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Emerson Publications
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The Family First
Newsletter In this issue: A Letter from Santa - Using Traditions to Strengthen Family Values Holiday Parties – Ten Keys to Success The Art of Regifting Creating Christmas Gift Baskets
Good morning! This year I've gathered Christmas traditions from the women at church so that I could put them all together in a book for them. I've really enjoyed reading all of their traditions and getting to know them a little better. I think traditions, no matter how insignificant they may seem to you, are important. One woman told me they didn't really have a tradition, but after visiting for awhile, she remembered that every year they dress the kids in their pajamas and then drive them through a neighborhood that is known for their Christmas decorations. You can spend an entire night driving up and down and around this neighborhood! It may be simple to her, but I'm sure it's something her children will always remember.
My sister and I started the tradition of cooking tacos for Christmas Eve dinner. I think it started with both of us wanting something with flavor the day before the turkey and subsequent leftovers! Even though we haven't lived in the same state for 13 years, each of us continues the tradition in our own homes, and whenever we do get together, we enjoy sharing tacos again.
So what is your Christmas tradition?
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Come back through time with me, will you?
Remember when you were of a certain age...I'll call it the Santa age. You were a believer.
Life was very sweet at this time of year. There were all kinds of things you didn't understand, but that didn't matter. What you did understand you simply savored.
- Mom and Dad loved you and being with them was the most wonderful thing you could imagine. - Santa Claus was someone kind and generous who simply gave and gave and he had something special for YOU! - The holidays were magical and this time of year made you feel good all the way down to your toes.
If you have these or similar childhood memories, you are very blessed indeed. You probably had parents who understood the importance of traditions.
Let's fast-forward a bit.
You're all grown up, aren't you? Perhaps you have children of your own.
You want them to feel wonderful about being a part of your family, just like you did all those years ago.
One of the tremendous parts of being a parent is realizing you have the ability to impart magic and wonder and belief in the life of your child. Through traditions, you can teach your children about family values like joy and generosity and the spirit of giving.
Our shared cultural traditions have the ability to be more than mere stories. As parents, we have the power to use these cultural traditions to strengthen our own family traditions. We can weave them together to give richer meaning to what we believe.
For example...
- sharing a meal with family members at Christmastime powerfully says that you value this group of people you share a history with. After all, you could spend time with anyone. You choose family.
- In our home, we use the Santa tradition to enhance our faith. We teach that Santa gives freely in order to honor the gift of baby Jesus, the greatest gift of all. So a letter from Santa that includes his admonition to remember the 'true meaning of Christmas' reinforces our family values. If you're looking for a Santa letter that can work like this in your family, try this one: http://www.paintedgold.com/Seasonal/santa-letter.html.
- The joy of making one's holiday wish list is strengthened by making an equivalent list of gifts and acts of love that one can give to others. A child can receive a tremendous amount of joy from the act of giving and as parents we must give them this opportunity regularly.
- The tradition of Hanukkah is about dedication and miracles; important and profound lessons for any family.
- To be clearly understood, take the time to talk with your child about your traditions and why you use them. Relate them to your own family values ("We believe it's important to take care of one another every day, so helping your sister set our holiday table is one way the two of you can take care of each other and show your care for our family."). For interesting details concerning family traditions, read this article from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_traditions.
When you decide upon what values you want to impart to your children and then intentionally use traditions to teach them, you are doing a powerful thing. These influences will stay with your child the rest of his life, helping him to mold his character and shape how he interacts with others in this world. It doesn't matter whether you bake cookies, use a Santa letter, decorate a tree, light candles, hide gifts, or develop your own original traditions. The important thing is to do it.
Bless your family with an abundance of traditions. Incorporate the secular with the spiritual to give new meaning to both. Don't squander this deep gift in your life. Use it wisely and carefully. Embrace it to enhance your own life and the lives you share with others.
As you do, you will find new meaning and enjoyment in the celebration of your own holiday season. Colleen Langenfeld uses her 25 years of parenting experience to help other moms use fun tools like original party themes or making the family dinner hour work again. Visit her at http://www.paintedgold.com and tell her what you enjoy about your family's traditions.
Colleen Langenfeld may be contacted at http://www.paintedgold.com or mailbox@paintedgold.com
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Holiday Parties – Ten Keys to Success Want to give the most memorable holiday party of the season? Entertaining at this time of year requires attention to some issues that don’t come up at other times of the year. These ten keys show you how. 1. Plan ahead and be organized. This is the number one key for success with any party. Make a written plan for everything that needs to be done for your party and assign each task to a day. Then make sure you do it on that day. 2. Allow plenty of time. Everything takes longer because of the holidays. There is more traffic. There are more people in the stores and more inexperienced sales associates to help them. You need to stand in line everywhere. Allowing extra time for tasks like shopping will keep you serene. 3. Do your shopping as early in the day as possible. You can cut your shopping time by 50% if you avoid the crowds. 4. Prepare everything as far ahead of time as possible so you aren’t cooking at midnight the night before your party because you miscalculated the time. Set your table one to three days before the party. Allow yourself that extra bit of time so you can enjoy the process instead of racing the clock at the last minute. 5. If you are short on time, use pre-made ingredients when you can. Many supermarkets these days have grilled tri-tip or barbecued ribs in their delis, which can be turned into great appetizers. 6. Plan for the day before the party, and use shortcuts where you can. Party preparations always take longer than anticipated, and the last thing you want to have to think about on the day before the party is preparing additional meals. Include some pre-made dinner items for that day on your shopping list and save yourself from additional stress. 7. Stay healthy. Yes, this is much easier said than done, but advance planning is the key. Keeping a supply of non-perishable healthy foods, such as vegetable soup and healthy TV dinners on hand will mean that you can always have something healthy to eat at a moment’s notice. Apples and tangerines are also great to have on hand because they last a long time in the fridge. Keep a bag of raw almonds or hazelnuts in both your car and your purse to munch on as you shop. Grab a bottle of water out of the fridge whenever you leave the house and you’re set. This way, you won’t find yourself downing a candy bar instead of a meal because you are faint from hunger and don’t have time to eat. 8. Do what you can and let go of the rest. Plan, organize, use time-saving ideas, do whatever you can to make your party a success. But when you run out of time, energy, or both, stop. Agree with yourself that you have done enough and let go of everything else. No one but you will even know. 9. Make sure your guests are available to attend your party by entertaining at off-peak times. People have lots of invitations at this time of year, and chances are, if you plan a party for a Friday or Saturday night, some of your guests will have prior commitments. Sunday evenings are a great time to entertain. You avoid conflicts with most of the other parties that way, and you give yourself the weekend to prepare. 10. Do something different that the usual holiday cocktail party or open house and your guests will think you are a spectacular host. Many holiday parties seem to follow the same pattern. Think about what your guests might need during this time, and provide it. An After-Shopping Buffet on a Sunday evening gives you a chance to give your guests something unique. They will probably have been shopping for hours, coping with crowds, lines and noise. They will be tired and hungry and probably have nothing prepared at home to eat. Their choices are to stop for fast food on the way home or to go to your house for a relaxing and satisfying meal, great company, and a personalized gingerbread person to take home. Which will they choose? Yours, of course. It’s a no-brainer. Charlotte Rose is a passionate cook and creative party-giver. For distinctive entertaining ideas, visit her website at http://www.CharlotteRoseCooks.com. Charlotte Rose may be contacted at http://www.CharlotteRoseCooks.com or lynn@charlotterosecooks.com
The Art of Regifting By: Joyce Moseley Pierce "We spend the first part of our human experience avidly accumulating things and the other half wondering what in the world we're going to do with all the stuff." Margret E. Keats I've never really thought of myself as a person who cares about material things, but after years of marriage and raising three children, I had accumulated more than I needed. I made the kids take what was theirs as they left home and began building their own nests, but there was still too much. I started to think about what my kids would do with all of it when I'm dead and gone, and decided most of it would probably be dumped or sold in a garage sale. I decided maybe I should start getting rid of it before they did! About that time I discovered a wonderful little book, "How to Simplify Your Life," by Elaine St.James. I asked for the book as a Christmas gift, and it has been well worth what my daughter spent on it (I believe it was only about $10 at the time). I've read it on many different occasions. It's great for just flipping through and reading whatever catches your interest that day. One of my favorite sections in the book is about getting rid of things you no longer need. She suggests setting up a closet or at least a shelf for those items. I'm not talking about worn out junk, but items which are in good shape that may be a treasure to someone else! She calls them "mathoms." My grandson calls the process of giving away your stuff, "regifting." It works for me, no matter what you call it. For instance, I had a beautiful bottle that my daughter had filled with oil and flowers at one time. It was dark pink with a wide square base that became more slender toward the top. Years later, the color in the flowers had all run into the oil and it looked like a bottle of sludge! I popped the cork, dumped the stuff out of the inside, and put the bottle in the dishwasher. The next day a friend came over and saw it sitting on my counter. "Oh, what a beautiful bottle," she said. "Like it? It's yours!" I said. I handed it to her before she had the chance to say no. She was thrilled to latch on to it because she said her mother collected pink glassware. Who would have ever known! My castaway was passed on to her before it ever made it to my regifting shelf. She immediately gave it to her mother, who was just thrilled to add it to her collection. Nice thing is, that once it's out of my house, I don't care how many times it is regifted. Here's how you can get started. Go through your house looking carefully at everything. As you pick up each item, ask yourself if you really need it. In my case, I ask if it serves a purpose. If it doesn't, throw it in a box and haul it off to your new shelf. Mine is in an upstairs linen closet that is seldom used. When I need a quick gift for someone, I browse the shelf and find something that's appropriate for that person. A few years ago I bought one of those stand-up wall units that
holds about eighteen 8x10" photos. As I went through the house looking for
photos, I ended up with eighteen empty picture frames.
They are just perfect for regifting, especially if I fill it with a photo I've
taken of that friend, or of the two of us. I can write my sentiments on the
back, wrap it in a nice box or bag, and have a very personal gift that
will always remind her of our friendship. Copyright 2002 Joyce Moseley Pierce Joyce is a freelance writer and owner of Emerson Publications. Her latest release is “24 Days of Christmas,” to help families center on the birth of Christ during the holiday season. She is also the creator of “All They’ll Need to Know,” a book that will be invaluable to your loved ones when you can’t be there to guide them. Visit www.emersonpublications.com for lots of good family-friendly information.
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Creating Christmas Gift Baskets
If you’ve ever ordered gift baskets online you’ve probably noticed that those that are well thought out and presented are very often quite expensive. With that in mind, have you ever considered creating your own Christmas gift baskets? You can make them quite easily by selecting a theme and buying gifts and products to compliment that them. Baskets can be found quite inexpensively at local craft stores or can be purchased in bulk online. Another thing you can do is recycle your own baskets. You can spray paint them to cover up any potential flaws and add decorative wrapping, ribbons, bows, and/or tinsel in order to complete the look.
Perhaps the easiest Christmas baskets to assemble revolve around food. You can check out gourmet food sites online for ideas and inspiration revolving around the idea of elegant gourmet gift baskets for Christmas. Some great things to include in your gourmet gift basket include: gourmet cheeses, crackers, and/or wine; gourmet coffees with mugs and perhaps coffee stirrers; a pasta basket with flavored olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, or special blends of Italian seasonings—the possibilities are limitless.
Christmas baskets that include bath, body, and or beauty products are also a great gift idea. You can really have fun with these baskets by creating a theme. If you’re going for a Hawaiian theme you could include pineapple soap, a loofah, orchid body spray, and perhaps coconut shampoo. You could elect a spa theme and include bath bombs, salts, scrubs, and a nice back brush. You could also create a cosmetic basket with ingredients such as nail polishes, lips sticks, brushes, and other essential beauty accoutrement.
If you’re really creative you can create gift baskets around the hobbies of those on your list. For the movie buff you can create a gift basket with DVDs, popcorn, and other essential movie snacks. For the Horse lover, you could include a DVD or book about horses, a horseshoe key chain, or mug or calendar that features horses. For the ice skater on your Christmas list you could include extra laces, pretty gloves to wear while skating, and some nice warm cocoas or ciders to warm them up after their time on the ice. If you are going to be attending Christmas dinner be sure to bring the hostess a basket of goodies to share and perhaps a nice bottle of wine to have with dinner.
Rob Buenaventura is a successful webmaster and publisher of GetChristmasShopping. He provides tips on unique Christmas gift ideas, xmas decorations, and other Christmas ideas. For more tips on Christmas Gifts, check out http://www.getchristmasshopping.com
Rob Buenaventura has written many articles related to home improvement and family issues.Rob Buenaventura may be contacted at http://www.hardwoodscene.com
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