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 ..