The Gift Exchange

Memorial Day this year falls on Monday May 27.  We honor those who have died while serving our country now and in years gone by. We visit gravestones, hold vigils, and eagerly await the homecoming of our friends and family members still overseas. We also celebrate and enjoy this date as the conventional oncoming of [...]

For those of you lucky enough to be born in May, your birth month flower is the lily of the valley. Did you know that lilies of the valley are highly poisonous? Until just now, I didn’t, and I talk about flowers all day every day here! It’s true what they say that you learn [...]

Blog by Kirian McClure While many are worried about holiday preparations and gifts during this time of the year, make sure to also remember those with December birthdays!  The tumultuous frenzy of the month’s festivities means there is a decent chance some of those birthdays could slip through the cracks.  Sometimes there just isn’t enough time [...]

Blog by Linda Wallace Fun Facts about the First Thanksgiving: The Plymouth Pilgrims were the first to celebrate the first Thanksgiving Day at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. It was not a feast, but rather a time when [...]

Blog by Robin Crocker When I think of Thanksgiving I think of pilgrims, cornucopia, and, most importantly, FOOD AND FAMILY! Banquet tables full of yummy food and happy people I love all squeezed together. One of my oldest and best memories is of my grandmother’s country home at Thanksgiving – sweet potatoes, apple crisp, cranberry sauce, [...]

Blog by Linda Wallace Honestly, it seems like summer just suddenly ended here in the Pacific Northwest. Seems like one week we were all out on our patios enjoying the sunshine, and the following week the leaves turned, the rains came, along with the winds, and suddenly it is autumn everywhere you look! We all miss summer [...]

As the 11th of November approaches, the thoughts of most Americans turn toward the three-day weekend and the excitements and stresses of the holiday season to come. We are fortunate to live in such a society, where the worry about armed conflict is completely eclipsed the comforts of pumpkin spice lattes and an anxiety about [...]

I feel very lucky to have a November birthday. It’s perfectly nestled between Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I always have something festive to look forward to during this time of year. But it’s not just those of us who were born this month who are lucky! Our friends are also very fortunate because the November [...]

Blog by Kirian McClure Halloween has come and gone. Despite the cries of candy-induced belly ache’s that may claim otherwise, the season rolls onward.  While Thanksgiving is still several weeks away there remains one important holiday worthy of consideration in between, that being All Saints Day. Originally referred to as “All Hallows Day,” the first of November [...]

Blog by Stacey Keller Growing up, there was one family tradition which meant the world to me: Our annual trip to the Sauvie’s Island Pumpkin Patch. The annual Pumpkin Patch trip was not just a blip on the annual radar, but instead the grand highlight of the autumn. All year long I would look forward to [...]