Holidays

Changing Relationships

Holidays

Sheri Here!

Why do Holiday self-care?

Halloween is just around the corner and then the other end of the year holidays are upon us.

The extracurricular activities pile on: the decorating, the gift buying, the volunteer projects, and the entertaining. All of these are at a pace twice that of our normal routine.

You wonder why you are tired already just thinking about it?

Holiday Self-Care Revisited

Several weeks ago I wrote a blog about creating a Holiday plan to manage your money and time: Now is the Time. It might be a helpful refresh for those two important aspects of the holidays. Feeling pinched in either area adds stress to our life which reinforces the need for holiday self-care.

Awhile back, I’d written another blog on Holiday Self-Care with some other helpful hints, that might be of value to you now. Go and check it out.

Holiday Intentions

What is your objective for the holidays? Survive, ignore, enjoy, or something different. Choose one and then decide what does that look like and what does it entail. Now you have a plan!

I think I want to enjoy a low-key season. Now what do I want to do? A little decorating, a little entertaining, a little gift exchanging and a lot of avoiding getting sick.

There have been many years that I’d get sick right around Christmas which usually meant I overshot the mark.

Rest, good food, water, and exercise are key to a healthy season. That doesn’t mean there is no sampling of the holiday special goodies or even a bake-a-thon to share with others. A little moderation is the hot ticket for the season.

Friends and Family

This is the season for friends and family. Sometimes, we are having issues with some of those folks – go where the love is. If you have choices for holiday events and one is high stress, consider avoiding it.

For many this is also a season of sad times. Be gentle with yourself – do what you can and go where the love is. If appropriate, seek outside help from a mental health professional to get through the season and heal.

Sometimes we’re in survival mode, but where possible, make this a season of peace, love, and joy. Spend time with those you care about, take it slow and get good rest.

What about you? What are your intentions for the holidays? You don’t know yet? Now might be a good time to give it some thought and get a bit of a jump on it all. Hit reply and drop me a note and share your plans with a friend.

Around Town

This weekend is the online book launch for my book: Everything I Learned About Life I Learned on Vacation. It’s happeningSunday October 30 at 4:00pm PT and I’d love you to be there. Hosted by Marie Macagno, my writing coach. Join us for some fun, a book reading and Q&A about why and how the book got written. Here’s the zoom link. Hope to see you there.

Happy Halloween and Ciao,

Sheri

Now is the Time

Holidays

Sheri here,

Now is the time to do it. What’s that you ask? Why create a holiday plan and budget.

Oh Boo – that’s ok…Boo fits with Halloween!

It’s October, Time for Holiday Planning

This is not the first October that I’ve discussed this topic. See my blog It’s October, the Start of the Holidays. But maybe you are like me and tend to forget from year to year how fast things go this time of year.

I’m convinced that the year is over when October hits – ‘cuz it moves so fast! I just did my fourth quarter plan and it included looking at my budget and calendar.

The biggest things I’m planning this holiday season includes a Book Launch Party, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas decorating light and Christmas dinner. Other years had much more in the calendar, but this year, that’s enough.

My blog It’s October, the Start of the Holidays, includes 5 holiday budget tips. I understand that word budget might have you breaking out in hives, but…it’s a solid idea that can save you a mint.

When you create a holiday budget, you can get realistic about what you choose to spend. Then it also says, if this is how much I choose to spend, then this is who I can spend it on.

For me, I told you my plans and the Book Launch Party has it own budget, so other than the grandkids, few others are getting a gift this year. That’s what’s realistic and to still have room for two feasts. The decorations, I’ve got already.

Let’s Not Skip Over Thanksgiving

Many times we tend to skip over Thanksgiving in the retail hype of getting to the December holidays. But Thanksgiving is special to me. It’s time to recognize that for which you are grateful and to gather family and friends, which implies a feast. A day dedicated to eating and football, how very special is that!

There are lots of options for these feasts – so your plan is important. Are you preparing it, if so are you making it from scratch, which does take more time but is both fun and yummy. Or are you outsourcing it and buying a meal-in-the-box with all the fixings? You don’t need to decide this minute – but give it some thought as you make your holiday plan and budget.

Halloween and Holiday Fun

By now you either have your Halloween decorations up or have a solid plan. Our plan is to savor our neighbor’s decorations. They do a great job and have several young children who enjoy the process. Our joy comes from their preparation, including their Halloween costumes.

The last few years, especially at Halloween, with no young kids and few trick or treaters, sharing the fun of others has been our major pleasure.

We can find delight in numerous ways during the next several months, we don’t need to be curmudgeons or rushed. Watching the joy of others and finding ways to add to it can help both your plan and your budget. You can find lots of low cost and low time commitment things to enhance what is already planned.

No matter what you do, find joy in the season.

How about you? Have you made your plans for the holiday season, hit reply and share!

Around town – My book, Everything I Learned About Life I Learned on Vacation is now available for sale on Amazon – you can buy it here – enjoy both the book and the season!

Have a blessed week!

Ciao,

Sheri

Holiday Planning Starts NOW

Holiday Planning Starts NOW!

Holidays

Sheri here –

Did you realize that it is the beginning of October?  I sorta just got that message – duh! October is the beginning of the holiday season!  Oh my goodness, 2021 is just around the corner (THANK GOODNESS, a BIG sigh of relief).

Did you ever notice how once October starts, it seems like the year is over before you know it we are singing “Auld Lang Syne” for New Years!?

Or at least that’s what prior seasonal routines have indicated!!

Yet, these last months are to be savored, the holidays enjoyed – maybe in a new way.

It’s Time to Start Holiday Planning

Many businesses will start their 2021 planning right now, at this time of year, in the Fourth Quarter.

Maybe we need to adopt that thought for our personal lives for the Fourth Quarter – the Holiday Season.

While we have “normal” Seasonal Routines from prior years, maybe this is the year that we do it differently – rather than letting the holidays happen to us, we direct how it goes!

I started to see some people decorating their homes for Halloween the last weekend in September – it wasn’t even October yet!

What if, you take a few minutes and plan the rest of this Season.  That you made decisions about how the old routines, the old traditions might be different – might be new this year.

Certainly, travel and in person contact has been reoriented with physical distancing.  Money might be another subject that needs to be addressed earlier – the budget (oops is that a bad word in your mind?) for the holidays need to be re-examined.

What Is Important This Time of Year?

How do you make it special for your family?  How do you plan to get together with friends?  Ok, maybe you don’t want to think about it now; but, there will probably be differences.

OK, I get it, maybe you just don’t want to think about it – maybe this is a year that some people won’t be present for one reason or another.

This could be an opportunity to really look at your holiday traditions and choose what will make this year’s holidays special.  You can have a wonderful end to 2020 with some fore thought and creativity.

Take out a calendar and block some time for yourself, for a bit of planning by yourself, with your friends and your family.  What are some of the things that you want to assure stand out as special?  While this year they might be different, maybe even some aspects  are virtual.  A little planning now will help reduce both the anxiety level and the stress level for you and those around you.

By starting now, at the beginning of October, you can create a very special holiday season for you, your family and friends.  May it be filled with love, joy and happiness.

One of the things that always seems to loom large is the expectation of decorations, gifts, and entertainment – SPENDING!   In my “It’s October – the Start of the Holidays”  post last year, I included five Holiday Money Planning Tips that are still applicable this year.  Check it out here!

Have you started to think about any of the seasonal routines – the year end holidays?  What are you thinking – would you share some of your thoughts?  Leave a comment below.

Ciao,

Sheri

Holidays – Happy or Sad?

Holidays

Sheri here –

Thanksgiving is when we get to spend time with friends and family and enjoy wonderful food.  This is also a time we reminisce about the old times.

Some of those old times may not be so great.  We tend to have high expectations of how the holidays should be.

Yet, life happens, and it has no regard for the holidays.

Sad Memories Maybe Part of the Holidays

You may, like me, have some sad memories of things that happened at this time of year.  My Dad passed away about ten years ago at the end of October and that holiday season was overshadowed by the missing of a loved one.

Yet, the rest of the family was together, and we did laugh and giggle about some of the previous times.

You too might have had something similar, a loved one ill or facing a serious situation.  

This time of year may evoke those sad memories.  Yet, we don’t need to be overwhelmed by them.  Rather, we can use this time of year as an opportunity to cherish the good memories with those no longer with us.

We can cherish the old times and also create new traditions, spend time with the rest of the family, invite friends, have an orphan Thanksgiving or join some new friends to do something different.

As I’ve mentioned before, during this season of Thanksgiving, spend some time at dinner and focus on the good stuff.  Share the things in your life that you are grateful for, the blessings.  Feel the glow of good feelings as you enjoy the good food.

When we focus on the blessings in our life, we fill our life with love, happiness and hope.  What a great gift (and it’s free!!).

Maybe spend a little time after dinner watching football and reading the Black Friday ads.

Black Friday Money Saving Tips

To help with the Black Friday adventures, here are a couple more tips to go easy on your pocketbook:

  1. Spend time with the Black Friday ads, make your choices and be intentional about your purchases.
  2. Eat before you go shopping, so you aren’t hungry and possibly make poor decisions.
  3. Be kind to those around you who are also in the store, bring your holiday cheerful self.

Just as an added refresher, here are the Black Friday shopping tips from last week:

  1. Decide on your budget before you start and stick to it!
  2. Spend cash or use your debit card and avoid building credit card debt.
  3. Make a list of what you are looking for and the people you are shopping for.

Want more money saving tips?  Check out my “101 Ways to Saving Money” – just click here.

Have a wonderful time with family and friends.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Ciao,

Sheri

Make a List and Check it Twice

Create a Holiday Shopping Plan

Holidays

Sheri here –

Thanksgiving is just around the corner; but overshadowing it are the holiday shopping ads AND the big kick off: BLACK FRIDAY.

Traditionally, the retailers make about 40% of their sales in the last couple of months of the year.  And Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days in the brick and mortar stores and online.

EVERYONE rolls out their best deals.  

Some stores will open late on Thanksgiving afternoon and you can shop online anytime.  That can be a blessing or a curse.

As you may know, I worked in the retail industry for a long time – in a Corporate Finance Organization and the holiday sales were nurtured.  The numbers were closely watched, starting on Black Friday through the after Christmas Sales.

If you are a business owner, you probably already have a holiday sales plans in place to entice your customers to grace your business with some of the money they will spend this year.

Right after Black Friday is Cyber Monday, where the online shopping sales abound. 

Frankly, it can all be quite overwhelming!

Create your holiday shopping plan

Now, is the time for you to plan your holiday shopping strategy.  Use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to YOUR advantage.  That’s right PLAN is the operative word.  Create your plan to harvest the best bargains you can, preserve your sanity and nurture your pocketbook.

You might want to use a gift budget worksheet to help plan both your giving your holiday entertainment plans. 

Money strategies for Black Friday

Here are a couple of quick ideas to help you do a little advanced planning for Black Friday.

  1. Decide on your budget before you start and stick to it!
  2. Spend cash or use your debit card and avoid building credit card debt.
  3. Make a list of what you are looking for and the people you are shopping for.

Have a great week!

Ciao,

Sheri

P.S. If you’d like more tips for saving money, download my free eBook “101 Ways to Save Money”. Just click this link.

October Starts the Holiday Seaso

It’s October, the Start of the Holidays

Holidays

Sheri here –

What was your first thought when you really, really looked at the calendar and it sunk it that “It is October!”?

Did you think: “No way.  How did that happen? It absolutely, positively can not be.  Only yesterday it was New Years, no Valentine’s Day, no, no, no.”

Or

“You know what that means don’t you – tomorrow the year is over.”

Well, it certainly seems like it happens that fast.

Or

Are you more laid back, along the lines: “Hmmm, I guess it really is October.”

The days and years seem to be going faster and faster.

I’m more in the first category, the, really, it can’t be October already category.

Ready, Set, GO!

That means it is time to start bracing for the HOLIDAYS – both your finances and your calendar.  The planning window may have already closed!

Let me ask you: Are you 1) ignoring the holidays, hoping they will go away; 2) thinking about how you will manage the time and cost; 3) already behind; or 4) “I got this!”? Drop a comment below with your answer!

Halloween decorations are already popping up around town.  The kids are getting excited about what they are going to wear, and the festivities devoted to scary pleasures and sugary treats.

Then its November.  While we spend portions of November planning Thanksgiving dinner, everywhere you look are reminders that the December holidays are just around the corner.

But to me, November is a time of reflection, a time of gratitude and a time of giving thanks for all the blessings in life.  How about you?

In many ways, these next months stretch our pocketbooks, our patience and our time more than any other period during the year.

Now might be a good time to grab your calendar and a piece of paper and make a time and money plan, if you haven’t already mapped it out.  Ok, so, there are only a few weeks left; but maybe, you are still in time to save a bit of your sanity!

Holiday Money Planning Tips

To help you get started, here are 5 holiday money planning tips:

  1. Make a holiday budget and STICK to it.
  2. Consider giving gifts only to the children in the family, including the extending family.
  3. Reduce the number of gifts that you buy per family member.
  4. DIY (Do It Yourself) and make your gifts. Make it a family fun project.
  5. Give precious memories for gifts; e.g. a photo book or a personal poem for a special person.

Do you have a favorite money saving tip or two for the holidays?

May you have a magnificent week, even if you are as stunned as I am that it is October!

Ciao and hugs,

Sheri

P.S.  If you need help planning your holiday strategy and want to talk schedule a call with me here!

Holiday Decorations

Holiday Self Care

Holidays

Holiday Madness!!  We are now in December – Yikes!!  Where has this year flown?

It has been quite the year.  Hopefully your year has been action packed and filled with grand adventures.

Sometimes, the adventure of getting through the week without anything going wrong or gone bang in the night is as good as it gets.  And that is pretty darn good.

And now, here we are in December, we’ve navigated Halloween and Thanksgiving in the manner that worked best of us (or didn’t).

The December Holidays and New Year’s are rapidly approaching.  And it will happen in a rush.

So how do we survive this time with the minimum of casualties, self-blame, sickness and downright disasters? …

Holiday Self CareRead More »

3D-NOBG_
Take these steps towards your Reinvention!

Get instant access to my FREE ebook "3 Steps to Reinvent You: Go From Stuck to Excited & Fulfilled"  Simply tell me where I should send it below.

Scroll to Top