Friday, November 6, 2009

Are You Ready?

Ok, so the Holiday Season is approaching..... You know what that means?


*No sleep
*Endless shopping
*Endless parties, social events, and family gatherings
*Eating and more eating
*High alcohol consumption
*High stress levels
*No exercise
*Every second of each day is filled with chores, errands, cooking, decorating, more shopping, wrapping gifts, school events.... on and on and on

I am worn out just looking at this list!

I encourage you now, to sit down and look ahead at your holiday schedule. Make a plan and follow the plan to help get you thru the mania. Set small goals each day to achieve by making a SMALL list of things to do. A smaller list is much easier to knock out then one large, endless.. hopeless list. Plus you get a real psychological satisfaction that you accomplished that days goal.

Here are some great ideas to get the family & your friends
involved:

*Instead of gift-purchase-giving... get your family involved in making cards to give to everyone. Maybe include a picture of the family as part of the card. There are so many great gift ideas to make on Disney Family Fun! You might just find some hidden creative talent within your gang!

*Gather everyone together and bake up small loaves of homemade breads, or cookies or muffins and wrap them in colorful tissue paper, tie with a colorful ribbon and give as gifts.

*For gifts that you give to local folks, think about throwing a “Potluck Gift” party at your house and have everyone bring their favorite dish... as the gift...... Or ask them to make something they have never tried before and bring it. Or throw a “baking party” at your house for your GFs and enjoy baking up some goodies together. Then you can eat them right out of the oven! These parties are your gifts to all and everyone enjoys all the wonderful variety of foods and goodies!

*Think about giving gifts that are unique, but are recycled. Like giving books from your local gently used bookstores. Purchase cookbooks from decades past, pick a recipe from the cookbook, & make it to give as a gift along with the cookbook.

* Take the family and shop your local garage sales for unusual items that you would not find in catalogues, on line or departments stores.

Just by thinking ahead, making a plan and taking these small steps to do our part in reconnecting with our family; and recycling, reusing and redistributing what is already available, we can cut back on clutter. We can avoid shopping “with the masses” in the big box stores and shopping centers, we can make our dollar stretch even further, we can cut down on the endless time we spend stressing over the holidays and we can create more time to spend with our families, and hopefully we can get more sleep!

Be on the lookout for a future blog on how to get thru this Holiday season without breaking your calorie bank and on how you can control that pudge-factor.


Until Next Time........

GOOD HEALTH TO ALL!!

2 comments:

  1. Those are all great ideas for gifts, and just in time since I'll be doing gift shopping soon! Thanks! I was reading my Vegan LunchBox Cookbook the other day and the author had a great idea for kids...every year she invites all her son's friends over to make vegan gingerbread houses and "gingerbread vegans" (gingerbread men) and tells the kids in lieu of gifts (to exchange) to bring a donation for the local animal shelter! If I had kids I would totally do that.

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  2. you are so right! any donations this time of year are so heart warming. that is why bless the beasts and the children means so much to me. those rescue societies tend to get lost or overshadowed by other groups... and i wanted to draw attention to them. and Scotty's House has had such a rough year... they can use anything :-) i am so happy that you and Sean will be involved in that event!

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