Living Life Abundantly

With only 15 days left until Christmas this Ultimate Gift Guide will help you pick the perfect gifts for everyone on your shopping list. As a matter of fact, you will find this list helpful year round for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, special occasions, just because and holidays. The list is divided into the following 5 categories for your convenience:

Gifts For Him
Gifts For Her
Gifts For Kids
Gifts For the Family & Gifts under $25 Read the full story

Most people experience stress during the holidays due to a lack of planning, poor time management, and financial worries. The holiday season does not have to be stressful or expensive. Follow these five strategies to reduce holiday stress:

1. Plan and manage your time.
2. Make preparations early.
3. Think outside the box.
4. Set a budget.
5. Shop Online.

Plan and Manage Your Time:

Time to pull out the calendar and To-Do List. Make note of important dates and times such as picking up grandma from the airport, the company Christmas party, and/or your child’s school holiday program or class potluck. Set aside specific day(s) and times for shopping, cleaning, decorating, gift wrapping, and meal preparation. Add personal time for reading, relaxing, and/or self pampering for each day on your calendar. DO NOT under any circumstances skip personal time. One of the most important aspects of time management is making time for yourself!

Make Preparations Early:

If heavy cooking and entertaining is part of your holiday tradition prepare now. Write out your menu for your holiday feast and all meals proceeding the festivities. Make your grocery shopping list and stock the shelves, refrigerator, and freezer with everything you’ll need. (Blow the dust off your crockpot it will save you time and come in handy in preparing meals before the holiday).

If you have family traveling to spend the holidays with you, prepare the guestroom now. Get your house in order now, do not wait until the day before they arrive. If you start now you’ll discover all the quirks that need to be fixed like the loose doorknob, the protruding spring in the mattress, or cob webs and dust on the lamps (lol). Call in Molly Maids or pull out the duster, broom, mop, and gloves.

Think Outside the Box:

Don’t let money stress you out this holiday season. Gifts from the heart are priceless. Expensive gifts and material things are nice but thats not what gift giving is all about. Your time, energy, resources, knowledge, skills, and/or talents make wonderful gifts. You may not necessarily be able to wrap them in a box with a bow but you can certainly come up with creative innovative ways to present your time, energy, resources, knowledge, skills, and/or talents as gifts.

Set a Budget:

Determine how much you can afford to spend without going into the new year with debt from the holiday. Divide that number by the number of people on your shopping list. This is the amount of money your budget allows per person. As tempting as it may be to over spend or add people to your list that you may have over looked…the best gift you can give to yourself is to resist the urge and stick to your budget and original list. Buy a box of holiday cards and use those for the people that didn’t make the list this year (at least they’ll know you thought of them…its the thought that counts smile).

Shop Online:

Going to the mall and department stores during the holidays is stressful. Fighting traffic, finding a park, wrangling the crowds, and standing in long lines is exhausting. Avoid the hassles! Save time, money, and gas by shopping online. Many websites offer free and/or discounted shipping for the holidays. Now is the time to shop online so that your gifts arrive in time.

Happy Holidays

In times when it seems that the world is going to hell in a gasoline handbasket I still believe in miracles. I’ve been blessed and am blessed daily and have no choice but to believe in miracles. In my 32 years I’ve seen and experienced some things that cannot be explained.

mir·a·cle
An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.

As November becomes December and we get in a frenzy about the holidays its important that we not lose sight as to what the holidays are really about…the holiday season is rooted in MIRACLES.

No matter what you personally believe in, you cannot deny that all of the rituals, observances, and symbols surrounding this time of year are rooted in miracles…The miracle of the fat man in a red suit flying with reindeer sliding down chimneys with gifts, the miracle of enough olive oil for one night lasting 8 nights during the re-dedication of the temple, and the birth of Jesus to a virgin.

While we celebrate all of these things it often seems that many of us are reluctant to really believe in miracles. Yet when we examine our own lives everyone of us can attest to miracles.

Today I’m thinking about a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a friend. We were talking about worrying and how worrying doesn’t help things. I had a similar conversation this afternoon with my big sister. It has taken me many years to understand that worry causes stress and stress manifests mess. I now live free of stress because I KNOW without a doubt that I am blessed.

This same time 7 years ago I was sick riddled with Sarcoidosis barely able to get out bed some days and on an assortment of medications getting shots in my hip! (I HATE needles). Today I’m healthy, I feel great, and I’m not on any medication (Thank God).

I remember standing on the bus stop at 4am to get to the train station to catch another bus to get to work by six. I remember working late (after the bus stopped running) and having to call friends and family for rides home. I remember the days of rain and cars passing by drenching me on the bus stop. I recall days of missing buses and trains by a second. I recall days when buses just passed me by…I remember when my first car a 1983 Buick Regal threw a rod on a bridge in Virginia.

I remember when the transmission in my old Chrysler, Taurus, and Fairmont died. I have the painful memory of losing the Palm My Ride Contest in which I was competing for a new Ford Mustang. I remember the day before Christmas last year when our car was stolen (got it back hours later that same day).

This year, The day after Thanksgiving we were blessed with a new car.

Today I’m driving a 2008 Camry! (God is Good).

I believe with all my heart that my Maker is well aware of my needs and has it all under control (my every need is supplied) no matter how things may look to my natural eye. It’s not our place to worry about anything. A few weeks ago a friend expressed concern about praying and waiting for things to happen, her view is its about taking action. I get that… After all, faith without works is dead…

However, I know the power of prayer and have seen it at work in my life. My prayers are answered. Sometimes I have to wait for the answers to manifest because God works in His time not mine. Miracles and prayer go hand in hand. Miracles and blessings are very real! Prayer is powerful. No matter what the situation, no matter how dismal things may seem, we all have access to divine intervention.

Nothing is impossible to those that believe.