This is the FIRST day of December and you need to take a moment to think about your health.  Make a plan for the next month, set goals on the calendar (I did as I turned the page on the one that hangs in my kitchen) and then try to meet them everyday.

If you have a great December with eating and getting your daily exercise, it will make setting a New Year's resolution a snap!

Enjoy this lovely day and here is a little story I wrote that you might enjoy.  Do something BRILLIANT today, think of your own health first and make a difference in YOUR life!

Priscilla

Christmas Past of Presents

No matter where you are in the world or what religion you subscribe to, you can't help but feel a certain excitement when December rolls around.  It is the end of one year with another whole new year within the turn of a calendar page.  Exciting times indeed!

As I type I'm listening to the television on a station that plays just music, set on the Holiday Classics station.  It really takes me back and makes me glad that this year no one in my family is going to go crazy at Christmas in their spending.

Growing up being one of six children in a home where only my dad worked, our Christmas was a lot different than the glitz and glamour you see today.  It was easier, better and my parents never had to worry about how to pay for the gifts, even though their budget had to be incredibly tight.

One of my happiest December memories came when I was just 7 years old.  We were all together, none of the family grown and gone yet and my little brother taped a white washcloth (flannel for my British readers) to his chin and distributed our two gifts each.  One being from my parents and one from my grandmother.

That year I broke the news to my grandmother, who got very excited when my little brother who completed his outfit by putting on a red turtleneck sweater and white socks and underwear (no pants!) dropped a big round cylander shaped package in her lap.  "It's just a can of coffee!" I chirped, after all, I didn't want her to get her hopes up too much.  Everyone laughed, the older ones anyway, and she loved the gift.

My gift that year was a baby doll that my little brother decided he wanted.  He cried for Baby Goes Bye-Bye until I had to give her up.  I had no interest in all in swapping for his Tonka truck, nor would he have given it up.  I was left with the gift from my grandmother of a package of seeds to plant in the garden with her in the spring and a pretty card. 

Of course I always had my stocking as well.  This was really my stocking.  The longest sock I could find, knee sock of course, and that was what Santa filled for us.  It was always the same thing that the big man brought us, a tangerine, a few walnuts in their shells and a few small pieces of chocolate.

Today if a parent tried those gifts I shudder at the thought of what the children would do.  We all work ourselves up for buying gifts for people who need nothing, usually things they would never buy themselves (for good reason) and then we stress as to whether they will like them.  Or we give money. 

How about this year we focus on getting together with people we never see (and actually WANT to see) avoid buying gifts for everyone in the family, neighborhood and your kid's carpool and think instead of making a gift if you HAVE to give one.  Just a suggestion though, far be it from me to tell you what to do!

All I know is that with the "no gift zone" going on with my family we are ALL smiling more, not saying, "What do you really want?" and there will be no credit card bills to pay off come January.  Of course I might have to get my mom a gift, perhaps a big can of coffee.