Dear Aunt Sister - January 03

When I wrote for the now defunct Foothill Sentinel, I was the ghost writer for the Dear Aunt Sister advice column. When writing the column, I channel my beloved aunt, born in 1913, known affectionately to her five brothers and all their offspring as "Sister." She handled everything with charm, fantastic wit and always a twinkle in her eye.

Dear Aunt Sister,

Yet another Christmas has come and, once again, I have received another sweater that I will never wear. I haven’t worn sweaters since I was in grade school (many years ago). I would take it back to the store, but I know the person who gave it to me would be offended. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Hot blooded


Dear Hot,

It seems there are a lot of people who buy gifts just to have something, anything to give. They are only giving you something to make themselves feel good. I find such grievous gift giving TACKY, TACKY, TACKY! They obviously didn’t care what you thought or they wouldn’t have been so careless choosing your gift. Why do you care so much about offending them? You should take the gift back. How will the present giver ever know if you don’t tell?

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Dear Aunt Sister,

Every New Years, I make my resolutions and they are all broken by the end of the week! What can I do to make me stick to my resolutions?

Perplexed

Dear Perplexed,

Why don’t you make a resolution to keep your resolutions?

Just kidding, dear.

I find that lists work for me. I will make several lists and post them everywhere: On the bathroom mirror, the fridge, by my favorite chair. By keeping my goals where I can see them in black in white, it reminds me daily to stay focused on them.

If this doesn’t work, maybe you need to ask yourself why the resolutions you are making are not that important to you.