I am sure like you with the Holidays fast approaching it has become a very busy month. It seems I hardly have time to catch my breath, before I have moved onto another project.  Yet even with all the hustle and bustle, this is my FAVORITE time of the year!! I absolutely love decorating the house, which only took me 3 days! I like to have every room decorated and since I have been collecting snowman, snowmen on ice skates and ice skates since my daughter was 7, (she is now 29) you can probably visualize the amount of “collectables” I have collected.

Since my daughter was a competitive figure skater for many years, I still have a love for anything to do with that sport, thus the ice skates, and snowmen just melt my heart. With the inside done I then have to make the outside just as pretty with the hand painted, and cut wooden yard signs I did years ago in snowmen, snowmen on skates, penguin on skates with a yarmulke (pronounced yäm-a-ka) on his head and little dreidels near his feet with a Menorah on the other side of him. All of that adorns our front yard being highlighted by the twisted red lighting on my banisters and white lights on the house. Along with the collection of snowmen and skates in the house. the front window shines brightly with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree with a Menorah in front of it, sitting on the window ledge. 

After the decorations were up and the house was very festive, I hosted a Secret Santa Party for my co-workers at a retail store that I work at a couple days a week. It was fun and enjoyable to spend time with those that you work with in a social environment, laughing, eating and enjoying each other’s company.

Each and every day I have been working on still getting the charity event that I am Co-Director for off the ground here in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City is the first community in 11 years to bring Queen It’s a New Day outside of the Seattle area. The foundation is being laid for this amazing three day charity event. We transform hundreds of women’s lives in this three day annual charity event that will take place the beginning of December 2012. These women receive brand new work clothes, shoes, haircuts and styles, chair massages, manicures, pedicures, makeup application, professional photo shots of themselves, a three course professionally catered dinner with key note speakers and professional entertainment at a Gala event attended by hundreds in the community, where they and the attendees are dressed in formal attire. The Queens stay overnight at a 4 star hotel, have breakfast and attend speaker workshops and life skills training classes throughout the second and third day of the event. The website is www.queenitsanewday.org if you would like more information or would like to become involved.

So, that brings me to this moment. and I would just like to say,  I am so grateful for all of you!

I still have a few more things on my “too do list” before the holidays are upon us but I am grateful that much of it is serving others in some way.

My wish for you all is that in celebration of whatever your holiday is, you and your family are blessed with laughter, love and health. That everyone has a moment to reflect on the differences that they make in this world simply by being yourself and sharing your gifts with others. That you live your life with abundance in knowing each of you are worthy, capable and enough, so you may reach out to those that struggle with that concept, embracing them to understand that they too are deserving of feeling that way. But especially, that we all practice GENSHAI- never treating someone in a manner that is small or demeaning, including ourselves. That principal alone will change the world as we know it, making it a kinder and gentler place for all to live.

May you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Eid al-Fitr, Yule, and Kwanzaa and a Wonderful and prosperous New Year in 2012!

Love and Light,

Judee