Christie worked long and hard last year to get everyone just the right Christmas present. There was months of research involved and a lot of thought was given as to who the person was, what they might enjoy, what things were available in their area, what family members could do together, lots of thought.

The idea was this, don’t just run to the store and give a present, give an experience, a day of fun, a memory.

We draw names for Christmas in our family, so we give gifts one on one. The

The most amazing things happen in life, the sun always rises, your terrible cold goes away, spring arrives all of a sudden, trees bud out over night, you marry your best friend and you live with him for 30 years and are happy! But the most amazing thing is waking up one day to find your children are or are becoming adults.

There are obvious signs for some kids, marriage, having kids of their own, jobs, bills, owning health insurance. But I have to admit that when you have a child that doesnt

I turned 50 this month. I take a deep breath just writing that down. This is the first birthday that has ever bothered me. It’s not that I feel old, although there are days, it’s that I feel mortal, I feel that I have less time left than I have behind me. Morbid? Yes, but true. I haven’t dwelt on it a lot but it’s there, that feeling of mortality creeping up on me. I have so much I want to do, so many memories to build, so many things I don’t want to miss out on. So I took a big deep breath and

I’ve heard it said a million times: If I knew how much fun it was to be a grandparent I would have done that first!

I have loved my kids with a fierce passion. It has been my every thought and life's work to help them grow into the wonderful, caring, responsible people they are, so I always took umbrage with the grandparenting thing being a better thing. I am now the grandmother of 4 little girls……..now I get it.

Being a grandma or nana as I’m currently called is so fabulous! Yes I love them, I

As a teacher, I “get the summer off” each year. Technically, I get fired in June and rehired in August…but no one really wants to think of it that way…they prefer to think that teachers have the best/cushiest jobs around. And, really, we do. If it weren’t for the parents and the kids, my job would be perfect. But today I’m not talking about my job. It is, after all, “summer vacation,” the reason that all teachers become teachers: June, July, and August. We look forward to it all year. We plot

When Aaron and Shay got married a few years ago they had a nice fairly formal reception in Salt Lake City. Shay and her family live near there and it was very very nice. She did all the things that brides do, cake and food testing and dress buying and checking out venues. It all turned out really nice. The 2nd reception here or as we called it the open house was much less formal. My son is a cowboy, he loves all things cowboy, he trains horses and loves all things horses. So since they had