Yes “Obsessions.” I know most of you were expecting to read “Resolutions for the New Year”, but resolutions are problematic, firstly, because they demand will-power (which dons its illusive gift fleetingly) and secondly, resolution are created of air-born theory, which I have never given much credence to. Think of all those parenting books filled with fictitious scenarios; do they ever prepare you with sleep-deprived real-life decisions you make about sixty times a day? Nope. Nor do the education classes that extol behavior and pedagogy but leave out the on-the-spot responses you make to about a hundred teenagers as they file in and out of your classroom every day. 

There are two types of gift-givers… those who give you what they think you should have and those who seem to know exactly what you would love. Try as I might, I am afraid I fall into the first category, (but am very fortunate to have someone in my life who is in the second). However, this season, I have come up with a few guidelines to help any gift-giver (or me) give a better gift!