Perspective

Here they come, again

Time to prepare for the holidays

DOES IT SEEM THAT WE go straight from Back-to-School season to holiday season as fast as you can say change the shelves in the seasonal isle? One day it’s lunch boxes and markers and the next day, papam, it’s goblins and elves. We now have the ghouls behind us with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays looming large. We’ve made some of our travel plans and going around and around about others. The pandemic seems to weigh less and less in our decision-making and we’re back to worrying about the weather and who we’ll upset if we don’t go here or there.

Maybe a small part of us is even looking back with envy at the simplicity of the holidays during COVID when we hunkered down and didn’t go anywhere—no travel plans to make, no fighting crowds and traffic, no overthe-top gift buying. We just focused on our tight nuclear families.

But that’s a little bit too much bah humbug. Family relationships are strengthened and memories are created when we gather to enjoy our time together and be thankful. Oddly, one of the things that we have renewed appreciation about when we gather is that we can simply gather.

We have a couple of stories about the holidays as we draw closer. In her Family Travel column Katie Harris (very glad to have her back on board) writes about traveling and gathering for the holidays along with a different way to look at gift-giving. While Lynn Nichols dives into creating holiday joy after divorce in her feature story. And check out Lea Hanson’s suggestions in her Favorite Things column for ideas to make your holiday travel more fun and hassle free.

‘Tis the other side of the season

Gathering indoors does have one potential downside and that’s the chance of getting sick. Apparently, colds and flu infections dropped precipitously during our isolation period, but now they are back. Claire Sable does a survey of the most common respiratory ailments—cold, flu and COVID-19—with some suggestions of what to do.

The family that plays together

With fewer daylight hours and cooling temps, we’re definitely getting to that time of year when we look for indoor activities. We all like our game nights and our movie nights, but when we want to go out and have some fun, what do we do? Theresa Baer has a few suggestions along with some resources for tracking them down. Indoor climbing has certainly become a familyfriendly activity. Climbing gyms around the area offer instruction that helps make it a safe and fun way to get some exercise and blow off a little steam on a blustery day. Check out her Family Fun page for some other ideas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With gratitude,

Scott NOVEBER 2022 • Volume 26, Issue 6

PUBLISHER Scott Titterington, (970)221-9210 scott.rmpublishing@gmail.com EDITOR Kristin Titterington, (970)221-9210 kristin.rmpublishing@gmail.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Emily Zaynard emily.rmpublishing@gmail.com ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Greg Hoffman, (970)689-6832 greg.rmpublishing@gmail.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Susan Harting susan.rmpublishing@gmail.com COVER PHOTO Cheri Schonfeld courtesy of Sky's Open Design CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Theresa Baer, Lea Hanson, Katie Harris Lynn U. Nichols, Claire L. Sable

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