Finances
Finding Some Peace on Earth
"Silent night, Holy night. All is calm, all is bright..." The carols try to tell us that this is a calm and silent time of year. But for most of us, the weeks leading up to Christmas can be anything but calm. You know the drill: office parties, shopping, baking, wrapping, relatives, Christmas plays and everyone's favorite - family pictures. It's...
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Expectations of the Season What does the Christmas season promise you this year? We all...
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Digging Deep for Christmas Presents Wouldn’t you love to wake up on Christmas morning, find a...
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." You can tell because everywhere you go someone is trying to sell you something! Stores began decorating weeks ago and the TV commercials are starting to have that Christmas flavor, too. So what's a person to do? Well, you could go 'bah humbug' and hide until January or you could try taking the...
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No matter how many resolutions we make, the holidays always seem to cause us to throw budgetary caution to the wind. If you’re hoping for the gift of more time with your family during the holidays -- take heart. Consulting this list, and checking it twice is sure to help you be wary of your budget, keep your holiday stress to a minimum and...
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Many families have told me about their "Christmas Simplification Plan" - limiting their gifts to three per person. We told the Kay family babes years ago that if three gifts was good enough for baby Jesus, then three gifts is good enough for them. This tradition has kept the focus of the season where it belongs and it's kept us out of debt too. Listen...
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The Christmas of 1949 we didn’t have a tree. My dad had as much pride as anybody, I suppose, so he wouldn’t just say that we couldn’t afford one. When I mentioned it, my mother said that we weren’t going to have one this year, that we couldn’t afford one, and even if we could – it was stupid to clutter up your house with a dead tree....
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Legend tells of a young girl who walked to a Christmas church service in a small Mexican village. It was traditional to bring gifts to lay before the nativity scene for Jesus, but the child lamented she was too poor and had nothing to offer. Suddenly, an angel appeared, explaining that even the simplest gift, offered in a spirit of love, would...
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Every year, with weddings and new babies, our family seems to grow by at least one. Now, with in-laws, nieces and nephews, my Christmas list has swelled to 18 "immediate" family members. Since we live hundreds of miles away from one another, not only does exchanging gifts mean shopping and wrapping, but also mailing all the parcels. Kind of makes...
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