November 9th

Christmas is 45 days away. Need some ideas? Want to give a gift with meaning? Or a gift with a gospel principle in mind?
Carolyn Nicolaysen from totallyready.com wrote a marvellous article for Meridian Magazine, titled “The gift of preparedness”. She begins with “Toasters, ties, and toys. The season for giving not only tests our imagination and budget, but can also stretch our inspiration. Well, just in case your friends and kin could benefit from a little more Emergency Preparedness, here are some ideas on how to remember them with creative gift ideas that are fun and practical.”

Here are her practical ideas and one example from each.
1: The Theme Gift. Choose a theme and give a gift that delivers on that theme. Place a quote or scripture on the gift to announce your theme. For example: Light: “You light up my life” or quote John 12:35 -- “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” Include glow sticks, flashlights, maybe a flashlight and radio combo, candles in glass jars for power outages, or solar lights that can be charged during the day and brought in at night during a power outage.
2: Gift Certificates. Garden Kit: Purchase a garden bucket, add some packets of seeds, a trowel, a planting guide and a gift certificate good for your help with next spring’s garden planting. Add the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett for family reading.
3: The Survival Kit. Dinner basket. Purchase a large laundry basket and fill it with a copy of your favorite, or your student’s favorite, recipe. Purchase all the ingredients to make that recipe 5 times. Taco soup would be a great example since most of the ingredients are canned.
4: A Subscription. Order a subscription to the Liahona magazine for a family member or friend who served a foreign language mission. Some languages are published each month and some only once a year, but all are wonderful to receive. Of course, The Ensign, New Era, Friend, and Church News are excellent gifts for family who are not taking advantage of these resources.
5: Financial Preparedness. Cash for a rainy day. What will we do for cash, if the power is down, along with the internet connections to your local ATM? It takes discipline, but some well-hidden cash is an important part of preparedness planning. And of course, for college students, rolls of quarters are always appreciated. Likewise for students, a gift certificate to a local grocery store.
Obviously this is American, apart from changing it into our currency say: into a roll of dollar coins, we also have gift vouchers available at most supermarkets. A handy idea not just as a gift but as one (and not the only) source of a little something set aside.

For the full article here is the link. http://www.ldsmag.com/emergency/061115gift.html Take a moment to have a look at her other amazing articles.
Carol Tuttle gave a lecture on unplugging the Christmas machine. A very insightful talk. We are the Christmas machines. We take upon ourselves the idea that we must to do all our normal activities and then add a plethora (lots and lots) of Christmas related activities to it without giving anything up and wonder why we get stressed, burnt out, and generally have an awful time at Christmas. She made some insightful suggestions on how to unplug our Christmas machines, including, make a list of three words that perfectly describes Christmas to you. Remember how you feel affects your family too. Make a list of everything on your Christmas ‘to do’ list. Everything from shopping for presents and meal items to the parties your family gets invited to. Decide if anything can be left off the list. Reduce stress by sending cheque's instead of presents. Set very early a budget and stick to it. Have fun with the things you do, if it isn’t fun don’t do it. Don’t do things because it is a tradition of habit, do it for the love and spirit of it, if you have made the potato salad for family functions because it has always been that way, and you actually hate potato salad, tell the family you are making something else, if they want potato salad they will make it themselves. Learn to accept that what gets done gets done and it will be enough. Clear out old decorations and items you just don’t need anymore. Simplify as much as possible. And most importantly ask yourself ‘Do you feel the Spirit of Christ?’ if you don’t, think of how you can changes things so you do. Here is my example of my Christmas machine and how my steadfastness in it almost made me ruin it for someone I love, adore and cherish. My son.

I love Christmas. I love the time spent with family and treasured friends, the time focused on each other and the gift most precious to all of us, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I want to enjoy it and not get caught up in the crowded shops, last minute haste, crush of it all. So I turned one of my OCD habits to my advantage. I made a commitment to myself to be finished my Christmas gift shopping by the 1st of October each year. Then have my Christmas grocery shopping finished by the 30th of November. That way I could relax and not have my other OCD issues get out of control and turn my happy face into a get away from me face. For years it has worked perfectly for me. But I didn’t think about one vital thing in relation to Christmas. Not everyone is as OCD as I am. A few weeks ago, Darcy saw the neat pile of Christmas presents I had just finished wrapping and not yet put away. He smiled and eyed off the ones he knew were his, then his whole demeanour changed, he looked sad. I asked him what was wrong. He expressed to me that as great as it was that I was organised he didn’t feel a part of it because he had not chosen, bought or wrapped anything for anyone. My heart sank. I was so focused on avoiding what made me anxious and uncomfortable I forgot what truly mattered. Service. Love. Giving. All the things I thought I was doing, but to the exclusion of everyone else.
A few years back we decided to reduce the number of individual presents (the kids have way too many toys!!) and get family orientated gifts, things we could do as a family. We discuss them early in the year so everyone has some input and come Christmas it is still a surprise for the kids. But it meant that I became the present shopper and buyer. No problem for me, I love it, but in doing so I denied my children the opportunity to learn to love it too. While they were small it was fine, but now, they need to feel the same spirit I do.
So this year a new tradition has been born, Grant and I will each take a child and let them shop. Give them a budget (and the cash) as well as the freedom to choose whatever they want for the rest of the family. They get to pay for it, wrap it, secret it away if they choose until Christmas. Of course we swap children so they can buy for each of us without us ruining their spirit of gift giving. So what does this mean to my Christmas machine? It means I need to accept change, I need to take a deep breath, remain focused on Christ and my love for my children and go shopping for Christmas presents after October 1st ... Maybe be even in the month of December ... My mind screams ‘inconceivable’, but my heart is filled with the spirit of Christmas and shouts with joy as it is filled with the Holy Spirit confirming to me, the right choice has been made.
Whatever you choose to do this year, be kind to yourself and in doing so you will be kind to others. Emotional and Social Health is an important part of the welfare plan. Family is vital not just to our immediate happiness but to our eternal progression. I hope and pray this year we may all focus on what really matters, our dedication to our Father in Heaven and His son, Lord Jesus Christ, and to each other. I can think of no greater gift to give our children and each
other.

Until next week, remember it is good to be a Christ centred, family focused, true sprit of Christmas seeking, Christmas machine unplugging, loving our fellow man Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness
Georgia