Christmas -- How To Create A Fun & Cherished Christmas!

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A great way to ensure your Christmas will be remembered with warm and cherished memories is to incorporate some rituals. Adding rituals to the festivities will create fun and magic moments that will not only live in your families memories forever but will be excitedly looked forward to each year. Rituals will bring your family closer together creating joy and happiness for all!

Here is a fun ritual you could incorporate into this coming Christmas. Add some Christmas bells to the dinner table and ring them just before the festive meal is ready, calling all to attend the dinner table. Long before Christmas in the old days, bells were once rung with the assumption that the noise would chase away evil spirits. Santa Claus has jingling bells that he uses accompanying his sleigh ride around the world each year. His bells are symbols; they are jingled to remind us of the birth of new beginnings and the death of ignorance (once referred to as the devil).

Ringing bells before the meal is eaten is a wonderful reminder to push away judgments, speak no ills, and come together with a sense of joy, positivity and acceptance for one another. Make the festive meal a time where you all come together and share a positively good time. A time where only supportive words are spoken, encouragement and acknowledgement of each other is heard. Ringing the bells will remind all to keep positive, bright and joyous!

So have some fun, get yourself some jingling Christmas bells and chase away any menacing spirits or thoughts before the festive meal. You can be creative with your jingling and get your children to enjoy a brisk stroll through the house or around the dinner table as they jingle the bells joyously to ensure no menacing mischief makers will be heard on the day! The children will love this fun activity and all will enjoy the friendly reminder of the bells if anyone starts to slip up on their good attitude throughout the day!

Another ritual you could incorporate is the 'Mistletoe Game'. This is a very old Christmas game where it was once common place to have suspended Mistletoe hung in the main room. For this game everyone would assemble in a circle around the Mistletoe. The first player (a male) has to slide a slipper and aim so it will land under the Mistletoe. If he fails another takes their turn. If he succeeds, even more fun begins as there is a scramble in the direction of the lady towards which the slipper points. She must seize the slipper and get away before being caught!

Rituals offer the opportunity for family and friends to interact in a joyous and fun manner. So why not add a few rituals to your festive day to add some fun and create great memories of a truly joyous and happy day.

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How to Choose the Best Chocolate Egg For Easter

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Easter means different things to different people. But there is no doubt that for many of us, it is the sight of chocolate eggs that really gets our attention!

But how do you know which one to buy? After all, there are so many different ones to choose from that it can be rather overwhelming to figure out which Easter egg to go for. The best way to make sure you get it just right is to start with who you are buying the egg for. Is it for a young child, or an adult? Is it merely a token present or will it be something special?

If you are buying a chocolate egg for a child, you will probably want to focus your attention on smaller eggs. Some are designed specifically for children and they may have other benefits to them as well. For example, some might have a game or mask - to colour in or cut out - from the back of the box.

You can often purchase children's eggs that come with other items too, such as a mug, for example. These are good because they mean the child will get to keep something long after the chocolate has been eaten - just make sure the age of the child is well matched to what you are buying.

But supposing you are buying an egg for an adult? There is a much wider selection available for adults, and some of them are based around chocolate bars that you will no doubt already be familiar with. What you could do is find out what bar the recipient likes the most, and then buy a chocolate egg which comes complete with those bars.

But of course, the most important purchase will be for your partner. This is when it is worth spending that little bit more money - some eggs might be handmade or hand finished, while others are extremely large and could last through to the summer!

Always make sure you know what your partner will appreciate though. For example, if they are passionate about a particular type of chocolate, the largest available egg in that style will be very well received. If you are stuck for ideas you could always start dropping hints ahead of time. You could also take your partner shopping and see whether they spot any eggs they particularly like the look of.

If you're really stuck then the best course of action might be to buy a range of smaller Easter eggs and wrap them all up together in a large gift basket. Either way, you will not be short of options when selecting the perfect Easter egg - if anything, you are spoilt for choice!

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Christmas Shopping - Beat the Rush & Enjoy the Holiday Season

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"Kick off November in grand style!" That's the advice from my writer friend Marcia McClure of Monument, Colorado. With each newsletter I receive from Marcia, I realize why she's such a hot topic in "Romance Writing". She's so attentive to the details of life. Her energy is contagious! But what does that have to do with Christmas Shopping?

While the rest of the world is still struggling to get their plans in order for Thanksgiving, you could be organizing Christmas for a more relaxed and enjoyable holiday season. Here are some suggestions of things you could do early to be ready for the holiday season.

· Wrap and package all gifts you'll mail before Christmas.
· Bake some extra "stuff" to freeze for gifts later.
· Start now to make some of those delightful hand made wonders, your family and friends all enjoy.
· Clean the house and prepare for Christmas decorating.
· Consider painting any rooms that need freshening up before Thanksgiving.
· Get all your snow removal and fun equipment ready NOW.
· Do the winter chores early.
· Send out the linens for professional cleaning.
· Rearrange your china cabinet to make Christmas serving dishes readily available.
· Wrap all the gifts you've shopped for and label them for under the tree.
· Collect wrapping paper and ribbon accessories in preparation of a marathon wrapping spree.
· Order greenery early (Boy Scouts are sending out orders now for December delivery).
· Order in books, games, movies, and entertainment for the season now, so it will be waiting for you during the holidays, when you're ready to enjoy.

These are just some of the early things you can do to speed up your decorating efforts through the season. Make time for more fun by getting the work done early.

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The Grove Park Inn Getaway

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Tucked away in the Mountains of Asheville, NC you'll find an exclusive resort known as The Grove Park Inn. Get your spa experience like no other in the underwater cavern surrounded by lush nature and hear the relaxing, cool sounds of running water while taking a dip in the mineral pools with soothing music. An outdoor massage and outdoor pool surrounded by rolling green hills golf course landscape and fragrant flowers blooming during the spring and summer season are the norm for a typical stay at the inn. Whether you choose from the Mother-to-be wrap to the Waterfall Body Experience you'll be sure to get the Grove Park body treatment you deserve!

Upon arrival during the Easter holiday, be prepared to be greeted by bellman in derby hats and full English attire as you drive down the cobble stone driveway to enter the grand lobby known as the Great Hall where the chef will prepare a delightful dish that you can sample or you can get your personal massage. The large lodge-style doors also opened up to the Sunset Terrace for outdoor dining or relaxing and enjoying the view! In the evening you can look forward to enjoying the music of a live Jazz band and a refreshing drink from the Great Hall bar. Cruise the storefront shops for those unique gifts or souvenirs to fill your home with gourmet delights, niche clothing or Christmas trinkets.

There is truly something for everyone to enjoy at the Grove Park Inn. Children can also enjoy the fun with a schedule of exciting and creative kid-friendly activities such as an Easter egg hunt throughout the inn, Easter hat decorating, scavenger hunt, bird-house contest and face painting.

The biggest surprises we found were the gigantic 50,000 square foot Sports Complex that offers tennis, racquet ball, a gym to work-out and recreation for children such as ping-pong all in one facility. We were also greeted at the front of the sports complex by the large wild turkey walking the land as though they were welcoming you to their home. The Grove Park Inn also provides a complimentary in-room video viewing of Easter traditions around the world that is a very entertaining and educational for all ages to enjoy!

You can look for the best deals around the holidays to save up to 50% off on your overnight stay. The best price we found during the Easter holiday was $250 a night with a free dinner choice of Prime Rib or Seafood in the Blue Ridge restaurant (valued savings of $80), a free breakfast and a gift basket filled with The Grove Park music cd and more delivered to your room. Normally the room price is $499 a night. The room choice was located on the Vanderbuilt wing which was also very nice with a King-size bed, office desk and refrigerator with a bar that overlooked the center courtyard near the golf course. During the Easter holiday and many other holidays through-out the year, you can look forward to the Grove Park Inn really turning on the charm and providing a variety of options for a memorable relaxing weekend get-away.

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Arrival of the Holidays

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The arrival of the holidays is usually very much anticipated in many parts of the world. It is the time not only to celebrate together with friends and families, but also a time to start to reflect on the rest of the year. Many people take this opportunity to add some beautiful decorations to their homes. This is indeed the time for a person to showcase their own individual creativity through the decorations that they choose to make a part of their own particular celebration. Many people constantly search through home improvement magazines; eager to learn some new decoration techniques.

The kitchen has been proven to be the most popular room in the whole house. People just love to linger in this room. Therefore, it deserves a lot of attention. This is especially true when a person is thinking about giving this particular space a unique decorating make over. The kitchen is where the majority of friends and family will gather to share that very special holiday meal. For that very reason, dressing up the dining table should be the primary concern. An appropriate table covering may be the place to start your celebration theme. This will actually serve as the foundation for all of the other decoration that you may select.

A basket filled with fruit or an assortment of evergreens will dress up the middle of the table. The addition of a few well placed candles will automatically enhance the beauty of the whole room. Stunning, nonspecific dinner place settings should be carefully arranged around the table. Napkins that clearly depict the specific holiday that you are observing should be added. This method will enable you to identify the reason for the feast; without having to buy new dishes for each occasion. This is always a good thing.

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Easy Entertaining - My First Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is the meal hosts can feel the most pressure about preparing. The entire celebration is set around the meal, the Thanksgiving feast! Messing it up could make for a household full of unhappy guests. Gulp! For a beginner who is feeding a crowd, the pressure could be off the charts!

Let me start by saying what most cooking classes and books don't tell you. Of all the meals you typically prepare in a year, this one can be the most labor-intensive. Preparing a Thanksgiving meal can be a lot of work. Every year, fantastic cooks and chefs are challenged to come with a new take on what is a very traditional meal. They offer all types of variations and new recipes. However, since most people eat a Thanksgiving meal only once a year, they like the basics: turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes/sweet potatoes, vegetables, rolls and pumpkin pie for dessert. So to keep it as simple as possible, stick with the basics. The reason I tell you this is not to discourage you, but rather to prepare you. I like to know what I'm getting into ahead of time, so I can gird my loins for the battle!

Having said that, if you are organized (make a shopping list, familiarize yourself with the recipes) and pace yourself (don't try to do all the prep on Thanksgiving day), you can prepare the meal with confidence. It will be delicious, and you will have much less stress because you will have paced yourself. An you will have joined the millions of home cooks nationwide who stare in disbelief when a Thanksgiving meal that has taken 2-3 days to prepare has been consumed in 15 minutes flat! Take it as a compliment! Your family will enjoy your meal. The little ones you have invited will have such great memories of family connection and your guests will have one more thing to be thankful for...you!

If you have someone available to help you prepare this meal, enlist their services. They can chop ingredients for recipes and keep the dishes clean so the kitchen stays organized while you are cooking. Most guests will ask if you would like them to bring something to the meal. It is perfectly acceptable to allow your guests to bring a favorite dish, appetizer, drinks or dessert. This can take some of the pressure off so you can concentrate on the main meal items. If they offer to help clean up after the feast, graciously accept!

You can serve the Thanksgiving meal "family-style" which means all the food goes on platters and in serving dishes to be passed at the table. Or you can set up the meal "buffet-style," which means you arrange all the food on the platters and serving dishes and set up an area in your kitchen or your dining room where guests take their plates and fill them at the buffet table and then return to the dinner table to eat. Buffet-style serving is a little less complicated, because your are not constantly passing dishes to others who want seconds and you don't have to reach over other people for more rolls. It is a personal preference, however.

Do have an attractive low centerpiece at the dinner and buffet table. After all, Thanksgiving is a feast. Even grocery stores have pretty arrangements in vases or cornucopias (flowers, vegetables and fruit), which are always so festive. Or use a clear glass footed bowl, such as a trifle bowl, and fill it with fruit and nuts for a simple and elegant centerpiece. If you are having a fairly large gathering, put salt and pepper, gravy, and butter at both ends of the dinner table, even if you are serving buffet style. Use a tablecloth or placemats in fall colors. If you have children attending, you could set up a card table where they can make their own placemats out of construction paper, with leaf or turkey cutouts. Coloring and sticker books are always popular. This also gives them an activity before the meal starts.

If you have a special family tradition or would like to start one, this is the perfect time. Saying grace before the meal and setting aside a time during the day when all family members in attendance can share something they are thankful for really puts the focus on the "Thanksgiving" part of the day.

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Easter Gifts For Kids - How Old is Too Old

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A lot of parents wonder if they should buy Easter gifts for kids if they've already put smaller gifts inside the Easter eggs that their kids will find and open on Easter day. if you ask kids they'll demand that not only should they gets tons of Easter candy in their Easter eggs but that they should get separate Easter baskets full of other stuff they want.

Most kids will be more than happy to provide you with a detailed list of 'other stuff' that you can put in their Easter baskets. However that pretty much just kills the whole spirit of Easter. It isn't even like you can take either one of the two things out of Easter but a lot of parents end up doing that because they can't figure out where or how to draw a line between the spirit of Easter and the mile long wish lists that kids manage to cook up.

As far as Easter gifts are concerned, every kid deserves an Easter gift and combining an Easter gift with the Easter candy or the Easter chocolate is probably not a very good idea and is pretty much like filling the Christmas stockings but not putting anything under the tree. The thing is that as kids grow older the fascination with Easter crafts grows less for them and at one point or the other all parents will wonder how much longer they have until their kids forget all about it.

Just to set things straight, kids don't forget holidays that have even the remotest potential to bring in gifts. Try making Easter a give and take situation. Lots of kids are known to groan in utter anguish when they're told they have to get dressed for a special Easter service and their disgruntled behavior lasts all through the car ride and sometimes even during the whole ceremony. Things like this and the subsequent deprivation of a decent Easter gift are more likely to distance kids from the holiday.

This doesn't mean that you should bribe your kids with Easter gifts for kids are concerned, a little digging around online will help you find Easter gifts and Easter party ideas that you can do with your kids.

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