This is such a happy and joyous time of year. Unfortunately it is also highly stressful and often depressing as well. What can you do? More than you might think actually. Try these 5 very simple suggestions to manage your holiday stress:

“Managing your Holiday Stress Levels”
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1. Get enough rest! This is hugely important. When your body lacks sleep, it is like running on empty. You feel awful and irritable. The easiest way for me to find extra time to rest is to turn of the TV and hit the sack a half hour earlier. Every bit counts.

2. Take your vitamins. This is the time of year when we overindulge on food, glorious food, and you know I’m not talking about raw organic vegetables. I take a women’s multivitamin, calcium, magnesium, and zinc green, tea extract, fish, flaxseed, and borage oil, and vitamin E. Check with your doc first though.

3. Get at least 20 minutes of daylight on your retinas every day. This is huge. This means go outside without sunglasses. Go get the mail, make a second trip for the newspaper, walk your kids to the bus, or walk Fido. Exposing your eyes to sun rays (yes, even on dark cloudy days) for at least 20 minutes a day is a natural antidepressant. This is a great way to stave the winter blues.

4 . Keep it simple. If you are entertaining, ask guests to bring a dish (less cooking). Put out half your Christmas decorations. Your kids won’t notice if the tree doesn’t have your hand blown glass heirloom ornaments. Decorate with the stuff they bring home from school or religion. This is the real treasure anyway. Bake 2 kinds of holiday cookies instead of the usual load and buy the rest if need be.

5. Practice giving every day. The more you give, the more you receive. This is a universal law. Give a smile to the grouchy deli guy. Silently wish happiness and abundance on everyone you encounter. Pay someone a compliment without expecting one in return. Also, by doing #1-4, you are giving to yourself. When you love and serve yourself, you can better love and serve others.View your product available for download here ..

Many people ask “Should I Shop Online for Christmas?”. In this article, we will look at the advantages, and disadvantages, of shopping online for the holiday season and how you can combine retail stores with online stores to get the best deals on the best products.

“Shop Safely Online At Christmas Time!“
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It is time to discuss shopping retail versus shopping online. And, since we are on the subject of time, let’s discuss watches and my friend Brad.

Since I do retail for a living, Brad wanted my perspective on some items that he was going to buy this Christmas. He wanted to know whether he should shop online or go to the stores and look for Christmas sales.

I asked him what he wanted to buy and he mentioned that he wanted a good watch. He was still using the same old watch that he had worn for the last 15 years. After many years of getting gifts for other people, he said that the one thing that he would like to buy for himself was a good watch.

“Should I shop online?” he asked. “And,” he added, “if I shop online, how will I get the feel for whether I really like the watch?”

Brad had just asked the most common online shopping question.

If we shop online, without physically holding the merchandise and trying it on, how will we know if we truly like the item?

I told Brad to physically visit the store, try on watches of all varieties, note the prices, and return to tell me of his findings. He did just that and came to my house directly afterward.

He found a Tag Heuer watch in the mall at a boutique watch store and said to me: “I absolutely have to have this particular watch. It looked great. I love it!” I had rarely seen Brad so excited about a gift.

He mentioned that the watch was rather price-prohibitive at more than $1500 while his wife did not want him to go over $1000.

Thus, we set a goal of finding the exact same watch at a much better price. We found a site a Watch Store Online offering the very same watch for just under $1000, a savings of more than $800, or about half the price of the boutique store.

Feeling guilty, Brad called the boutique store to find out if they could come close to the online price. They said that they could take $200 off but could not meet the online price so Brad bought the watch online.

In this instance, Brad combined retail and online shopping to get the perfect gift at a great price.

Often though, you do not need to visit the retail store to find out more. There are many items that receive stellar reviews, and are so well-known, that you know you are getting the best quality. For example, if you are looking for the Best Toys for Christmas, you usually do not need to visit the retail stores. Toys receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of independent reviews and so you can know the product without seeing it.

People usually ask “Should I shop online for Christmas?” because they are unsure whether the online experience can match the retail experience. As you can see, the two can be combined to obtain the best gifts at the best price.View your product available for download here ..

Santa Claus pays a visit to your table in these delightfully cute cookies.

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour plus additional for rolling

Royal Packaged Icing Mix

Red food coloring

Pastel candy dots

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place butter in a bowl and cream until nice and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the milk and vanilla. Add in flour; mix thoroughly. Chill dough for 1 to 2 hours or until it is easy to handle.

“Leave Santa A Sweet Treat This Year With Delicious Homemade Cookies!”
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Work with 1/3 of the dough at a time and leave rest in the refrigerator until ready to use.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Take a Santa shaped cookie cutter and dip it into flour, then cut out Santa faces. Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until just golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely.

Prepare the royal icing according to package directions. Color half the icing red and leave the other half the original color. Using a icing bag or plastic bag with a hole cut in it, pipe a red Santa hat on each cookie. Follow up with white icing for Santa’s beard, eyes and hat pompom.

Place a candy decoration in the center of each white eye. Allow icing to set before serving.

Makes 18 to 24 cookies.

=> Christmas Cookie Recipes: Easy Snowmen Cookies

These snowmen are easy to make and they make nice centerpiece decorations.

1 (16 oz.) package Nutter Butter Cookies

1 1/4 pounds white candy coating, melted

Miniature chocolate chips

M&M miniature baking bits

Pretzel sticks, halved

Orange and red decorating gel or frosting

Directions

Using tongs, dip cookies in candy coating; shake off excess. Place cookie on waxed paper.

To decorate: Place two chocolate chips on one end of cookies for eyes. Place baking bits down middle for buttons. For arms, dip ends of two pretzel stick halves into coating; attach one to each side.

Let stand until hardened. Pipe nose and scarf with gel or frosting.

Makes 32 cookies.

=> Christmas Cookie Recipes: Peppermint Twist Kiss Cookies

The peppermint twist isn’t just a song, but a delicioius holiday cookie that is colorful and festive.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 to 8 drops red food coloring

36 chocolate kisses

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Add in the egg yolk, peppermint extract and vanilla extract; mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Divide the dough into two sections. Tint one section red. Divide the dough into four sections. You should have two red sections and two regular sections. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Shape each section into a 9-inch log. Place one plain log next to one red log. Gently twist the plain and red logs together and create one swirled log. Repeat with the other two logs.

Cut each log into nine slices; roll each slice into a ball. Place each slice 1-inch apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a glass.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Press a chocolate kiss candy piece into each cookie center, while cookies are still warm. Let cool.
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Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content. She has also authored her own books and works as a consultant to other writers, Internet marketers and Internet businesses.View your product available for download here ..

Have you ever wondered as to how to draw funny cartoons? The process is actually not that hard at all, the main thing to remember is to have patience. We all have been there sitting down and reading our favorite comic strip and wondered how did this character come to be.

“Learn to Draw Even If You Have Never Drawn a Picture in Your Life!“

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In most cases the artist either had the ability naturally or sat down and practiced until the cartoon came to life on it’s own. Drawing a funny cartoon is a lot like creating a piece of art, depending on what you have in mind depends on how you will proceed.

Take for example an animal, first if you ever take the time to stop and look most animals look a lot like each other. One example of this is horses and cows. Both of these animals stand up so it would be a good place to start with drawing the legs first.

After you have drawn the legs then it comes time for your most important tool to come into play, it’s time to use your imagination. After you have drawn the legs it’s now time to let your mind wander and experiment with various things to make your cow or horse take on that comedic effect.

The one thing that you need to remember is that all drawing consist of is drawing lines in a way to form a picture. So if you can draw a straight line you can draw a cartoon that will make your friends laugh. One of the best examples of letting your mind be set free when it comes to drawing is the cartoon show Family Guy. After all has anyone seen a baby with a football shaped head, of course not that was the creation of a person who sat down and started to explore the world of drawing and it turned into something very funny.View your product available for download here ..

Cool video! @nikhalik is giving away this inspiring movie/screensaver: http://bit.ly/8oAYO

My first two pregnancies were not full term deliveries – the first was a six month, and the second a seven month delivery. The babys’ weights were 2.12 and 3.15 pounds, consecutively. You would think a small weight would lead to an easy pregnancy, but this is not so. There were factors that made the deliveries unlike a full term delivery.

“Everything Is About To Change…
You Can Learn And Prepare For The Most Thrilling, Rewarding And Emotional Time Of Your Life!”

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My labor pains were harsh. The pains felt like someone kicking me in the stomach. I was attending USF with both pregnancies. My Mom and sister, Glenda came to the apartment to take me to USF to pick up my grades for the semester. This was June 11, the day I delivered my first child. This is also the birthday of the Man I Love, Edwin Ayala. Unbelievable! So magical! My Mom and Glenda were already in the car. I got into the car, and my first labor pain hit me. I growled. Glenda was asking me a question, at the same time. Glenda thought I was answering her question. She said, You don’t have to be such a grouch! I didn’t know it was a labor pain, at that time. They took me back to the apartment.

The pains begin to come in a timely manner. I went to Women’s Hospital. My total labor lasted for three hours (My labor was three hours also for my second and third babies.). The doctor was hesitant to rather the baby would live because not many six month babies survived in 1976. When the baby came out of the birth canal, the doctor replied, The baby is “sponky”! She was a miracle baby.

She resembled a frog when first born. The weight of close to five pounds was reached by my baby staying in the hospital for seven weeks. She was a beautiful baby girl. One nurse had growed very attached to her.

A problem noticed because of her long stay in the hospital was she reversed day and night. She would sleep during the day, and stay awoke at night. She also cried a great deal. I was still attending USF. The first year of birth was very, very rough. My loving Mom kept her during the day the first year while I attended school.

My second child had some other complications. I was at USF in a microbiology lab class. I was looking at a petri dish under a microscope when a sharp pain hit me. I knew exactly what it was. I was going into labor. I left the class and called my sister, Glenda. She came and took me to the University Community Hospital, the closest hospital around. They discovered that my baby was breech (feet first instead of head first). The ambulance took me to Tampa General, the hospital where I had registered to have my baby.

He was kicking hard and fast. Everything went fine. My son stayed in the hospital for almost four week. He was so cute and hairy. Years later, I discovered that he had tight tendons in the back of his heels. My son had surgery performed to correct the problem.

The events that led to my premature labors were: I walked to USF everyday from the apartment, carrying the books I needed for class. I was determined to finish school. Other individuals didn’t want me to finish. I am a very determined person when I want to accomplish a goal. I graduated from USF with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry.

Let me make mention that I became pregnant with my third child while still at USF. I went to the doctor and his recommendations were for me not to go to USF while I was pregnant, and to return after I have the baby. I did just that. I didn’t want to sit at the apartment. Instead I went and found a job. This was my first full term baby! View Your Product Available For Download.http://betterlifeinformation.com/pregnancy-baby/having-a-baby/

You can create a full life by doing something that brings a greater good to the greater community. You get to define both, which part of the community and what act of kindness and giving you would like to undertake.

“Turn Your Web SITE,
that Costs You Money
Into a Web BUSINESS … for Profit.
Start Today … by Planning It “

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Quiet often we need to look within ourselves to become the person that would put themselves out their to give to the community, also have a look around at the people you see already volunteering their time and doing great things that benefit us all. What type of people are they? Look at how happy and fulfilled they are giving back to the community. You cannot make change simply by willing change you must first make the change in your mind. We have constant mental chatter which creates our life for us, as if it’s on auto pilot and is usually working against us. But when we realise and understand that these thoughts can be replaced with thoughts that serve us better. We can create our reality and you will be amazed at how our life can change.

Start by keeping a journal and record every hour what you are thinking. Change these thoughts around and look for the positives, focus on these and be grateful. This will help you move on.

Have a look at yourself and see what you can do to increase value in others. What can you do to give more value to others than what you take? Whenever you do this notice how you feel. After sometime have another look at yourself and see the change, if it works for you continue.

If you are always frantically trying to fix stuff outside of us remember the best way is to fix what’s inside of us. Get clear on what you want, how you want it and how it is better for the greater community.

Love what you do, things will evolve and change around you in time. Simply start by telling yourself a new story and you can rewrite your past. Take the journey where you want to go, be selective with these in your mind and it will gradually reshape your life. Create success in your mind first.

Take the time each day to visualise your goals and ideal life, this will help replace any unwanted thoughts and allow you to focus on being successful, you don’t need a lot of time to do this just 10 minutes a day is enough. You can visualise all manner of things including the kind and generous act of giving back to the community.

A great way of giving back to the community is through your business, whether you work for a boss or are self employed in a franchise, running a home business or a rep for a direct marketing company, or whatever, you could initiate a giving back programme that would benefit one of the many groups that needs help.

You can help the community in many ways by proving money to special projects around the world providing a greater good. That’s what we are here to do as spiritual beings, sharing our experience on our journey to Be, Do and Have. To create a better experience for those who come after us. Remember what you put in you mind will manifest. Give more value than what you take as you go about life.
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Small Business Internet Marketing Local Business Advertising Online How to start small business internet marketing and local business advertising online is a question that many small and medium sized businesses are pondering as more and more consumers disregard Yellow Pages books and other forms of traditional print media and move online to discover what they are looking for.

You CAN Turn Your Small Business Into A Big Producer! Why Barely Make Ends Meet (Or Worse) When You Can Experience Massive Profits?

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The Internet is dramatically changing the way we do business and all the major companies are dominating online advertising leaving small and medium sized businesses in dire need of an Internet advertising solution for connecting and interacting with local consumers who are moving online in record numbers.

Many businesses who have formed an online presence for themselves are quickly realizing that a pretty looking website does not equate to being found amongst the millions of websites online. Add to that the cost of dealing with designers and developers, and many businesses have no chance of competing in today’s Internet savvy communities.

One effective way is to make use of some of the many article and press release directories accessible online to announce your arrival into the online community. Providing concise informative information is the key here.

It is not about flogging off your business products but about providing solutions to consumer problems. Think about what solution your product or service can provide and write an article about that, not about your product or service, but what solution it can provide. Save the product details for the author’s resources box.

An additional way small and medium businesses are trying to compete is through pay-per-click (PPC) programs like Google Adwords. Unfortunately nearly all of the important target keywords and search terms have been become highly competitive and are usually cornered by key companies with huge advertising budgets. And, to add fuel to the fire, there are at this time real concerns about click fraud.

Is Click Fraud and PPC Advertising a Issue? According to Click Forensics, the overall industry average click fraud rate was 17.1% in the 4th quarter of 2008, up from 16.0% in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

The problem, which is not new, is companies get paid based on how many times users click on online ads. Fraudsters develop computer programs that simulate user clicks to drive up traffic, and artificially inflating revenue. -Source: Peak Solutions/SEO Since 1999

What this means is if you and I are real estate agents and I discover you are advertising on a pay-per-click search engine, I will get up at 6am and start clicking on your ad until I use up your daily budget to stop the ad from appearing on the search engine for the remainder of the day to increase the promotion of my classified ad on the same search engine.

What About Organic Search Optimisation? The most valuable form of search engine marketing is organic search engine optimisation or SEO as it is more commonly recognized. Internet keyword search studies confirm that keyword searchers have a preference for organic search listings 6 to 1 to the pay-per-click sponsored ads found at the top of the pages above or to the side the organic searches. But SEO is another story entirely and too long to cover here.

What About Geo-Targeted Advertising? However, new small business Internet marketing technologies and strategies are opening the way for small and medium sized businesses to succeed in their business advertising online and compete in this lucrative online marketplace. One of these strategies’ is geo-targeted advertising which is driving online shoppers back into local stores and into using local business services.

It works by identifying the online shopper, gamer or surfer’s IP address and pushing out advertisements for local businesses onto those websites. These ads can be seen popping up all over the place from major search engine pages and gaming sites to the increasingly popular social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Boomj.Com and other high traffic sites like eBay and i-Supply.

So it’s not surprising that local has become one of the hottest terms in advertising. Attracted by the huge growth opportunities, all and sundry, including the world’s major technology, search and media companies, is gravitating to local business advertising.

Smart business operators are laser-targeting their advertising campaigns by selecting zip/postcodes suited to their business needs. This means their ads only show up on websites when and anywhere likely customers from their designated areas are online.

When the consumer clicks on an ad they are directed to, in many cases, a mini-website complete with text links, images, videos, discount coupons, and even interactive driving directions. Never previously have small and medium sized business owners had such real time control of their online branding features combined with a powerful local advertising presence.View Your Product Available For Download.http://betterlifeinformation.com/internet-marketing/marketing/

Home Migraine Remedies That Work Fast and Are Safe and Easy

There are many good home migraine remedies to alleviate the discomfort and discomfort associated with migraine headaches. A number of folks have found relief using these techniques and have been successful in stopping migraine discomfort naturally. Home cures for migraines are frequently over looked. When the majority experience migraine headache pain, they first resort to over-the-counter or prescription medications. However, in addition to standard treatment, it is feasible to stop migraine pain naturally, using natural remedies or alternative cures.

“101 Ways to Attack Your Headache BEFORE the Pain Starts and
Buy Back Your Life Again!”

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But before you can research some of the home migraine remedies, you must first figure out what triggers your migraine. The truth is that there are nearly as many different triggers as there are migraine sufferers. It has been found , however , that many migraines are caused by a number of of the following factors.

The first migraine trigger has to do with genetics. If one or both of your parents suffered from migraines, you will also have them.

The food you eat can bring on migraines. Alcohol, processed cheese, caffeine, chocolate, synthetic sweeteners and seasonings ( MSG ) are known for causing migraines in some individuals. In addition, stress, too much or not enough sleep, changes in the weather, time zone, or altitude can bring on a migraine attack. And lastly, external factors, for example bright lights, certain smells ( perfumes ), or second-hand smoke may result in migraines. Following are several natural home migraine remedies.

Relieving tension can frequently relieve migraine headaches. Stress can be relieved in many ways such as with biofeedback training, taking a warm bath or shower, lying down and resting in a quiet dark room, putting something cold on the back of the neck ( at the base of the skull ). You can also have somebody massage your neck muscles and temples to help to relieve your tension and muscle spasms. Regular exercise can also, over time, reduce strain.

A cold compress is another one of the home migraine remedies that decreases migraine or headache discomfort. If you want to try this approach, begin with cool washcloths or towels around the neck, churches, and armpits. A ziplock bag stuffed with ice or a cold wash cloth may also be used. Although the majority report a cold compress works best to find release from a headache or a migraine, some individuals claim that heat works best for them. If you want to try this approach, start with warm washcloths or towels round the neck and armpits.View Your Product Available For Download.http://betterlifeinformation.com/wellness/headache-prevention/