Do you know your neighbors?  It could be a lost art.  Between social media, television, internet and so on...I think people don't get out to know their neighbors.  This a picture of my wife going to deliver Christmas cookies to our neighbors.

Yes, we know them.  The guy across the street is a dentist, up the street from him, they just had a baby, the couple behind us in the alley have been there for a couple of years and my neighbor on the the other side of our house works early at the refinery.  We even have their names and phone numbers in the kitchen inside a cabinet door.

The nice thing about knowing your neighbors is that you look out for each other.  The dentist was gone for 10 days and asked if we could just keep an eye on his house.  I am sure he probably has a complicated internet door ringer camera and sensors throughout his house, but there is something about trusting a neighbor to keep an eye on things.

When you mow in the summer or shovel in the winter, you can wave at someone you actually know.  It's not a smothering thing.  It's more a comfort that you know who lives next to and around you.  Maybe this new year you can get to know your neighbors.