Recycle those Christmas cards: make postcards out of the fronts; use them in arts and crafts projects; make a collage to form a photo-album cover; use clear sides for notes; put them into the recycle bin.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Look at the mess (before and after Christmas)--tossed gift wrap (can’t burn the wrap with wax or metal in it), lots of leftovers (can’t eat it ALL), cards to toss into the garbage (pretty and thoughtful, but…), bubble wrap to get rid of (after the fun of popping all the cells), an empty gas tank (the sales! the sales!), a droopy tree (now a fire-hazard)…. It’s all quite a downer, spoiling the season.
Take heart. There’s help. Read (and follow) the suggestions in the article 10 Ways to Feel Less Guilty About Waste this Christmas.
[Thanks to Lynda DeManti for sending me this.]Have a merry–and guilt-free–Christmas!
Start a new Christmas tradition. Each family member writes down a gift, placing the paper in a special stocking or wrapped box with a slot on top. The gift should be for someone outside your family—a neighbor, another family, acquaintance, person you’ve heard about. And the gift must be of time, not money or goods, a gift of self, not charity. Examples: monthly visits to a nursing home for a year; driving a person to medical appointments until he’s well; helping an adult or child learn English or to read or write; changing the attitude of a prejudiced friend. (I can give you more ideas–let me know.)
Christmas morning, as a family, open and read these “gifts” and agree to help each other follow through on them. This is the kind of gift-giving that is in the true Christmas spirit, ones that make a real difference to the people who receive our gifts as well as to our own hearts.
Have a very merry Christmas!
Over the years, the Christmas carol became famous throughout Europe where it was assumed to be the work of Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven. The controversy was put to rest in 1994 when a lost arrangement of “Stille Nacht” was found and written in Joseph Mohr’s handwriting. On the music sheet, Mohr had given credit to his friend by writing “Melody by Franz Xav. Gruber” in the upper right-hand corner.
From Monthly Wisdom Newsletter, http://aikiway.com/
For only the 4th time in 100 years, Hanukkah (which starts at sunset tomorrow night) and Christmas both land on the same day. It has to do with the fact that the Jewish calendar is lunar and the Christian calendar Gregorian. But who cares why?
Let’s just enjoy the double celebration. After all, there are similarities. It’s the focus and viewpoint: To Jews, Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, celebrating the re-dedication of the new Holy Temple; to Christians Christmas is when Light came into the world in the form of the embodied Holy Temple.
Sounds like a good time for our world to unite and celebrate peace and harmony. And THAT would be a third, marvelous celebration!
Matt Senge,a man in Wilmington, Delaware, wanted to give a special Christmas gift. He booked rooms for two men, a woman, and her three kids at the Hotel du Pont. Then he wrapped the room confirmation in red ribbon and delivered it to the people at their home, under the Amtrack bridge. He wanted these homeless people to have a warm, safe Christmas night.
Enter the Hotel worse-than-Grinch. Management cancelled the ,duPontereservation three hours before check-in when they realized the people were homeless. They were worried that these people would rob and rape other guests!
On the bright side, the Christiana Hilton heard about it and offered ten rooms to the homeless, plus dinner, breakfast, and a hospitality room where they could relax rather than just having to stay in their rooms..
It’s reassuring to know that not everyone in the hospitality industry has closed minds and hearts.
I love it when I receive another payment from a loan I made. My latest is from a family man in Kanese, Uganda. My big loan was $25. It’s to send his kids to school. He works hard at his job, plus farming on the side to add to his income. He dreams of a better future for his kids, and he knows that education, although costly, is their path to that future.
He’s one of a bunch of people I give micro loans to through KIVA. Some are people on the other side of the earth, some are in the good US of A. All are people that KIVA has vetted as having a true need and a determination to repay the loan. My $25 is added to similar loans to get to the needed amount. Over the months, I receive updates on how the person is doing. I get payments, too, until the loan is totally paid off. At that point, I can get my $25 back, or I can invest it in someone else. I’m sure you can guess which choice I always make.
I’ve even given a loan in someone else’s name, as a gift. (Christmas is coming….)
Find out more about this life-changing program by going to http://www.kiva.org.
This is Janakason, at a rare time when he isn’t working.
Today I thought I’d share my Christmas glow with you. My husband and I spent five days in a little place called Nuevo, CA. There’s nothing there to speak of–maybe half a dozen family-owned businesses and an occasional tumble weed-blocked road. The lack of McDonalds, Walmart, and traffic was refreshing, and the view of the rugged-rock mountains from the desert floor was spectacular.
Our hosts, Trino and Maria–our son’s future in-laws–recently moved onto five acres of quiet beauty. Slowly they’re turning the land into a ranch, planning to build a barn for their three horses and add chickens and ducks and they’re-not-sure-what-else. Their home is a barn-shaped house filled with warmth and love.
Christmas Eve and Day the house and yard were overflowing with family of all ages. Food was plentiful and constant, all homemade, from traditional tamales to the Navajo daughter-in-law’s Navajo fry bread. (I’ve decided that Mexican moms and Jewish moms have one big thing in common: their unending cry of “Eat, eat, eat!”)
Gifts were thoughtful. For example, one of their sons who is a Marine (four active-duty tours in recent years) exchanged stories with my ex-submarine-sailor (two tours, including Nam) husband, then gifted him with the ribbons my husband had earned but lost over the years, plus a Navy watch. The talented fry-bread cook gave me–someone she’d never met–a stunning necklace, crafted in the Navajo style, which took her two days to make.
Needless to say, the two sets of people bonded into one family. Our son had already been totally accepted long before; now we’re part of a larger family, too. This was a most excellent Christmas gift for me. I hope yours was just as joyful.
It’s family time! My husband and I are flying to Southern California this afternoon to meet our son’s girlfriend of 3+ years and spend Christmas with them. (She’s pretty brave, letting the two moms get together and possibly plot strategy toward a wedding.) That means that I won’t be posting again until Monday, Dec. 29.
Meanwhile, I want to wish my Christian readers a very blessed Christmas; and, for all of you who celebrate it not as a religious day but as family time, a very merry holiday.
(If you’re bored and have nothing else to do over the next 5 days, you can always browse through my old blogs. Nawwwww…..)
To all my Christian friends and readers, and to all of you who don’t share the meaning of the day but DO believe in its spirit of love and hope for the wold:
HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS!
