Holidays and Celebrations

The holidays are a time to meet up with those you love and to celebrate your precious time together on the planet earth. All of us enjoy getting together with those we enjoy spending time with, and we appreciate the limited time we get to do so. However there is a sad side to our celebrating that many have no idea how to help with.

Every year there are those less fortunate souls who cannot afford to celebrate with their loved one’s. Many of these people don’t even have any loved ones left to visit, and thus they roam the streets alone. So many of us would like to show compassion and kindness to these people, but where do we even begin? How on earth can we make a difference in these people’s lives?

One of the greatest holiday gift idea we can give this holiday season that lasts much more than any game console or new exciting technological gadget is giving of our time. Volunteering at a local church, mission or food bank is a most rewarding experience, and I highly recommend it to all who read this. Watching these lonely, almost lifeless people light up with hope and joy, just because someone who cares and loves them has come into their life, is something amazing to behold.

Superstitions: There are a lot of superstitions and legends involving the giving and receiving of gifts. For instance it was at one time considered bad luck to give a pair of scissors or a knife as a gift because it was feared that the act would “cut” the friendship in half. Therefore knives were never given as wedding gifts as it was believed they would lead to a broken marriage.

Also never give anyone a pair of shoes as a Christmas gift because they would make the person you give them to walk away from you. When you give someone a gift of a wallet or purse be sure to put some money into it, even if only a coin, to ward off bad luck. At one time bakers would throw in an extra roll when you bought a dozen as a “gift” in case any of the other rolls were too small. This “gift” became known as the baker’s dozen.

A family reunion might take forever to plan for and successfully pull off so you will want to make sure to capture all the memories you can.

Some people are lucky and have a photographer or videographer already in the family and they have all of their own equipment. For the rest of us, there are a couple of options available. You could hire someone or do it yourself.

Hiring a professional to record your family reunion can save a lot of time and trouble if you can afford it.

Professionals know the right cameras and lenses to use for every kind of lighting and weather condition and it can make a normal picture look amazing.

Planning a family reunion is not an easy task. Many families today just aren’t as close as they were decades ago and people work more than one job quite often.

Trying to have everyone get time off of work can be impossible sometimes. You might even have to plan a year or two in advance to make sure everyone can attend.

The first thing you need to take is contacting everyone and having them help contact other family members. Maybe you don’t talk to your great uncle Bob but surely someone else in
the family does.

By delegating a little responsibility you can save yourself quite a bit of time and effort. Make sure to have reliable family members help or everything will get screwed up however.

The location for a family reunion is very important. You can hold it indoors or outdoors and on your family’s property or public property.

You need to make sure that the entire family or at least a majority agree with the location.

If half of your family are into extreme sports and the other half consider church exciting, it can be very hard to compromise and you may end up having to have everyone vote on a choice of different places.

A family home or something very memorable to everyone is always a good idea and doesn’t require reservations or permits.