As we enter the busy holiday season with all its dinner parties, social events and family gatherings, we have an opportunity to connect and reconnect with the many people in our lives. The start of December is the perfect time to set an intention for your holiday season, to get clear on what’s most important to you, and make that your priority.

Conversations are meant to be two-sided; however, the listener’s role requires the most awareness and, more often than not, a lot of practice. When it comes to our daily conversations, these are the three most common types of listening and their habitual responses.

Our family still sends out cards every December. In the years since we started this tradition, I've noticed how much this small gesture means to some of our card recipients. It's easy to get busy and caught up in all the things that make up life, but a thoughtful touchpoint really does go a long way.

For me, "less is more" means trading in my worries about how the house is decorated, for the experience of decorating our home with my daughter, even if that means that some ornaments may be sacrificed in the process.

Our daughter is incredibly fortunate that her grandparents are able to spend so much time with her. I never had that with my grandparents, nor did my husband. However, because she’s still so young, I often wonder how much of them she’ll remember when she’s older.

This type of listening is called Empathetic Listening, and it allows us to build trust, resolve conflict, and connect with the person who's speaking. I've always admired the people who can do this. When I think back on my own life, I remember exactly who these people were.

As a young girl, Mother’s Day was only ever about my mom. But, now that I have a family of my own, Mother’s Day has become about all moms. It’s a day to be celebrated and an opportunity to express gratitude to my mom, my mother-in-law, and all mothers.

While there are many reasons we tend to surface-listen, the most common ones are that we’re not very interested in the conversation topic, we’re distracted by other things (our phones, our kids, and even hunger), or we’re short on time.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about values and what we value most in our family. Values are the foundation for what makes us who we are. Every family has them, whether you put emphasis on them or not.

In case you needed one, this is a reminder that we all have the ability to create a legacy, whether through greatness or with kindness, through years of service, or with one profound gesture or idea.