Aunt Martha just commented on your 10 pound weight gain. Cousin Sue won’t shut up about how her kindegartener is reading Harry Potter. And Uncle Larry just pinched your ass. Or you’ve still got presents to buy, and wrap, cookies to bake, and a house to clean

If the holidays and family start to stress you out, here’s a tip from me to you. Take a deep breath, a swig of wine if you’re a drinker, and repeat after me:

I.N.I., or…It’s Not Important.

Put the family issues and stress out of your mind and concentrate on the GOOD within the holiday season. And be thankful you only see these people once a year!

If you’re contemplating weight loss, no doubt you’ve seen something, or read something, about Hoodia. Lord knows I get enough daily spam advertising it. Obviously you don’t want to trust the spammer McSpamsters out there selling it, so I’ve found a REAL Hoodia comparision site for you. This site wants to educate people about hoodia (since spammers are giving it a bad name!) and steer you away from fake hoodia, and they hope that you’ll find their honest reviews of hoodia helpful in making a decision!

A lot of people get down in the dumps at Christmas, but not me. I’m a regular freaking one woman cheer factory. I love presents, and Christmas cookies, and stockings, and shopping. The kids are out of school, and soon I’ll be on vacation….with every day closer to Christmas, I get a bit more annoyingly chipper!

I know hair loss is a touchy subject for some people. Uh…people losing their hair I guess, because it’s not a touchy subject for me. Remember Ron-Co and their spray on hair in a can? ::giggle:: Ok, I’m being serious now. Bald is beautiful. Balding, is not. So here are your choices men, if you’re losing hair. Shave it all off, or get a hair transplant. Don’t worry - hair transplants have improved a lot since the hair club for men days, and if you don’t believe me, you can check out these hair transplant before and after pictures.

Whatever you do, do NOT do the Dick Van Patton “Eight Is Enough” combover. We’re not falling for that. Oh, and wearing a hat 24/7? Yeah, we’re not falling for that either.

That previous post got me thinking about people living paycheck to paycheck. I couldn’t imagine being days away from having my electric turned off, especially right before Christmas. We have a warm house, plenty of food, and good friends. We have people who would help us out if we needed it. We’re blessed. It’s a bit of a catch-22. If you’re in a bind, and need to get money by applying for personal loans, you’ve got to have a good job and good credit. Which probably means you could get yourself OUT of a bind without the help of loans. True, you can get bad credit secured loans, but they usually come with a higher interest rate so you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul…thanks to my sponsor tonight for making me realize how lucky we are.

It’s understandable that donations have slowed down this week - people are spending money on Christmas! I wanted to take a minute to let you know about the donation WE made as a family though. Jim is a manager for a local grocery store, and they were approached by the elementary school to help a family in need with a food donation. The guidance counselor mentioned to Jim that this family was due to have their electric cut off this Friday as well, and asked if his store could help with that. They couldn’t, without going up higher to corporate, and typically a request like that would get denied…

anyway…

Jim called the electric company and paid the $250 bill today, from our family. Not exactly the same as buying gifts for someone, but I feel good knowing that family will not only have food this week, they’ll have lights, and a fridge, and an oven!

I found this website that lets you create personal ringtones with matching avatars. You know, so when your phone rings in the grocery store, 10 other people don’t check THEIR phones too, right? The first 60 days of the service are free too, so you can try before you buy. Check it out here - oh, you can email the ringtones to your friends too. And post them to your MySpace page! Pretty neat of them to sponsor this post so I could tell you about it, eh?

In my search for a license plate thingie for the front of my car, I came across some cute stuff (t-shirts and whatnot) that said “Save Second Base”. Think about second base…and how it could relate to breasts…oh good, you’re up to speed! There was a whole team of women with Save 2nd Base t-shirts on during the 3-Day, so it was cool to see their slogan out there on the internet. Still didn’t find what I’m looking for though.

Does anyone out there have chronic fatigue syndrome? Despite my love of sleep, and naps, and my husband thinking I have some kind of sleeping sickness - I don’t. But CFS is a real problem for many. It’s more than just feeling tired or worn out - it’s feeling exhausted for six or more months, and there are other side affects that go along with it. It’s a bit of a medical mystery, and doctors are still trying to find out why chronic fatique syndrome affects people. There are new drugs and medications coming out all the time to help people, and even some all natural remedies like Revivol. Revivol is a powerful CFS and Fibromyalgia remedy. In researching Revivol for this sponsored entry, I found out that the makers of Revivol have such faith that you’ll be impressed with their product, they’re offering your money back if you’re not!

Less of Paige is a great blog that’s had me laughing. I identity SO much with it. From turning older (although if you think 27 is old, wait til 30) to having the blahs Paige is honest and funny. She says that she’s been talking about losing weight for a year, and actually losing weight for 5 months.

If you want to see the real face of weight loss and life, check out Less of Paige.