10 Romantic Thanksgiving Ideas For Couples: by Kathy Smith

Thanksgiving usually has been thought as this family event where large and abundant meals, families & football games were the main centerpiece during this Thanksgiving holiday season.

There're are a lot of things that need to be done during this season that you'd probably end up busy and you might end up neglecting your partner/relationship because of this Thanksgiving season. It shouldn't be the case. You should have time to insert a bit of romance and also let your partner feel how special he/she is to you during Thanksgiving.

Below are 10 ideas to give your partner and your love relationship that romantic spark that it needs:

1) Have fun cooking together

If both you & your partner enjoy the pleasures of cooking then do set a bit of time aside for both of you where you could try and cook for each other and enjoy the Thanksgiving treats that you'll each be preparing.

2) Be a date to somebody else

You could try and volunteer to be somebody else's date so you could probably help a person not be alone during this holiday season. This could make you more thankful with all your blessings and not focus on the many problems.

3) Attending that service during Thanksgiving

Be sure to attend at least 1 service then make this as the time for reflection.

4) Watch that festive parade during Thanksgiving

You and your partner could both watch the parade together before going on to having that Thanksgiving party dinner with either of your families. This ensures a bit of together time well before all of your families intrude in.

5) Have an unusual date by exercising with your partner

Do the unusual date by exercising together. Go biking around the neighborhood or you could also go to gym together. This will actually assist you in shedding off holiday fats as well as give both you and your partner some quality time as well.

6) Go driving around the countryside

You and your partner both should sneak out at sometime and just go for that leisurely drive in your car on the countryside. It will give lots of alone time with each other before you tackle Thanksgiving dinner with family.

7) Play the "Twister" game

You could both play this game when your day is about to close to ending just to really unwind a bit from all that chaotic but happy hustle & bustle that is Thanksgiving.

8) Cozying with the fireplace

Turn your fireplace on, make some really good cocoa, turn your lights down then play some really good and soothing music. These quiet moments are really the most sweet and romantic times.

9) Watching/attending a game of football

This can be made into a tradition or you could do this just once. You could either watch it on TV or you could attend it personally with your partner on the ball field. Either way, you'd be sure to have fun!

10) Prepare that private celebration for you guys on Thanksgiving!

Spend really quality time with your partner by having that romantic Thanksgiving dinner celebration for just the 2 of you. Make it really special and be sure to appreciate your partner and be really thankful because you have each other.

There are lots of things which you can do with your partner on Thanksgiving holidays to keep that fire burning even during this holiday season where family is the priority. Enjoy !

About The Author: Kathy is a food Lover! You can check out her very popular Thanksgiving Recipes website where she shares some of her Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes and Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes on http://www.quickthanksgivingrecipes.com
Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/relationships/article_3352.shtml

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Baby’s First Overnight Visit With Grandma: by Maria Cummings

Letting grandma care for my baby for an overnight visit was intended to provide me rest. I had never been away from my daughter for any length of time in her short four month old lifetime. Since my mother had been asking for over a month to keep my baby for an overnight visit, I could not put it off any longer. Preparing everything to get her to grandma’s house made me feel like I needed a vacation. Add to all that the stress of being away from my baby for the first time.

Mother had already purchased some baby items to keep are her home, but she did not have everything necessary for an overnight stay. My mind started going over the possibilities. If she needed to go anywhere, the baby travel system with the car seat and the seat base was a necessity. To be useful, it would need to be installed in her car. I knew that she was not planning to go anywhere, but you never know what might come up. The stroller, car seat and base made their way into my vehicle.

My baby rarely falls asleep in he crib, so even though my mom has a play pen which could be used as a crib we did not need it. I usually have to put her in one of my ring slings and wear her around the house until she falls asleep. After she has fallen asleep, I carefully move her to her crib. I brought along one of my ring slings and planned on showing my mother how to use it.

It was our plan to use cloth diapers for our little one. Cloth diapers were used with my older siblings but I was a disposable diaper baby. She thought my decision was like going backwards. my mother had a hard time understanding how much cloth diapers had improved since her days of diapering me. To show her how simple they were to use, I was going to bring along my Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. So, in addition to everything else I packed a few cloth diapers and a wet bag and planned to show my mom how to use them.

By the time I was done packing my mini van I needed a rest, but it was time to leave. My mother and I spent over two hours going over everything after heading to her home. When she asked me if I thought she had ever taken care of a baby, I realized it was time to leave. I had taken everything I could to make the overnight visit easy on my daughter and on my mom. I then went back home to prepare for my dinner date with my husband. The dinner was stressful, as I could not stop thinking about my little girl and I called my mom about ten times in just the first two hours. All the worry was for nothing; the visit went very well. My mother had a wonderful time taking care of a little one once again while my daughter slept through the entire night for the first time.

About the Author: Maria Cummings is a mom that has devoted herself to helping kids and families in the community. As Manager of Bustling Baby, Maria enjoys sharing her experience of natural parenting with new parents and supports parents in finding the best natural baby products at ==> http://www.BustlingBaby.com Article Source: ActiveAuthors.com

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Supporting Your Work at Home Wife: by Allen Hart

The new trend in our society is working from home. Many women are leaving the corporate world to come home and care for their families, but they still desire to contribute financially. It can be challenging to work from home, especially for women who have children to care for as well.

Is your wife is one of the growing number of work at home moms? Here are ten key tips on supporting her:

1. Encouragement is key

Sometimes all that your wife needs in order to be successful with whatever she is working on is a little encouragement. Often times she won’t have anyone else around to give her the encouragement that she needs and you may be the only person that can give her the encouragement she needs.

2. Help with whatever she is doing

Depending on the business there may be extra work that could be done by you. For example, with my wife’s website, Christian Work at Home Moms (http://www.cwahm.com/), she will often need someone to write a script, setup an email account, or proofread a document. Some of the tasks aren’t going to be the most glamorous but 5 minutes could save your partner hours of time and added stress.

3. Be positive

It's easy to be a positive influence on your wife and her business. Listen to her when she talks about her business. Don't put down her ideas for business growth - help her think of new ideas to help her business grow. Remember that just because she is working from home, that does not make her business any less important or legitimate. If you are a positive influence on your wife and take an interest in her business, there's no telling how big the business might grow! As wives, we need our husband's support and encouragement!

4. Watch the kids

Your wife is at home with the kids all day every day. Sometimes she is going to need a chance to work with no distractions. If the kids are constantly asking questions and bugging your wife she can’t get anything done. Don’t wait to be asked. Be proactive and offer to watch the kids.

5. Listen

Your wife might not have a large support system or other co-workers to bounce ideas off of. She is going to need someone to talk to and more importantly listen to the ideas she has. I think this goes hand in hand with encouragement. You will need to listen and encourage, sometimes that is all she needs.

6. Let her run the show

This is her job her business she gets to call the shots. I know that the way my wife and I handle the business decisions is that she runs all of her ideas by me and we mutually make the decisions. A lot of the decisions can be costly and take a lot of time. Those decisions should be made together but ultimately it isn’t your decision.

7. Be a part of the business

Many wives want their husbands to take part in their home business even if it's just helping to stuff envelopes. Taking the time to do even small things like this will encourage your wife and show her that you support her. If there isn't a way to be directly involved with your wife's business, pick one day a week and do the dishes or another chore that will free up some time for your wife to work at her business.

8. Don't let her give up

Most work at home moms will tell you that it takes 3-4 years to build a successful business. It doesn't happen overnight. When your wife feels discouraged, listen to her and ask if she would like your input on the situation. She will need your encouragement to stick with it. We wives do not like to fail our husbands and we sometimes feel like failures when our businesses are not doing well. Remind your wife of the time that it takes to grow a business and that EVERY business has times during the year when sales are slow.

9. Surprise her

This may not sound like a business tip, but a great way to help your wife stay motivated is to bring her little “surprises” – flowers, her favorite candy, a business supply that she can’t bring her self to spend the money on. All of these are great ways to remind her of your support.

10. Pray

Most importantly, this business is going to need prayer. Never underestimate the power of prayer to help you get going and keep the whole project rolling. If you aren’t talking to God on a regular basis it will be very hard to stay on track.

By following these ten simple tips, you can help strengthen your wife’s home-based business. She will appreciate your efforts and your marriage will benefit as well. Supporting your work at home wife is one of the best ways to show you care.

Allen Hart is the founder of CWAHD.com, Christian Work at Home Dads. CWAHD.com was designed to assist dads in their quest for a work at home job or business. For more information and additional articles, visit www.cwahd.com or contact Allen at info@cwahd.com. Article Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_3765.shtml

my bikes....

As i took my 4.5 year old daughter for small ride on her pink bike on a saturday morning , it seemed i was repeating a ritual that my dad did for me some 30 years ago. He had gifted me my first bike some 30 years ago. It was a red colored smaller bike with rims of creme color. Like my daughters one now , which is of course more flashier , it also had two smaller wheels on the sides of rear wheel to prevent me from falling. It had taken me some time to pick it up and learn moving the handle in the right direction , which of course my daughter picked up much faster given the generational shift. While this is chronologically only 3 decades ago , but then in India , seems like eons ago , given the amount of change our generation has seen in last 3 decades. Yet , few things won't change- idle chatter of mine to my dad , is the same which i get from my daughter. As i don't remember all the things i had said to my dad, so won't she later in life. But then , this wont come back to me ever again ....she wont be 4.5 years old again....and i wanted to savour every moment of this , even though , it is so boring to hear her same stories over and over again. It is some divine logic , which makes you feel like holding sand , which you know is slipping and you like it both slipping away and holding it at the same time....i fell in love with my parents once i became a father ...

Moving on to my bikes story ...that was first bike....second one was even better. It was a 6 years old Saine Raliegh cycle which my father had bought in 1971 , when he joined his first job. My mom says that i used to sit in the front rod of the cycle on a small child seat. It was definitely a luxury.And my parents used to walk for kilometers make me have a ride across the small town called Sindri. That cycle gave way to new Vijay Delux scooter parrot green in color , which was added to our family in 1977 , when my younger brother came in. This scooter was my best fantasy come alive with me standing in front of dad holding on to the handle. The air blasting past my ears while dad used to drive was so much of a whizz....i turned 10 , when i tried to first hand on my dad's bicycle. Believe , it was an experience to feel so high perched on the top of the moving metal. I was not tall , so it took me a while before i could climb up the perch easily...which i did eventually and much to my delight , circled around the colony that we lived over so many rounds that in the evening , my mother had to put my legs in salted hot waters to relax my thighs. Then for so many years that was stable companion of sorts , i did most of my home errands on that for my mother. i carried vegetables , took wheat for grinding to the local grinder shops , all on my dad's bicycle. That old man stayed with me for another 20 years , when finally in house , my wife tried to be kind with some local washerman , and gave that to him which he never returned.

Then as i moved to Tata Steel as a GT in 95 , i still remember that first week of August sometime , when all my friends had already bought their Yamaha RX 100 , the bike that stirred our generation, i was destined to purchase a cheaper 4 stroke version of Kawasaki 4S bajaj. But this was a compromise that i had to live with. Yamaha was Yamaha...it could start at the 4 gear directly . Only Yamaha could , others of that generation of bikes could not. It was not era of Pulsars and Hayabushas in India. Yamaha was the best. That synchronous sound of the engine that went past the hostel rooms were so exotic. And yet , each day , i pretended that my 4S was equally good , which i did it was not. Yet , it was faithful , like the wife and Yamaha was the sexy neighbour that i could never my hands on. So much so on Yamaha...even today after 15 years , as i look at old ones whizzing on the road ,not comparable to newer flashy ones , i still cannot get over the high that i gave me then , like an old wine , it gets sweetened with age.

Today , i believe , may be as i would turn 40 , may be , i can purchase the king of the roads the
Royal Enfield Bullet ...may be a show piece , to showcase , my remaining manliness. Indeed , you start needing that 40 onwards perhaps ....

Top 12 Family Fun Activities for Holidays

We all just love holidays, don't we! They provide a great opportunity to spend quality time with family or friends, give in to hobby fever, do some outdoor activities, or just laze around. There are many things we like to do on holidays with the usual ones being travelling, playing indoor or outdoor games, watching movies and believe it or not, sleeping! Though I personally feel sleeping (during the day at least) is such a waste of time. I would rather do something more interesting, like shopping :). I wait and wait for my hubby to be at home on the weekends. And when the weekend comes, hubby dearest keeps dozing off!:)

Enough about that. Here are a few fun activities, some usual and some not so usual, to indulge in with your family on a holiday. You probably do some of these already and you can try those you arent!

Outdoor Fun

1. Travel
Travelling is and will remain the most popular thing to do on a holiday. Be it a weekend trip or a longer vacation, it will break the routine and give you ample time to have fun together as a family. Once on vacation, you can plan for sight seeing, picnics or just simple relaxing around in the hotel. For day visits, you can just pack everyone into the car and go to the zoo, the beach, the botanical gardens or an easy choice, the local park.

2. Sports
Outdoor sports are a great way to bond with your loved ones and keep fit. Choose any game that your family enjoys such as football, baseball, tennis or cricket or for the more adventurous, rafting, surfing, rock climbing, paragliding or skiing. Let each of you choose the family fun sports for the holiday, turn by turn.

3. Community Service
Volunteer for a community service in your neighbourhood. You can help out in a retirement home or a homeless shelter. You can also collect and donate useful stuff to needy people. These activities will teach your children the value of sharing and give them a sense of social responsibility.

4. Star Gazing
Star gazing with your family is a cool way to learn exciting things about the sky as well as spend quality time together. On a clear night, you can look for the brightest stars and figure out the constellations. And, if you have a telescope, you can delve deeper. Look at the moon and search for the planets. Your kids will love it for sure.

5. Exercise
Exercise as a family. This will make exercise fun. Yoga, aerobics, jogging or swimming, whatever it is that you can do and enjoy together, do it. All of you can lead the exercise routine, turn by turn.

6. Shopping
This never goes out of style. Its fun to go shopping with family especially for stuff that you would use together at home. Maybe a new stereo system or a new computer. Good idea! Perhaps we'll go stereo system hunting this week. Actually, shopping for clothes together isn't all that bad too, though your kids may feel otherwise, especially if they are at the 'I am grown up now' age :)

Indoor Fun

1. House Work
Though these might seem more like work, believe me, if you do it together in the right spirit, it will be fun!
>> Painting - Paint the children's room or the garden fence. Children running around in their paint-laden overalls..thats a 'Kodak' moment for sure!
>> Gardening - Plant new roses or attend to existing flowers. Let your children plant some seeds themselves. As their plant grows, watch their faces light up.
>> Cooking - Make your kids head chefs and assist them to cook a meal for all of you. Extra cookies for them if the meal turns out great! Dad dear can cook too, if he wants, or if Mom pushes him to :)
>> Arranging Photos - Bundles of photos piled up in no particular order! Those memories need more respect. Gather together, sort them out, laugh at the old ones and put them in albums. Sure, you have many of them on your computer too. Its a digital age after all. But nothing beats the good ol' photo album, right?

2. Build Together
Building something as a family is exciting and gives you a sense of achievement as a team. Be it a school project, an aeroplane model, a handicraft decoration for the living room or a family jigsaw puzzle, do it together and see how much fun you have. Reward yourselves with icecream when you successfully complete what you started.

3. Reading Time
Have a family reading session, at least, once every week. You can get together to read aloud stories or general material. Select different themes every week - entertainment, religious, spiritual or educational.

4. Watch Movies
Watch TV or movies together. You can have a small home theatre show with comfy pillows and a big bowl of popcorn. Its really nice to watch old home movies together too: weddings, birthdays, the baby's first step, grandpa snoring and the like :)

5. Photography
Who says the camera can come out of its case on special occasions and when you go out? Any day can be 'snap' day. Photograph each other in jazzy costumes, funny poses and doing silly stuff. Fun to shoot and fun to watch later!

6. Gossip
Last but not the least, get together and gossip! Nothing mean, you know, just fun stuff about your relatives, neighbours or friends. Nothing like relaxing with a cup of coffee/tea or milk (for kids, I mean) and talking about others :)

Of course, there is other fun stuff you can do, but I jotted down the ones I liked. You are welcome to share other fun stuff you do with your family, in the comments section.

Getting Along With Others

Found few inspiring insights from the writings of the great Guru Paramahansa Yogananda; thought it would be a great start to the blog. He wrote the following about getting along with others.

The greatest of all happiness, next to divine happiness, is to be at peace with one's immediate relations, those with whom one must live every day in the year. When people try to handle the extremely complicated machinery of human feelings without any training whatsoever, the consequent results are often disastrous. Very few persons realize that most of our happiness lies in the art of understanding the law of human behavior. That is why so many people are often "in hot water" with their friends, and, worse yet, at constant war with their own best beloved ones at home.

The basic law of right human behavior is self-reform....Whenever any trouble occurs with our friends or dear ones, we should inwardly lay the blame on ourselves for getting into an unpleasant situation and then try to get out of it as fast and as graciously as we can. It is fruitless to increase the trouble by loudly, unkindly, discourteously blaming others, even though we find that they are to blame. We can teach quick-tempered dear ones to mend their faults a hundred times better by setting a good example than we can by harsh or self-righteous words.

Something to dwell upon, isnt it?

Relationships - Tough, aren't they?

We may love them or we may hate them, but we just cannot ignore them. Our relationships are as much a part of our existence as perhaps mother nature. Keeping them nurtured is probably never easy, but we still need to, to be able to lead a normal happy life.

Be it with parents, friends, spouse, siblings or colleagues, we have our share of great times, good times, bad times and sometimes really testing times! Sigh..what can be done about it, thats just how life is.

A husband and wife love to spend time with each other, but also need their individual space. A mother strives to make her kid independent, but when he or she does, feels left out. An employer wants to be friends with his or her employees, but only to a certain extent, so that his authority is not compromised. Any of this sound familiar?

Lets come together in handling these tough but beautiful gifts of God. Surely, you have some good memories spent with your loved ones that you may want to share with others. Or you may be stuck in some tough spot you want to get out of and discuss with others in similar situations. Yet again, you may have resolved some relationship problems and may have tips to help others resolve theirs.

You are welcome to comment on a post, or write a post yourself. Just send me a message if you wish to post for my blog.

Come, share with us.. !