Outside the Gift Box

After all the hustle and bustle of the season, it’s time for the most relaxing part—gift wrapping. Let your creativity soar by matching paper and bows, name tags and ribbons, or not. I’ve seen at least one person wrap gifts in newspaper. Once you’ve shelled out the money for gifts, free newspaper or brown paper bags for wrapping gifts fit right into the shopping budget. And for those of us too pooped to wrap, we can always replace wrapping with those amazing, decorated gift bags.

The worse part of wrapping is tackling the awkward, oddly shaped item that reveals itself as soon as the recipient spots it. There’s no way to disguise those gifts. If you’re giving a car this year, don’t bother wrapping it, settle for the traditional, oversized bow. And if you’re wrapping something like this, just do your best:  

                                     https://youtu.be/jm3dm5J5r0A

 On Facebook, someone posted a message that mentioned how every year their Christmas list gets shorter because they want more and more things that money can’t buy. What’s the gift you want for someone that could never be wrapped?     

Greater is Coming

Did you leave behind unfinished business in 2014? Maybe the year began with promise and plans of a new job, a new relationship, with starting a new hobby or establishing a good habit, and somewhere along the way things stalled.

If 2014 didn’t end the way you expected, perhaps you were knocking on the wrong doors in the first place. It’s similar to when our cat explores the house. She’ll stand and meow at a closed door until we finally open it. You’d think she’d be pleased about being able to walk through it but no, she looks into the room and decides that it’s not where she wanted to go after all. Before we know it, she’s pursuing a whole new adventure.

The point is if you’re waiting on doors that haven’t opened up, don’t be too quick to run through those doors when they do open. Maybe a closed door was to give you time to think   about adopting better plans. Interesting things can happen when you don’t look before you leap:

                                         http://youtu.be/aIdIjMa4Z54   

If last year’s circumstances felt uncomfortable, maybe it’s time to stop, regroup, and make a new plan. By keeping your eye on the big picture, you can begin again. What’s your greater plan for this year?