gift I asked for arrived packaged with a red bow. When it comes to wish list suggestions and gift exchanges, things aren’t always so simple. In fact, sometimes you have multiple events…
As we find our “new normal” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, stories of kindness, generosity and hope are emerging like spring blossoms all around us. Tales of ordinary folks doing the extraordinary sure to brighten our days, warm our hearts and help us focus on the positive. We thrive on the inspirational stories of communities coming together to spread joy, offering all of us a welcome distraction from the reality of these complicated times. And Elfster’s generous gift-giving…
I’m a history fan, and one thing I love is how important the mail order catalog was toward settling the West. Before, if you wanted a shovel and the local store didn’t have one…well, you didn’t get a shovel. You might wait months until the next shipment. In the meantime, you just had to make do with a flat rock or something. With the catalog, everything changed. You could order supplies and the burgeoning logistics network got it to you….
My wife is a great list-maker. I am not. So sometimes, if she’s going to the grocery store, she asks me to write down what I need that week. I haphazardly think of the stuff I might want. Am I making soup? That probably requires vegetables. But without a system, I forget some items. Then I have to text her 30 times as I remember other things. Making a list isn’t about just kind of jotting things down; it’s about…
Have you ever started this conversation with the guy in your life? “What do you want for your birthday?” Of course you have. The answer—for this or any special occasion—is almost inevitably, “I don’t know. Nothing? Yeah, whatever is good. Shoes? I think I need shoes.” It’s… well, maddening for one thing. But for another thing, it’s never accurate. Guys, like everyone else, always want something. It’s just that they: Don’t want to admit they want something. Don’t want to…
When I was a kid, I gave my mom a unicorn wallet for Mother’s Day. She asked me, “Is this a gift for me or for you?” Looking back, the number of unicorns in my collection was in the triple digits, while mom had exactly zero. Fortunately, I’ve come a long way since then. Still, it can be tricky to figure out what to get for a mom who seems to have everything. The best way to ensure you pick…
You know that feeling when you send an email and are gripped with the desire to take it back? I don’t mean when you accidentally hit “reply all” or when you realize you’ve attached the wrong file. I mean, when you have more to say, so you have to send another email. At that point, life becomes a series of revisions and additions. It’s sort of like that with traditional wish lists. No matter what you’re making a wish list…
Recently, my friend, Krista, asked me to throw a baby shower. When I told this to my husband, he smiled delightedly. See, I’ve been to a bunch of them, but I’ve also been to a lot of plays and I can’t act to save my life. So, throwing a baby shower made me kind of nervous. But it was something I wanted to do. Of course, I wanted to get it right. I wanted to be able to contact her…
Shortly before my most recent birthday, my wife asked me what I wanted. I went into my whole normal gruff routine about how “I’m too old for birthdays” and “All I really want is a nice dinner and some quiet time with you”—both of which were true! I didn’t want anything, until she actually asked me to make a list, and I realized there’s so much stuff I want. That’s the thing with birthdays: if you’re like me, you may…
One of the most frequent holiday-time conversations I have with my wife is when we’re out shopping and I see something I like. She tells me, wisely, not to buy it because what if I get it for Christmas? This is, of course, wise and sagacious and just, but it falls apart under the two prongs of my logic: I haven’t put it on any list. I’m absolutely going to forget it by the time I get home. Now, you…
Not too long after we were married, my wife handed me a handwritten note, which I assumed, in my newlywed bliss, would be a poem of sweet nothings. Instead, it was a list of things like, “To-Do List (1),” “Writing List,” “Shopping List,” “List for Store,” “To-Do List (2),” and so on. It was a list of all the lists I had lying around the house. This bit of sweet satire served a good point: I needed to get more…
Nobody is into just one thing. Everyone has a lot of hobbies, passions, and interests. A woman in our building loves our local football team—like, to the point where I’m worried about structural damage. But she’s also a huge outdoors fan and knows more about wild mushrooms than anyone I’ve ever talked to. That’s part of the joy and diversity of life, but it doesn’t always make shopping for someone easy. After all, if they’re putting together a list, it…
If you’re like me, then your excitement about Christmas shopping looks like one of those stock market charts from the 1920s. It starts out going up because you’re excited about getting things for people and embracing the festivities. Then, eventually, it kind of crashes. The stress of trying to get everything done can become overwhelming. You probably don’t want your loved ones to experience that kind of stress when shopping for you, so you’re always looking to simplify your list….
I remember the joy of making a Christmas wish list when I was a kid. I’d think about what books I wanted, what toys I needed (needed!), which video game commercials had spoken directly to my soul. I’d give the list to my parents, who, as far as I knew, personally delivered it to Santa. But after it was signed, sealed, and transported northward, there was always that gut-clenching moment when I realized I forgot something. Or I saw a…