Some of the gifts we receive have a way of dramatically altering our lifestyles. Remember the day a well-meaning friend gave your children that cute little puppy? No household can just accept a new puppy and go on with life as usual. Certain changes are inevitable.

Or to consider even more profound lifestyle changes, think of what happens when a baby is born into a family. Long gone are the nights of eight hours of uninterrupted sleep; soon the refrigerator is filled with jars of strained beets; and you hardly finish congratulating yourself for seeing light at the end of the tunnel of childhood years, when you read a front page article on the astronomical costs of four years of college.

Don’t misunderstand. The gift is precious beyond all measure, but there’s no denying that it’s a gift …