Happy Christmas

I hope your Christmas was wonderful and good. Mine was spent with great friends, delicious food and quite a lot of champagne round the table in my garden in Dubai! But Christmas Day in Dubai is nearly over so I’m going to bed now and I’ll leave you with one final Christmas song:

 

 

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Another Christmas Vampire!

This one is a bit more tricky to deal with! This is the Christmas Vampire Martyr.

This vampire sucks the life out of Christmas by taking on absolutely every task, no one else gets a look in. In this energy vampire’s world no one is capable of doing anything useful at Christmas and if she or he doesn’t do it then there’s a good chance the sun will not rise on Christmas Morning! They constantly complain they are tired and so so busy, but when the next task comes along they snatch it up before anyone else can!

Of course by Christmas morning this vampire is completely exhausted and no use to anyone. They scream and shout and rage but they are too worn out (they say!) to move. But of course they haven’t given anyone any instructions so everything gets done wrong – in their eyes! Which is yet another reason to throw tantrums and confirms their belief that Christmas totally depends on them!

This vampire is closely related to the Drama Queen and should be avoided if possible. They are not easy to slay but sometimes sheer force of numbers can overwhelm them. If you have to deal with them the trick is to catch them early and manage them by making sure they have enough to do that keeps them busy and distracted but whatever you do don’t let them take over the whole thing. Failing that, earplugs are a good option or make sure you fill them full of Champagne early on so they fall asleep and don’t bother anyone!

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Christmas Vampires

These energy vampires have just got to be the most miserable fun-sucking vampires around. The most famous was Scrooge but there’s lots more out there.

They can be easily recognised by their lack of a sense of joy about Christmas but they come in a number of different forms.

The most obvious form is the one who happily crashes in on all the parties but refuses to actually contribute. You’ll find them muttering about the how commercialised it all is but really they just don’t want to give. Anything. But they’ll happily take.

Then there’s the ones that claim they don’t have time to make a big effort for Christmas. Their busy lives are so important they have to rely on everyone else to do all the work for them. If you’re not careful these energy vampires will have you scurrying around doing their Christmas shopping for them, even buying your own present – but good luck trying to get paid back!

And there’s the cheapskate vampires who are a combination of the two. Any effort they do make will be to take the easiest possible route. They buy everyone the same present, sometimes the same present every year because its just too much effort to think! If they do host Christmas they use disposable everything and buy their turkey ready sliced or microwave TV dinners!

And then there’s the politically correct vampires who refuse to say Merry Christmas on the grounds it might upset anyone who isn’t celebrating. Well, anyone who is offended by being wished a Merry Christmas deserves to be offended! I live in Dubai, the most multi-cultural city on this planet, and this week I have been wished a Merry Christmas by so many people who don’t celebrate the religious aspects of it but who truly embody the spirit of Christmas!

What energy vampires are missing is that the true essence of Christmas is abundance and love. And so the easiest way to slay these vampires is to shower them with both!

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Oh Dear!

This hasn’t been a great week for blogging from me and I apologise for that. Sometimes being with friends and family just has to take priority, especially at this time of year. And tonight we are preparing to welcome some good friends over to our house to celebrate Christmas with mulled wine and mince pies! I was going to leave blogging until after the party but wisdom prevailed!

But I promise tomorrow I will share with you some more ideas on Energy Vampires and how to slay them, especially the ones who try to derail your Christmas fun!

So here’s another one of my favourite Christmas songs from one of my all time favourite movies.

…and yes, I know! I’m a bit old fashioned when it comes to Christmas!

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Birthdays and Christmas and Chaos

OK, I do love this time of year, I really do but sometimes all this celebrating gets a bit overwhelming, especially when there’s birthdays involved as well! So tonight I’m off to celebrate my friend’s birthday and I’ll leave you with a song!

Still no sign of snow in Dubai!

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How Life Really Is

Its so easy to be cynical but how about replacing every cynical thought with a positive one just for a few days! Go on, it’s Christmas!

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A Fairy Tale

I’ve been Christmas shopping today so I’m completely wrecked but starting to feel festive. So here’s my favourite Christmas song to keep you going while I have a sort of early night! No snow in Dubai yet but I hear it’s falling elsewhere!

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Time Management And Christmas

Those of you who have been here before will know my thoughts on time management (you can’t!). So today I was having the same complaint I have had probably every year at about this time for as long as I can remember – “how did Christmas creep up on me again?”

Every year around the end of October I have the inkling that its not far away and I should be thinking about doing something about it. Around the end of November I have the same thought with a little more urgency attached to it. And then, every year about a week before, its a full blown panic attack and beating myself up for not doing everything earlier when I had more time.

I’ve long had this fantasy of turning into Dubai’s version of Martha Stewart (but nicer and without the criminal record!). I have all the right intentions and quite a lot of the same skills but somehow the time management side of it eludes me and I end up where I am now, a week before Christmas and nothing done except a rather divine Christmas Cake which will be lucky to see out this week!

But here’s the thing, no matter how much I beat myself up for not being perfect, it will happen in seven days whether I’m ready or not! And Christmas at our house is always great fun, the food is fantastic, the decorations are wonderfully over-the-top, the mulled wine is lethal, the Champagne flows as well as the conversation and everyone has a wonderful time.

Once I get over not being Martha I get down to being me, I do the best I can with love and laughter for the people I care about, and that is always enough.

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What Do You Really Want For Christmas?

OK apart from world peace and calorie free chocolate that tastes exactly like the real thing, what do you really want for Christmas?

Its funny, when we are little children we ask for exactly what we want and quite often we get it but as we get older we stop focusing on what we really want and start to focus on what we think we can get. After a while we often even forget what we really want and learn to settle for what we’re given.

When I was 6 I asked for a pony for Christmas. I can’t remember what I got but there was no pony in my stocking. I asked again for the next two years, birthdays too but still no pony. Coming up to my 9th Christmas I tried a different tactic. I wrote to Santa and told him if I couldn’t have a pony this year I didn’t want anything else – could he just save up all my Christmas and birthday presents until he could afford to give me a pony. It seemed to do the trick!

What would your life be like if you only settled for what you really wanted?

Well for one thing it would be a lot less cluttered!

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Letter to Santa

Have you written your letter to Santa yet?

Seriously – we can learn a lot about effective goal setting from children at this time of year!

Writing your letter to Santa is an important part of goal setting – until you write your goals down they are not really goals at all, they’re just wishes!

Be specific – if you don’t know exactly what you want, how are you going to know when you’ve got it, or even more importantly how are you going to ask the right people to help you get it?

Ask the right people – make sure you ask the right people to help you. Just like children know there’s no point in writing to the Easter Bunny at this time of year – there’s no point in talking about your goals to people who are just going to put you off achieving them or can’t help you!

Expect Success – when kids write their letters to Santa they are pretty sure when they wake up on Christmas morning he will have delivered! Setting goals with an expectation that you will achieve them will help you stay motivated and focused especially when things don’t look like they’re going according to plan!

Be persistent – if you don’t get what you want, keep on asking until you do! It might take longer than you think but don’t ever give up – persistence always wins out in the end!

Sending you all the best wishes for a wonderfully abundant holiday season! May all your Christmas dreams come true!

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