Columbus Day & Preparing for the Holidays

Well, Happy Columbus Day! And thank you Christopher for taking a chance and sailing across that big ocean of ours!

Its early, about 6:41 am and I just got back from doing a Ward Boot Camp. This is our week off of our normal boot camp that I participate in and so we thought we would offer a similar program to the ladies at church during this week and hopefully motivate some people to be more fit. My friend Angie and I are leading it and we were concerned at times that the two of use would show up and no one else...but low and behold we have 10 lovely ladies show up today to work out with us! Way to go ladies!

We hope they were glad they pulled themselves out of bed this morning for a 5:30am workout out...I know I feel energized and ready to go for the day!

Now...did you know that Christmas is only 73 days away?

If you haven't started thinking about gifts...you need to start now. A gift doesn't have to be something expensive, just thoughtful. Really think about the gifts you give this year and try to cater them to the person's needs and wants. For instnace, my little sister is one of the busiest people I know and she also has 2 cute little toddler girls. Last year I have her the
" Gift of Time." I made her 6 freezer meals that she could stick in her freezer and use any time she had a busy day and didn't have time to get a home cooked meal on the table. All she had to do was stick it in the oven and add a can of veggie and she was done! I did 3 different dinners and I doubled them, so she had chicken and rice casserole, lasagna, and Mexican lasagna or enchilda casserole. She thought it was a wonderful gift, she even got a little teary eyed (which for those of you who know us IRL (in real life) you may not find that surprising). It was also nice for me to be thinking about her the whole time I was preparing her meals.

So, really think about the gifts you give. You may find that you can save some money and the gifts are more meaningful to the receivers because you can tell them why you got them the gift and how you were thinking about them during the process.

Other gift ideas

• Free babysitting one day a month for 6 months so the couple can go out on a date. This would also be fun to go in with someone and get some movie passes or something so they have a free "date".
• Prepare a meal for someone on their busiest day of the week.
• Do 4 versions of soup! During the Winter, prepare four different varieties of soup for someone one day a week for a month, or one day a month for four months.
• Bake a fresh loaf of bread every week for a month.
• Offer to take someone's children to school for a week or to early morning seminary.
• Take a bouquet of flowers to someone to brighten their day.
• Make a canister full of hot chocolate mix and give them 2 hot chocolate mugs and some candy canes to keep them warm through the Winter.