Tis the Christmas Season: a time for memories that stir our senses: cookies baking in the oven, houses sparkling with Christmas lights, and bells ringing at local grocery stores. It’s also a time to remember how we have been blessed in our chronologically advantaged age.

But sometimes it is hard, particularly at this time of the year when we would give anything to share memories of Christmas pasts with friends and loved ones who are no longer with us. It’s not always easy to stay upbeat and positive, but Shawn Achor, who researches and teaches positive psychology, describes three steps that can help us recognize the positive instead of mindlessly absorbing the negative.

First, for twenty-one days in a row, take two minutes a day and write down three things you are grateful for.

Second, start a journal and each day write about one positive experience you encountered.

Third, do one positive random act of kindness each day – whether it’s complimenting the salesperson during a hectic Christmas shopping day or buying a bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling juice for your local senior center director.

But I would also suggest two more steps.

Fourth, each day give at least one person a big hug – the human touch is an essential nutritional requirement for the spirit.

And last, if there has been something you have been meaning to tell someone, tell them. Don’t wait and regret missing the opportunity.

Whether your glasses are rose-colored, broken, or you can’t find them, during this season of hope, love, and possibilities, consider these five steps to better appreciate all that is good and right – and the bountiful banquet spread before us.

This is a late reminder for those of you who live in Oregon. Before the end of this tax year, you have an opportunity to donate to a qualifying nonprofit and the Oregon Cultural Trust to receive a matching Oregon tax credit. All you do is donate to any of Oregon’s arts, heritage, and humanities nonprofits which includes forty in Hood River, Sherman, and Wasco counties (listed at www.culturaltrust.org). Then make a matching gift to the Cultural Trust to claim your contribution to the Cultural Trust as a tax credit – which means your Cultural Trust donation won’t cost you a thing! The Oregon Cultural Trust supports local communities by funding county Cultural Trust Coalitions that annually distribute grants to area schools and non-profits.

Brain Tease: This one turned my brain into a plate of spaghetti noodles. See how you do. “An old man said to a young man, ‘I have a daughter. She has as many brothers as she has sisters. Each one of her brothers has twice as many sisters as he has brothers. How many sons and daughters do I have?’”

If you couldn’t answer that one, here is one I found much easier. “What occurs once in June, once in July, and twice in August?”

The name of the TV Western that ran from 1965 through 1969 and followed Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon was the Wild Wild West. I received correct answers from Judy Kiser, Liz Nichols, Jess Birge, Dave Lutgens, Paul Nagy, Eva Summers, Rose Schulz, Rhonda Spies, Bruce Johnson, Julie Carter, Nancy Higgins, Mike Nagle, Keith Clymer, and Donna Mollet this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket. And last week I missed Anne Saxby.

You may not have been alive when she was at the top of her popularity, but most of us have seen reruns of her movies when we were children. For this week’s “Remember When” question, what actor was Hollywood’s top box-office attraction from 1935 through 1938 during which time she starred in such hits as The Little Colonel – the first of several musicals featuring dancer Bill Robinson, Curly Top, and Heidi; and was so overwhelmingly popular, a nonalcoholic beverage was named after her? Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-296-4788, or send it with a recording of “On the Good Ship Lollipop”.

Well, it has been another week discovering what you think doesn’t matter often does. Until we meet again, don’t let your angels pass by without saying thank you.

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” Norman Vincent Peale

Nutritious home-delivered and in-person meals are available at noon Monday through Friday unless otherwise noted.

Seniors of Mosier Valley (541-980-1157) – Mondays and Wednesdays; Mt. Hood Townhall (541-308-5997) – Tuesdays; Hood River Valley Adult Center (541-386-2060); Sherman County Senior and Community Center (541-565-3191); The Dalles Meals-on-Wheels (541-298-8333).

For meal sites in Washington, call Klickitat County Senior Services: Goldendale office (509-773-3757) or the White Salmon office (509-493-3068), and in Skamania County call Senior Services (509-427-3990).

Answers: 3 sons and 4 daughters; the letter ‘u’.