Tag: Holidays

Happy Valentine’s Day: Give the Gift of Love and Life!

Happy Valentine's Day to our global community! For more than 1500 years, we've been celebrating Valentine's Day in one way or another. Since the middle ages, it's commonly been a holiday celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. According to History.com, one legend contends that Saint Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform…

Read more

There’s No Place Like Gnome

During the last few weeks as I've been posting photos and sharing stories from our small town, several on-line friends have compared our life here in Bigfork, Montana, to that of a Currier and Ives postcard. Just a few days ago my friend Del Williams told me that I "live in a Hallmark card". She's right. That description fits our little mountain town perfectly. For years, this sleepy little mountain town has been decorated with 2' tall wooden Christmas gnomes scattered throughout the town. My son has wanted one of these gnomes as a holiday present for the past 10…

Read more

All I Want For Christmas…

This week in honor of the Christmas holiday, we asked..... "All I want for Christmas is...... " As I was writing this blog, the song "All I Want For Christmas" came on XM Radio in the background. I had a hard time not writing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", but no one included that in their response. :) Still, the serendipity of this old song coming on just as I was writing this made me smile. Here are the responses we received from a bunch of interactive peeps that we recommend for you to follow.…

Read more

Our Favorite Holiday Memories

This week we asked the question.... What is your favorite holiday memory? Just reading these response made me smile and relive some of the most special moments of the holiday season. I hope they make you smile too. Here are the responses from some amazing peeps.... (that are ALL great peeps to follow!) Aboundlessworld- Seeing my family in Shanghai :) GlobalPilot- Gathering around a piano with my family to sing Christmas carols (when I was a kid). KellyTirman Taking my daughter to see Santa for the first time. ErinBassett Going to look at Christmas lights as a family. stacerz02 Pretending…

Read more

Winter Wonderland

Many of my Twitter friends think that we live in a Hallmark card, as our small town in Montana is a very picturesque place. Today was such a magical day that I decided to share it with you in photos. (And, if you make it to the end of the blog, there's a musical present for you... or you could listen to it while you read through the blog and view the photos.) As is the tradition in our family, Darryl and I reserved this day to find our Christmas tree. We left our home on Flathead Lake and headed…

Read more

Give The Gift of Memories

No matter the person, no matter the occasion, but best present you can ever give to another is a beautiful memory. Whether it's wrapped up as the experience of a walk in the park, baking Christmas cookies together, playing board games as a family, a handmade scarf or snuggling by the fire, the best gift is the present of your presence. In my last blog post we brought you suggestions for free holiday gifts for this season. As you know, the vast majority of the suggestions involved giving of our time. I have received numerous email messages asking me to…

Read more

The Best FREE Gift in the World- YOU!

Each week we ask our on-line family for their input with our question of the week. This week we asked: With the holidays fast approaching and $ being tight, what’s the most meaningful FREE gift you can suggest? Please be creative! As you might expect, the answers were deep, insightful and filled with love. By far, the overwhelming majority of responses recommended spending time and sharing love with others. Many suggested the simple gift of being present for someone you love.  Others offered handmade gifts made with love through writing a letter of appreciation, a poem, a song, sharing recipes…

Read more

100 Tweets of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! This week we asked this question on Twitter: With Thanksgiving fast approaching, what are you most thankful for and how do you celebrate it every day? We received more than 100 responses and the while the answers were not surprising individually, collectively they caused me to think in a deeper way. Over 50% of those who responded were grateful for the people in their lives- the relationships with friends and family. Nearly 20% expressed thanks for being alive and their connection to God/the Universe. Possibility, opportunity and good health were mentioned in 15% of the responses. Many things…

Read more

Montana Community Inspired by Holiday Spirit

I've lived many places in the Unites States and have never felt more at home anywhere than I do right now. In order for any place to feel like home, it must have a sense of community. It's the interaction with other like-minded people that gives life meaning and enriches our everyday experiences. This morning I literally walked into a Currier and Ives picture postcard, in our town of Bigfork, Montana. I was invited to "be an elf" and help decorate the small town we call home. This is our first Christmas to be living here, so this was a…

Read more

Christmas Eve Blessings To You

This is a different kind of blog on this beautiful Christmas Eve, I'm doing something I've never done before- spending Christmas Eve alone. The kids are spending the holiday with the other side of the family, my husband is flying, and the other family that was coming canceled at the last moment for health reasons. And you know what? It's still a beautiful evening. I've had invitations to join friends, but I'm choosing to stay in, hang with Koda, and be reflective of the beauty on the season. Tonight is such a magical night filled with possibility. Not only is…

Read more

Happy Mother’s Day!

I read a blog post today where the host talked about his idea of the best Mother’s Day present- to share a special memory with your mom. That idea made me smile, for when I took the time to think about it, I am so blessed, as there are so many to choose from! Would I talk about how cool it was to swim with the dolphins in Hawaii, or rave about how special it was the year we spent Mother’s Day flying over glaciers, or the day I taught her how to ski- when she was 60, or no,…

Read more