Apparently, my mom tells me, that everyone  the Christmas sadness one time or two in their life.I always thought that it was impossible.  I love Christmas. It is the holiday that I look forward to the most. they are correct really. I’ve got the Christmas blues. I am officially experiencing Christmas stress. I can’t even bring myself to hang the holiday garland.

I cant think of what has gotten into me. I am wiped out recently. I was supposed to get gifts for everyone this week but I just can’t seem to find the right kind of cheer I need.  It’s my personal Christmas shopping principle to have “the right kind of cheer” whenever you shop because it will reflect a great deal with the gifts you choose. As if things couldn’t get any worse, mu husband Jim was talking to his boss who mentioned how much fun he had at last years dinner party so essentially invited himself.  Jim must have “forgotten” to tell me again last night. 

So aside from the gifts I still have to buy and the Christmas stress I have to get out of, I have to prepare a dinner party that will top the one I gave before. I need to switch into my Superwoman mode right now. Nothing’s happening. I am overly tired. I hope I’m not coming down with the flu or something.  It’ll be a blow for the kids. People have come to expect the happy cheerful me at Christmas time. I don’t want to bring down the party.

Ugh. I truly don’t feel very good.Pardon me…. WHAT!? My Christmas stress is officially over. 

I just got the news that me and my husband are having a baby! Bring on the party! I guess the flocked garland might get hung this year.

Most people have been at least ones in their lives in a real scary haunted Halloween house. But why is one better than the other? We all know those creative people who try their absolute best, but it just never is really frightening. And the actual scary haunted Halloween houses are created with nothing special. So, what are the ingredients for an extremely haunted Halloween mansion?

Darkness helps

The darkness is the friend of all Halloween lovers because nothing seems to be very scary in the light of day. You should eliminate all normal lightning during the Halloween days and keep your house and yard covered in a deep deep darkness. Although it will often not create the haunted Halloween feeling you are looking for, you can use strange colored and flashing lights. In fact you need to give your house a slightly desolated feeling. Trick or treaters should be wondering if anybody actually lives in that dark and dusty house. You can use some subtle small lights to make sure they see the spiderwebs and other stuff that enhances the scary atmosphere.

Use all senses

You feel frightened because of everything you pick up with your senses, all smells, sounds, sights, tastes and feelings create that scary feeling. And lets not forget your imagination, because your imagination is what makes a bowl of spaghetti in to a bowl of worms and a skull with Cookie dough into a brain. Artificial spider webs are only by your imagination made in to real scary ones. And when you are already slightly scared you will be scared to dead when somethings pops out of the darkness of your desolated house. When you add sound and smell even grown adults will run away. But you need to trigger the imagination with the element of surprise or it will not work.

Good haunted Halloween houses do not need to be expensive

A lot of people think you need to spend a lot of money to create a real scary haunted Halloween, but this is not the case at all, in fact less is more in this case. When you buy a lot of stuff it will look nicely decorated for Halloween but will it be scary? To create some scary special effects you need to spend a little money, in fact you can scare the whole neighborhood with limited funds. Sound is very important and it needs to be used carefully, when you use to much it is not frightening at all. It is better just to use the sound of a deep hart beet that people feel rather then hear then those eerie music you can buy at most stores and even download online. You just need one awful good scream right at the moment that something pops out of the dark to be more powerful than all the Halloween sounds all together. But you do need that one perfect awful scream!

Light is the next important thing again strategically placed to light out some simple scary desolated item does more then all the colored lights together. Illuminating some dripping blood in the darkness will scare most people and can be very cheap. As you can see you do not need a lot of money to create a haunted Halloween. You can start at the entrance of the garden and work the scary feelings up to the door for the big scary finale.

Kristin King is a real Halloween lover, at here website AheadOfHalloween.com she likes to write about a Halloween theme party , Halloween craft ideas and much more.

A holiday should be about getting a break and having a chance to relax.  However, if you have a family it is easy for this goal to be forgotten.  The stress can start before you have even booked the holiday.  So how do you make sure that all the family have fun and that you get a chance to chill.

Booking your holiday
You know your family better than anyone else, so if you don’t think something is a suitable idea then it probably isn’t.  We have all seen the adverts of happy families all cycling and doing family activities and smiling, or the kids in kids club and thinking it great.  Just remember that these kids only had to look happy for the length of the commercial and even then it could have taken a couple of attempts.  If your children are not of ages where they want to play together then don’t think that you will get to your destination and they will suddenly want to share a tandem.When selecting your holiday you need to make certain that there is something for everyone, and that includes the adults.  You don’t have to have a perfect activity for everyone every day.  It is very acceptable to tell you pony loving child that today we are cycling and that tomorrow will be their day and they can go pony riding and choose the lunch on their day.  So keep your expectations realistic and go with your gut instincts.

Packing for your holiday
What ever you think you need, you can probably halve it.A useful trick is to dress your children in layers.  This saves taking bulky jerseys which then will probably not wear.  Also if it is warm I have often found that my sons put on their Bermuda style swimming shorts in the morning, and since they dry so fast, they actually end pretty much wearing them all day everyday.  Equally, pyjamas take up space and kids are often quite happy to bath, pop on a t-shirt and soft jersey shorts, and then have a last run around and fall quietly into bed.  So now I don’t even bother packing pjs.  Remember, this is a holiday, you can break any rules you want, just make sure that it makes it easier for you and they think that it is a treat.

Next, you need to be ready for the actual journey.  Do not expect your children to be perfect, holidays are exciting so don’t ask too much of them and then they will probably surprise you and behave far better than you expected.  Do however, be prepared and buy some special activity packs, sticker books or whatever they will see as a treat and don’t let them have it too early.  If you are in for a long day then you need to manage the treats.

Finally, don’t worry about anyone outside of your family.Kids much prefer to play eye spy with you, than have to hear you constantly reminding them to keep down the volume because of the other passengers.  However boring the other passengers may find eye spy, it is a lot better than hearing a parent shouting or a kid screaming.

Now you just have to remember to have fun and stay calm.