Christmas Time

I think that that out of all the holidays, Christmas is the best and most recognized.
I would say that Christmas is probably the biggest, most important holiday of the year. Think about it, the most money is spent during the Christmas season mostly because of all the gifts, the stores make the biggest profit of the year, and it' s the time of year that stores have their biggest sales ever, (black Friday). It's the most popular holiday to travel. And most of all it is the only holiday at the end of the year. And worst of all it is the most popular time of year for people to go into debt and pay for it later.
So why do we as consumers buy so much stuff and make Christmas such a big deal? Well I am not sure. I think that each year we think to ourselves that we have to out do ourselves last year, meaning that we have to buy the newel, better version of what we bought last year. This said, for some shoppers it will be hard to do because of the economy, 22% said that they would not spend as much as they did last year, however, the other 78% said that they will spend as much or spend more and out do what they did last year.
If Christmas is such a big deal how come every year it seems to come way to fast? Every year when you ask anybody if they are ready for Christmas, almost all of them will answer "no".
I think that some of the no readiness has to do with them not being done Christmas shopping. We all have a tendency to procrastinate, especially buying for those that we are not sure what to get for them. The other most busiest weekend, besides the weekend after Thanksgiving, it the weekend before Christmas, the stores say that they get 5% of their sales that weekend, which is allot compared to the whole year.
So to all of you last minute shoppers for the holidays, it’s okay to procrastinate, at least you are getting it done, and now you know that you are not the only one putting it off until now, 3 days before Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who read this, and may your holidays be safe and filled with wonderful joys.

Being Home For The Holidays

Being home for the holidays are very important. Without being home or with family during this season is nothing that can be compared to. It is one of the worst feelings ever, to miss your loved ones during the holidays is unbearable. You wish that you could just move the holiday to another time when you were not feeling this low.
I am talking about not having a home to go to, not having a family to come back to and share the joys of the holidays, or not having the loved one come home from a business trip, or the troops over in Iraq, or Iran, coming home for the holidays. During this time of year you wish that you could just stop time and bring them home, or have a home to go to.
The holidays are about getting together and celebrating the season. This is especially true for those who cherish this time of year, who are looking forward to the holidays so that they can get time off and be with their families, that maybe they only see once a year, this would be the season it would be. This would apply to the people who travel for days, across the states just to spend a day or two with their family. Another thing about the holidays is the shopping. Everybody is in a rush to get all their holiday shopping done. And for the most part, people actually like to Christmas shop, the only problem is shopping for the people in the family that you don't really want to shop for because you don't know them very well, or maybe not as well as you used to. I'm talking about the in-laws and the siblings that you don't really associate with anymore. There are those people in every family.

Gift Ideas

As the holidays are just around the corner, some of us are unsure what to get for our friends and family for the holidays. So here are some ideas for some of those last minute shoppers who don't like to just give gift cards:
For the women, most of them love anything. But more specificallly there are many candles out there that have saying on them for individual family members, (aunt, mother, father, sister, cousin, ect.) Also things around the kitchen are very nice for the women who do all the cooking.
For the smaller children, well they are the easiest to shop for, they like anyhting.

Winter Weather

Winter Weather

Here in Iowa, winter is a dreaded season fir most of us. The snow comes too early and lasts too long. There are many car accidents every day when the weather is bad, which is quite often. At least once a week here in Iowa, in the winter, we get a bad storm, an about every other week we have delays and cancellations throughout the cities.
So why do people come to live in Iowa?
Well that’s a good question. I think that Christmas is not Christmas without snow on the ground. I was once in Florida for the holidays and it was not the same. But this might also be because I grew up with the snow every winter.
Despite the face freezing days, sometimes the snow is quite pleasant. When you are bundled up inside with hot cocoa watching out the window, it’s like living inside a snow globe.
So, just like everywhere else, there are some good things about living here, as well as some not so good things. Here are just a few
Disadvantages:
Scraping off really thick ice on your car, the morning after an ice storm
Having to leave about 10 minutes to a half hour early because of the road conditions
Not being able to enjoy the outdoors when the temperature is -20 degrees
Advantages:
Enjoying a nice white Christmas
The beauty of the light fluffy snow falling

Those are just some of the joys of living here in Iowa. After all that is just the winter, I didn’t even mention the other seasons.
So come to Iowa and see for your self.

Texting

Not everyone with a cell phone texts. Surprised? Well think about it, the generations before us didn’t even have cell phones or even for that fact, know what they were. I’m obviously talking about our grandparents, when party lines still existed (which is when a whole block of houses would share the same line).
Texting became really popular, at most, around five years ago. And even then it was not very popular to text. Ask teachers, they never use to be so strict about sell phones in the class room, but now they have to be because it is very distracting and a very easy way to cheat on tests or quizzes. I think that the most popular generation for texting is the students in high school and college, and maybe some of the student in middle school. I think this because our generation is basically what “inventors” are trying to attract and they know that we are the one who are consistently keeping up with all of the new technology. Five years ago when texting was put on cell phones, who would have ever thought that it would have became so big that they would have cell phones with miniature keyboards on them. That is just how, “high tech” if you will, we are, that we need a keyboard to text faster. And I’m sure in another five years, give or take, there will be something else that everybody “needs” to communicate. How much more “high tech” can we get, we already have a mp3 player, internet with keyboard, and games, all in a cell phone, what else could we possibly come up with?
Now even parents want to learn how to text so that they can be “in the loop” with their children. Some parents are even texting their kids at school distracting them, wanting them to text back what they are doing. Well its kind of common sense what they are doing when they are at school. Even as a pretty big texter myself, I find that this is getting way “too popular”, and needs to decline some. You cannot even walk into a classroom anymore without finding at least one-person texting constantly. I think that parents should be a little stricter with their child’s text messaging. Also they should not instigate a conversation while the child is at school. I find that the teachers policies are quite fare, some teachers threaten that they will confiscate the phone if it is visible to them in the classroom. Other teachers are even stricter with the rules and threaten to take the battery of the phone for the entire semester if seen being used during class. I find it incredibly rude to text during class because you are there to learn and I’m sure that whatever you are texting can wait until after class to be said.

The Gift of Giving

As another holiday is just creeping up again around the corner, everybody is thinking of what to get their family and friends, they often do not think about what they will receive during the holidays. That is because during the holiday season a warm feeling comes to most people, even the Scrooges, ;-). Around the holidays something inside makes you happy to think about others, this may sound selfish but I think that we can all relate. We are often so busy with our daily lives with school or work, or even both, that we tend to forget about other people. But during the holidays it is hard to forget about the giving part. We know that when we see a smile on someone else's face that we have created, it makes us feel good. I think that the holiday season should be about giving and not getting. There are others out there that will totally disagree with this entry, those are the people are the ones that think that receiving is everything, and that they could not survive Christmas without any presents, according to them, that is what Christmas is all about. I have so much to be grateful for that I feel that it is time to give back, ever since I was a little kid I received a lot of presents for Christmas, but know it is different, it really took something huge to open my eyes and realize that some of the less fortunate people out there will not receive anything for the holidays. I think that most of us reading this is well aware of this, however we aren’t doing anything about this. Well I shouldn’t say that because there are a lot of people who contribute to the toy drive or toys for tots, drop some change into the buckets, and so forth, but somehow it doesn’t seem to be enough, there will still be children this holiday season who wont be able to wake up Christmas morning to a tree full of presents underneath.
I think to solve this problem, we should all buy just one toy this year and donate it to the salvation army, toys for tots, or any other organization that will distribute them out for those that need them. Just think of how many children could have smiles on their faces, all because of one toy that somebody with a heart bought. I think that that is what the holiday season is al about, the holiday spirit, of giving and seeing the happy faces on the people who never expected it.

Youtube

Youtube is the place to go to see practically anything happen. Basically if you have a computer then you know about youtube. Anybody can use it, and anybody can broadcast themselves. That is one of the best parts of it. You can find anything from Albert Einstein to the latest hit album. What i found most interesting is that schools are using it in their class rooms for teaching lessons and showing the students video clips. Some teachers are even making students post videos on youtube for class projects. Other teachers are posting all of their tests and quizzes online and making the students complete them within 48 hrs. Here is my opinion on this subject: i feel that teachers are taking advantage of the students having the internet at home. There are many students who do not have internet access at home, let alone a computer. The teachers then expect those students to make an effort to come in before school or after school to work in the computer lab to get all the work done. I think that this is very unfair because there is not alot of time to work when you have an early bird class starting at 7 and you have to work after school at 3:30. i do not think that the teachers know the gravity of the situation.

Snow Days

Almost any students that you talk to will say that they love snow days, ice days, or any other sort of thing that will delay school or even better, cancel school. The only bad thing about having school being cancelled is that you will wake up early and check the cancelations on the news, just missing the letter that your waiting for, you have to wait like another 10 minutes for all the other delays and cancelations to go by. Finally when the name of your school or your community is cancelled, you get so excited and have so much adrenalin, that you have to take out in texting all of your friends and being the first to let them know that there will be no school. So fianlly after that you are ready to go back to bed, considering you have nothing to be up for. The absolute worst part of all of this is that you just lay there and can not go back to bed no matter how hard you try, you are still so excited that there is school and you want to plan your snow day. knowing that the weather is obviosly not good enough to go anywhere, hints why school was cancelled, so you just lay there, tossing and turning in your nice warm bed thinking your so glad you don't have to get out of for anything.

The Holiday Season

When we think about the holiday season, we usually think about the act of giving and kindness, along with Christmas shopping and decorating. When I think about the holidays, I can not help but think of the people who stand out side in the freezing cold, ringing the bell for hours, on their own time, just to help others for the holidays by trying to collect donations for the less fortunate. Yes, I am talking about the Salvation Army. We all know that every time we walk out of the store we think of how nice it would be to just throw a few dollars, or even just some spare change into the bucket, so why don't we? Some of us do but others are too busy thinking of themselves. Think of all the children who are not going to get any presents this Christmas because their parents will not be able to afford it. That is where the Salvation Army comes in. they provide presents for the children who are not able to receive any. But they also do so much more than that. The Salvation Army also comes into play when natural disasters happen, such as hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. They give up to thousands of dollars to a family to help them through this hard time in their life. The Salvation Army is located in 117 countries; they also help out with proving food for the people in some of those countries, where there is starvation.
So the next time you are out shopping and you come out of the store, take a few minutes to dig around for that spare change for the bucket. Anyone can make a difference, and even the smallest thing counts. That change will go towards thousands of situations that could use help, whether it is for a Christmas present for a child on Christmas, feeding the staving people around the world (including here in the United States) or just helping a family out because they lost their home because of a natural disaster. So instead of buying a pointless CD, use the money to donate to the Salvation Army. Just remember it is going to a good cause.