Celebrating New Years Eve with Your Kids

December 31, 2011 by

If you have young kids and you cannot get a babysitter on New Year’s Eve, you will likely not be hitting the nightclubs and dancing until the kids new years partybreak of dawn.

If you are planning a quiet evening in with your little ones, you can put together a great New Year’s Eve party that the whole family will enjoy! Here are some tips for celebrating New Year’s Eve with your kids:

Decorate the House Together

You and the kids can have a great time in the afternoon decorating your house for New Year’s Eve. String up lights around and set up candles to create a party atmosphere. You can staple together colorful strips of construction paper to make homemade garlands. Get some balloons from the dollar store and some little noise makers that the kids can play when the clock strikes midnight.

Prepare for Staying up Late

If your children are quite small, it might be difficult for them to last until midnight without falling asleep. To help them have enough energy to ring in the New Year when the clock strikes 12, put them down for a nap in the evening or the late afternoon.

Invite Other Kids

If your friends or relatives are going out for the night and you are planning on staying at home with the kids, why not offer to babysit their children as well. The party at your house will be more fun when your kids have a few friends to play with!

Try to keep in small so that it is still easy to manage. Make sure that you have lots of fun games and activities planned! Why not go in the backyard with flashlights to play games or watch the stars, or have a dance party?

New Year’s Goodie Bags

A fun idea to make your New Year’s Eve party memorable is to put together special treat bags for your kids that can only be opened on the stroke of midnight. They can have small toys, books, calendars, and other little gifts for the New Year in them.

If you are celebrating New Year’s with the kids, it doesn’t mean that you are missing out on the fun! On the contrary, you can create a very special New Year’s Eve that you and your kids will remember forever.

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What Color Are Your Underwear? Strange New Years Eve Traditions from Around the World

December 30, 2011 by

Your family might have an unusual or funny tradition that you enjoy every New Year’s Eve, such as cooking a certain dish or watching a particular movie, or perhaps you like to go to a party with your friends and tie one on until the sun comes up.New Years Party noisemakers

However, how do your local festivities compare to these strange New Year’s traditions from around the world?

Dangerous Danish Customs

In Denmark, the thing to do on the stroke of midnight is to climb up on the nearest chair and leap off into the air. It is believed that this will banish bad spirits who are trying to follow you into the year ahead.

Just make sure that you are careful where you land or you could kick off the New Year with a broken bone.

Another destructive thing to do in Denmark on New Year’s Eve is to throw plates, glasses and other crockery at the front door of your best friend. This brings good luck, and the family who has the most broken dinnerware in front of their house is considered very lucky because they have the most loyal friends.

The Dead are the Life of the Party

Even if you are dead, you can still join in on the New Year’s Festivities in Chile. The people of Talca, Chile are known for celebrating the New Year in the cemetery with their deceased relatives.

They set up the graveyard with decorations and candles, and everyone socializes amidst the tombstones.

Love under the Mistletoe

In Ireland, unmarried women place the leaves of the mistletoe plant under their pillows because it helps them to attract the love of their life. They also believe that it will bring them good luck in the New Year.

Let Your Underwear Do the Talking

If you are celebrating the New Year in Brazil, Mexico, or Bolivia, you will want to put some thought into the color of your underpants. People here wear undergarments of particular colors on the last night of the year to signify what they wish for in the New Year.

For example, wearing unmentionables of red will bring an exciting love life, and yellow underpants grant the wearer economic prosperity.

These are just a few of the fun and unusual New Year’s Eve traditions that are celebrated around the world!

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Tips for Hosting a Fantastic New Years Party on a Budget

December 28, 2011 by

New Year’s Eve is a time to party and celebrate with friends, and you want to plan your own evening get-together so that you can count down to midnight in style. However, after the expenses of the holiday season you don’t have much left over to spend on throwing a big bash!

Don’t worry; you can still ring in the New Year with a great party on a low budget. New Years Party

Here are some tips for cutting down the costs of your celebration:

Plan Ahead

Many people make their plans for New Years at least a month in advance and sometimes more, so if you are planning on hosting a soiree this year make sure that you get your invites out as soon as possible.

Also, planning your party in advance will give you lots of time to comparison shop for the things that you need and wait for party supplies to go on sale which will save you money.

Keep it Simple

You don’t need to cook up a three course meal to impress your New Year’s Party guests. Instead, start your party later in the evening so that guests will have eaten dinner before they arrive, and provide a few finger foods and snacks instead.

Buy the budget versions of pretzels, potato chips, and dips and then place them in your nicest bowls so that they look fancy.

Also, your friends won’t mind if you ask them to bring a few snacks or drinks to contribute.

Buy Cheap Liquor

If you are making mixed drinks at your party, you don’t need to buy the most expensive top shelf liquor. You will not be able to taste the difference in quality when you add all of the other fruity ingredients.

You also don’t need to buy name brand sodas such as Coca Cola or Pepsi when the cheaper versions taste pretty much the same when mixed with alcohol.

You could also consider making up a batch of Sangria, which can be made with very cheap wine and still tastes delicious.

Make Your Own Decorations

You can create a fantastic look to your party with a little bit of creativity, and save money on expensive party decorations.

Try stringing up your Christmas lights around the room to provide interesting lighting, and use lots of candles for a fun atmosphere.

Ask your friends to email you their favorite photos of the last year, and print them out. Display them on the walls to show off the best moments of the last 12 months.

You could even tape a large piece of paper to the walls and provide colorful markers so that guests can write their hopes, dreams and resolutions for the New Year.

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Creating a Holiday Savings Fund

December 26, 2011 by

Do you find that every January, you stare at your credit card bill and your bank balance in horror, shocked at how much money you spent in credit card billsDecember on presents, holiday treats, decorations, special outings and more?

The holidays can be a very expensive time of year, and many people tend to get carried away and sentence themselves to a January of barely scraping by.

However, if you plan ahead for next Christmas, you will be able to buy all of the presents you need without even batting an eye or seeing your bank balance dip even once.

How can you do this?

Create a Holiday Savings Fund

It’s quite simple. All you need to do is to open a new bank account the week after Christmas and set up an automatic transfer to pay a small amount from your paycheck into the account every week. The amount can be as small as $10 per week.

Now, $10 per week will seem like nothing to you and you won’t even miss it. After all, it’s less than $1.50 per day. It’s the equivalent of two cups of coffee and a muffin at Starbucks every week.

If you can buy things on sale when you go grocery shopping, you can easily shave $10 per week off your shopping budget without even noticing the difference. You will get so used to having $10 less to spend each week that you will forget it was even there in the first place.

It All Adds Up

However, if you stick to the plan and save $10 per week by next December you will have a fantastic surprise. You will look into your bank account and find $520 that you have saved up effortlessly over the last 52 weeks.

$520 is a big chunk of cash, and it will probably be enough to cover all of the Christmas presents for your family! The best thing is that you can splurge on your holiday treats without having to go into debt.

A Holiday Savings Fund is an easy strategy to save up for the holidays, and you will always have enough to make the season special!

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How to Stay Sane During the Holidays

December 23, 2011 by

The holiday season can be a stressful time! With so many presents to buy, meals to prepare, and guests to host, it’s easy to get burnt out holiday stressduring this time of year.

All of the pressure from all sides to create the perfect day can leave you feel like you are rushing around like a crazy elf trying to run Santa’s entire workshop by yourself. 

However, the holiday season doesn’t have to leave you exhausted and stressed out. Here are some tips for staying sane and relaxed during the holidays:

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

The trick to taking the pressure off yourself is to stop expecting every little detail of the season to be perfect. The important thing about Christmas Day is that your family is together and having a great time, and not how many different festive salads that you have prepared or how beautiful your tree looks.

Don’t worry about making your Christmas celebration look like a photograph in a Home Design and Cuisine magazine, and focus more on enjoying the moment instead.

Take Time for Yourself

Sometimes during the holiday season we are so busy running around shopping for others that we forget to care for ourselves. Make sure that you take a moment out of your schedule to take a walk, read a good book, or do an activity that you enjoy.

Ask For Help

Don’t overwhelm yourself by assuming that you can do everything! There’s nothing wrong with asking for a little bit of help!

If you are hanging the Christmas lights outside the house, why risk pulling a muscle when you could ask your teenage kids to give you a hand? If you are baking cookies, invite your young children, nieces or nephews to help you stir the dough.

If you just can’t figure out how you will cook the entire festive meal, your guests won’t mind if you ask them to bring a few dishes to the table, potluck style.

Remember, the holidays are a time for special moments spent together with the people that you love. Take the pressure off and don’t stress yourself out too much!

 

Filed Under: Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

Where to Hide Presents From Your Sneaky Kids

December 21, 2011 by

When your children know that there are Christmas presents in the house, they turn into little detectives leaving no stone unturned in their kid shaking presentsquest to figure out what they are getting this year.

However, you don’t want their curious prying eyes to ruin the surprise that you have planned for that special morning, so how can you hide the presents from your kids so that they will never find them?

Go High

If your kids are still quite little, you can use your height advantage to hide the gifts in a place that they will never look, such as the highest shelf in the closet. Push the gifts to the back and cover them with blankets or clothes.

Mobile Hiding Space

Why not try hiding the gifts in a duffel bag in the trunk of your car? If you don’t have teenage kids and you are the only one who drives the car, this is a great hiding place because you will always have the keys. When you are gone you won’t have to worry about sneaky kids because you will have the gifts with you!

Working Overtime

If you have an office with a locked door or a storage locker in your workplace, you can stash your secret treasures there. Your kids will likely never come into your workplace, so this is a perfect place! Just remember to take the gifts home on your last day before Christmas vacation!

Hide Them in Plain Sight

To really confuse your kids, you can hide their presents by wrapping them and putting them under the tree. However, so that they can’t determine what the gifts are by shaking them and weighing them, you will need to be clever and disguise them.

Wrap small gifts in larger boxes, and put heavy objects in to disguise the weight. Use oddly shaped boxes, and include things like jingle bells or rice that will make a sound when shaken. Your kids won’t be able to guess what the strange object is!

You can also leave off the names so that your kids don’t know which present is for whom, and simply write a secret code for yourself so that only you know.

Outsmart your kids this holiday season so that their burning curiosity won’t ruin the magical surprise!

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How Not to Gain Weight Over the Holidays

December 19, 2011 by

Peppermint candy canes, slices of home-baked apple pie, cookies shaped like Santa Claus, rich cups of hot chocolate topped with whipped christmas chocolate cakecream, and boxes of chocolates and candies stacked under the tree… it’s hard not to be tempted to indulge at Christmas!

However, if you are dedicated to staying healthy over the holidays and not greeting the New Year having packed on a few extra pounds, here are some tips to avoid gaining weight during the festive season:

Stay Active

One way to counteract the calories of all of those holiday treats is to burn them off through exercise! Head to the gym for a workout, or simply go play outside in the snow with the family. Cross country skiing is a great workout, and trudging up a snowy hill to slide down on a toboggan will get your heart pumping!

Fill Up on Healthy Food

Before you go to the Christmas party where you know there will be a buffet of fatty finger food, eat a healthy meal with lots of vegetables, protein and fiber. When you are feeling full those greasy treats will be a lot less tempting and you will eat less of them.

Cook Leaner

Why not see if there is a low-fat version of your traditional holiday recipes? Search for “healthy Christmas recipes” online and you will find several websites with great ideas for trimming the fat content out of your festive meal while still making it taste great!

Watch Your Liquid Calories

Holiday drinks such as Rum and Eggnog, Hot Chocolate, and Beer have a surprising amount of calories! When you are at a party, try alternating by having a drink and then a glass of water so that you only drink half as much.

Indulge Selectively

There are some special nostalgic treats that you should not deny yourself during the holidays, but remember to indulge selectively. This means that if you know that you want to have a slice of Auntie Susan’s famous Christmas Pie at the end of the meal, avoid also filling up on miniature sandwiches or potato chips beforehand.

If you allow yourself one or two very special indulgent foods, you will still enjoy your favorites and yet avoid gaining unnecessary weight from eating those shortbread cookies that you don’t even like.

Remember these tips and you will be able to stay lean and healthy throughout the holiday season, while still enjoying yourself!

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Got More Month Than Money? A Few Clever Ways to Save Money This Christmas

December 17, 2011 by

If you are short on funds this holiday season, there is no reason why your festivities have to be any less merry!

You can still have a great Baby With Presenttime enjoying the season without having to spend a fortune.

Here are some tips that will help you save money this holiday season:

  • Instead of having to buy a gift for everyone in your office, group of friends, or social circle, why not organize a Secret Santa system instead. Put everyone’s name in a hat and then each draw out a name. You will only have to buy one gift instead of many, and everyone will get a gift in exchange!
  • Why spend money on expensive rolls of wrapping paper, when you can make your own? Presents look cute and colorful when they are wrapped in the Sunday Morning cartoons from your local newspaper. You could also get a cheap roll of brown craft paper and decorate it with stamps, markers, glitter and paint to make your own one-of-a-kind wrapping paper.
  • If you have more time than you have money, instead of buying presents for your friends you can give coupons for your services instead. For example, you could give them a voucher promising that you will clean their car, babysit their children, or help them shovel snow. If you have a special skill, such as playing the guitar or speaking Spanish, you could give out free lessons to friends you know who would like to learn. It won’t cost you anything but your time.
  • When buying gifts for your family, make sure that you comparison shop for the best price. For items such as books, if you can find them in a second hand bookstore or used online, you can sometimes get them for less than half price!
  • Instead of spending a fortune on movie tickets and overpriced popcorn to see the new holiday blockbuster in the cinema, set up your own home movie theatre with enough comfy chairs and pillows for the entire family. Put on a classic holiday favorite, make your own snacks, and enjoy a great evening for only the cost of a DVD rental and some popcorn kernels.

These are just a few ways that you can save money on your holiday celebrations and still enjoy this wonderful, festive time of year.

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You’re Killing Yourself! Avoid These Common Unhealthy Eating Habits

December 16, 2011 by

Are you guilty of any of these common unhealthy eating habits? Read on to find out more information and tips on how to avoid them.cooking with daughter

Starving Yourself

You might think that a strict diet of nothing but carrot sticks and lettuce leaves is just what you need to lose those last few pounds before the holiday party, but starving yourself will actually have the opposite event on your weight loss.

When you don’t eat enough calories for a long period of time, your body will start to panic because it will think you are stranded on a deserted island with no food. Your body’s first reaction to this scenario is to store fat like crazy in order to survive.

When you do cave in and finally eat something, your body will store that meal directly in your fat reserves because it doesn’t know when you will have the chance to eat again, and so the fat will remain with you longer.

A healthier way to lose weight is to eat several small and nutritionally balanced meals per day, so that you don’t deprive yourself of the nutrients that you need to function and your body never has to go into “starvation mode” and start hording calories.

Eating Too Fast

We are often squeezing our meals into short time spans, such as gulping down our breakfast before heading to work or shoveling in our lunch during a short break. Eating your food too fast can cause a lot of problems, and it will also increase your chances of weight gain. I

t takes your body approximately 20 minutes from the time that you start eating for your stomach to tell you that you are full. If you eat within five minutes, you will still feel hungry and will be tempted to eat more than you need to.

You will also gulp down extra air and perhaps fail to chew your food properly. Instead, slow down and chew each bite.

Forgetting to Drink Water

Did you know that not drinking enough water throughout the day will actually slow down your metabolism and make you more likely to gain weight?

This is because water helps with metabolic functions, including burning calories. Bring a bottle of water with you everywhere you go, and sip from it frequently throughout the day.

Leaving Meal Prep to the Last Minute

If you only start to think about what to have for dinner when it’s late in the evening and you are very hungry, you will be tempted to prepare something that is quick and easy so that you can eat right away.

This often results in microwave meals, prepared food high in sodium, or pizza delivery. If you can start thinking about your evening meal a little bit earlier, you will have the chance to cook something yourself before your stomach starts grumbling.

These are just a few of the bad eating habits that you might be guilty of, and how you can break them to make yourself healthier.

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Can Mini-SkirtsTeach You About Writing A Resume?

December 14, 2011 by

Did you know that you can learn a lot about writing a resume from that sexy, saucy little fashion item, the mini-skirt? miniskirt

Whether you have worn one of these short skirts before, or have simply been an admirer, here are the tips that mini-skirts can give you about writing the most effective resume possible:

Just the Right Length

Your resume should always be the same length as a mini-skirt, long enough to cover the important parts but short enough to still be interesting.

It is crucial to include the most important details in your resume when applying for a job, such as relevant experience, education, and training. You will also want to include some descriptions of your previous roles and goals that you have achieved.

However, if your resume carries on for too long you will lose the interest of your reader. Your amazing accomplishments will not be as impressive if they are drowned within a sea of other bullet points and information.

The trick is to cut down your resume until you fit your top most impressive achievements and crucial information all on one page. Just like a mini-skirt, this will highlight your best “assets” and really get you noticed.

Careful How You Present Yourself

If you have worn a mini-skirt before, you know that you will need to be careful about how you walk, bend over, and sit down. You must keep your legs cross and your skirt pulled down, in order to avoid accidently exposing yourself to everyone else.

Being conscious about how you are displaying yourself to others can also be a good point to keep in mind when writing your resume.

If you don’t consider how your resume is being perceived, you might be unknowingly creating a bad first impression to your employer. Always double check your resume before sending it for spelling errors, typos, tone , and jargon, just like you would look down to check that your miniskirt is covering everything. You can even get a friend to read it over to catch the errors that you do not see.

When writing your resume, remember these tips that you can learn from this tiny but powerful piece of clothing!

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