To Love, Honor and Vacuum

Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008

Making Your Christmas House a Home

(20 downloads)

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Do you spend your Christmas season yelling, "This house is a mess!". How much better to say, "This mess is a house!"

In this hilarious podcast, learn how to get perspective this Christmas, so that you remember that it's about relationships, not Martha Stewart perfection.Along the way we'll learn some tips for keeping your home under control.

But remember: comfortable is different from perfect. Don't aim for perfect this year, or everyone will think you're Scrooge!

This one is a lot like my book, To Love, Honor and Vacuum, and it's based on a talk I gave this year called "My Perfect Christmas Tree". Sometimes we worry so much about looking like we have it all together that we forget the point of life.

(Note: In March 2009, mypodcast.com crashed and lost all my archives. I've reloaded them, but the download count is way off, FYI!).

Posted by Sheila Wray Gregoire at 7:14 PM | MAKE A COMMENT

Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008

REAL Christmas Success

(19 downloads)

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Let's get real here. No pretensions.

How often do you judge yourself by how productive you've been? By how much you've gotten done today? By how much you've achieved?

We all do it. It's part of our culture. And it can be a good motivator.

But it can also wear us down, because ultimately success shouldn't be measured by what we do. It should be measured by our character, and by how much we've been transformed to look like Jesus.

That sounds deep, but my podcast is also very funny this week! I'm looking at how we sometimes aim for the wrong thing, both in our lives and at Christmas time. This one's a good one, and you can listen while you search the web!

Posted by Sheila Wray Gregoire at 7:24 PM | MAKE A COMMENT

Tuesday, Dec 09, 2008

Your Christmas Present to Yourself!

(21 downloads)

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Okay, ladies. Let's be honest here.

Most of us don't look like that Barbie.

And most likely we never will! So why do we spend so much of the Christmas season feeling guilty about our weight?

We do all that baking, and then we feel like a louse when we sneak some of it.

Wouldn't your Christmas be much better if you could concentrate more on the meaning behind the season, rather than feeling so guilty for not living up to an unrealistic ideal?

So if you want a funny pick-me-up, listen to my latest To Love, Honor and Vacuum podcast! It's only 8 minutes long, so you can have it playing while you surf the net. And I'm sure it will make you laugh!

Posted by Sheila Wray Gregoire at 8:32 PM | MAKE A COMMENT

Tuesday, Dec 02, 2008

Season's Greetings vs. Merry Christmas

(21 downloads)

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I haven't actually done much Christmas shopping yet. I don't have much to buy, because I've decided not to get much for the adults in our lives this year, so I can afford to wait a bit.

But last night I was shopping for regular things--some office supplies, drug store stuff, etc. Thus I was at the mall with all the crazed people.

And I counted how many times I heard or saw "Happy Holidays". It vastly outnumbered "Merry Christmas". And whenever anyone said Happy Holidays, I said Merry Christmas back, really loudly.

I've never understood why people want to pretend it's not Christmas. After all, in this same mall was a line up to see Santa that would rival Disneyworld. Santa is a big deal, and Santa comes at--what's the name of that holiday again?--oh, yeah. Christmas.

Now we don't do Santa because I always thought it took away from the central message, and Santa defies the laws of physics anyway. But let's face it: people who see Santa do so because they're celebrating Christmas.

And the songs are getting silly, too. I check out the Christmas CDs at the counters of all these stores, and not one had a genuine carol. But increasingly they're even getting rid of ones that mention the word Christmas, in favour of "Winter" songs. If we're going to celebrate a season, we should celebrate summer, not winter. It makes no sense, unless it's a vast plot to cover up the fact that it's Christmas.

But why do stores participate in it? The reason sales go up this time of year is because we're all buying Christmas presents. So why are they so scared to acknowledge that? Those who don't celebrate Christmas aren't shopping much, anyway. Why don't they reach out to those who do? And who do they think buys all those ornaments and wreaths, anyway?

It does drive me nuts, and if you want to hear more about it, I went on a big rant for my podcast this week on how politically correct Christmas is becoming. You can listen in here.

But in the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(Note: mypodcast.com crashed in March 2009, erasing the archives. I've reloaded these podcasts, but the download numbers are way off, just FYI!).