I hear Santa is on the move, so I know kids everywhere (young and old) are getting excited.

Hanukkah is in full swing — I always thought it was cool that there were multiple days of gift-giving for my Jewish friends, but it’s really about more than that.

For Christians celebrating the birth of Our Savior and the hope that gives us not only in our daily lives but for all eternity, Sunday will be a blessed day. My husband believes Joseph deserves far more credit than he gets as “the most understanding man in the world.”

Hope and faith are difficult sometimes. But, really, the hope and faith aren’t so hard. It’s whether we trust that we’re doing the right things and making the right choices in our daily lives. We may pray for guidance, but we’re not certain if we’re interpreting the guidance we believe we’ve received.

The key is to keep on trying. Where there is life, there’s hope. Put your faith there and keep trying.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

As the new year looms, some people like to make New Year’s Resolutions.  These can be good or they can be demoralizing.  Don’t set yourself up for failure by making a grandiose group of resolutions.  Effective resolutions aren’t magical.  They can work for you if you let them.  Sure, look at the grand things you want to accomplish in your life.  That’s important — you want and need goals and dreams.  Keep that big picture out there as a goal.  But lots of little steps will go into achieving your dream.  Many, small, specific steps go into accomplishing your dream.

Walk those steps back from your dream.  You’ll find milestones leading to your dream.  Keep looking for the smaller steps.  Eventually, you’ll have a sizable list of smaller steps to accomplish in achieving your dream.  These can become your “New Year’s Resolutions.”  They may not be very impressive to anyone else, but you know what they will help you achieve.  As you accomplish those smaller steps, you’ll eventually achieve one of your interim goals.  As those interim goals add up, you’ll begin to see your dream as even more achievable.  Yes, you’ll need to re-evaluate and adjust as you go.  It may go faster or slower than you hoped.  Life will sometimes throw spikes in your path, but you’re equipped to adjust.  Yes.  You are.  Trust me on this.  You can do it.  You owe it to yourself, and you deserve it.

Happy New Year!