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How to Have Stress Free Holidays |
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Articles, How-To's and Interviews -
Spirit and Spa
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Written by Ana Tampanna
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Do you wear yourself out trying to please everyone for holidays -
purchasing gifts, decorating, entertaining, cleaning, cooking, then
cooking some more? Here are my tried and true approaches for a
life-changing, no stress holiday season:
Volunteer: Sign up to serve Thanksgiving dinner at the local soup kitchen. You will have a profound experience, I promise.
Become a bigger family: Announce at your church or
school that you are organizing a potluck Thanksgiving for singles and
for families who would like to be part of a bigger group i.e. anyone
who wants someone to eat with on Thanksgiving. Encourage people to
bring their favorite holiday dish.
You would be amazed at the people who come - divorced parents whose
children are visiting "the other parent", single adults, single parent
families, and people who can't face the stress of preparing and
cleaning up a huge dinner by themselves.
Take a trip: Take a trip at Christmas. Take your
family or a special friend and go somewhere you've never been. Explore.
Christmas decorations are everywhere - religious services abound.
Resorts often have lots of empty condos at Christmas. (It's the week
after Christmas that is in big demand.)
Select an area restaurant for a deluxe Christmas Eve dinner remembering that nothing is open on Christmas Day.
Enjoy games, books, and puzzles together.
For children, emphasize the search: Give less expensive gifts and hide them. Leave rhyming clues to maximize the fun.
Entertain foreign guests: Call the local colleges and
universities and request foreign students as guests for the holiday.
They are such fun and bring fascinating stories about their lives at
home and at the school. Sometimes they even contribute a treat from
their homeland!
Remember those who work on holidays: Take some cut up
veggies and a dip to an office where people work throughout the holiday
- such as a fire station, a police station, or a nurses station at the
hospital. Usually sweets abound, but nutritious nibbles make for a
thoughtful gift.
Wrap little novelties for a nursing home of Alzheimers patients. Sit and visit a while with patients who can still connect. Women love used costume jewelry.
Propose a special family project such as helping the Battered Women's Shelter. You can collect toiletry donations from big hotels or hold a clothing drive.
Honor a favorite relative by giving a goat to a family in Uganda in his or her name. Go to http://catalog.heifer.org.
These are a few ideas to get you going. The hardest part is choosing to
do something different. Focus on enjoying your family rather than
pleasing them. Simplify your preparation, and give love at a time that
carries loneliness and heartbreak for so many. Instead of stress, you
will find yourself full of gratitude.
Article reprinted with permission.
Author, coach, and speaker Ana Tampanna
has wrestled "Alligators" maintaining a career while managing family
challenges... including a tragedy. She uses humor as a survival tool,
and has a passionate mission for supporting magnificent women who want
to make a difference with their lives. You can find out more about Ana
at www.alligatorqueen.com
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