Living in rural and small-town America is not a challenge, or a burden. I love living in a small town, having the ability to know my neighbors, and a genuine feeling of connectedness to the land and natural world. I can look out of my window at our garden, our flowers, the birds (and squirrels) at our birdfeeder. If that isn’t enough, in two minutes I can be in the countryside.

Sadly, for many of us the Holiday season is rife with shopping, travel, crowded airports or highways, and out here on the Great Plains enough cold, wind, snow and ice to make traveling that much more difficult. For many rural and small town Americans, the stress of travel and shopping, which probably involves more travel, is amplified by harsh weather and poor road conditions.

All of that tends to erode the best aspects of the Holiday season, namely, spending time with and forging stronger relationships with family, and, of course, creating memories of those special times we get to spend with the ones that we love most.