For those who don’t get excited about receiving gifts, giving them can be a chore. Worse yet, gift-giving can become a no-win trap, one in which they are certain to disappoint someone who matters a lot to them. Here are seven ways to have more fun this month if you love giving and receiving gifts but your spouse doesn’t: Create a wish list and make it easy for your mate to find. Find...
Steven Stosny gets it. His take on resolving marriage battles changes everything, whether your marriage is abusive or just stressed out. In Dr. Stosny’s November 30th blog post, he looked at our two options for dealing with this pair of competing thoughts (cognitive dissonance), so common for us married folks: “I am a loving and compassionate person. Yet I am not loving and...
One of my favorite sayings (I think it comes from Alcoholics Anonymous) is this: “An expectation is a premeditated resentment.” December is a big month for mistaken expectations, especially for a new couple or for one whose circumstances have changed this year. Do you want to spend this month angry about the help you expected, the gifts you expected, the attendance at family or social...
My preschooler nephew provided an unexpected reminder on Thanksgiving of how to make love last. After dinner, he helped decorate the Christmas tree, then announced we should all gather around it to sing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” He grabbed me and said, “Aunt Patty, let’s get the books!” I was surprised anyone keeps a set of Christmas carol song books in their...
If you’re engaged and waiting until you can afford a wedding, take this idea to the prettiest church you know. In today’s news, beautiful Espoo Cathedral, in Finland, has scheduled Friday night of the Valentine’s Day weekend as a “wedding night.” They will open the church to perform up to 100 weddings at no charge. Anyone with the Finnish equivalent of our marriage...
