Gratitude

Christmas Nostalgia – Have a Merry One My Lovelies.

Image result for christmas gifs

I don’t know why but in the midst of present Christmas celebrations – low-key in the UAE – I suffer from deep pangs of nostalgia for Christmas’s of my childhood. I relive them with heartfelt gratitude to my parents who always made each Christmas special.

I hope you have a wonderful time of the year with your loved ones.

I am sharing an old Christmas post of mine. It’s Christmas made in Nigeria.

Jacqueline

Family · Lifestyle

Excitement In The Outdoors This Christmas

Decorations, Bauble, Christmas Tree, Festive, Light

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Christmas is a truly wonderful time of year. With the world taking on a breathtaking hue of white, the temperature dropping very fast, and loads of little jobs to do, going outside will often be one of peoples’ least likely choices. Of course, though, this isn’t how the kids will feel. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the ways you can add some excitement to your child’s outdoors this holiday season. These can either be as Christmas gifts or as something fun in the run-up.

Sledging: When it starts to snow, a lot of people have an excellent opportunity. It’s unlikely that you live somewhere completely flat, giving you the chance to find some nice, slippery hills to send the kids flying down. Sledging has been a very popular winter pastime for hundreds of years. This makes it nice and easy to find all of the gear you’ll need, and it will just be a matter of doing some research to get all of the safety tips you might need.

Quad biking: Of course, in some cases, you might not be in a place where it snows, and this will make sledging impossible. Thankfully, though, you have an alternative; ATVs. Finding recommended 4-wheelers for kids will take some research. But, with your findings, it should be nice and easy to get started on your next adventure. Like sledging, you will need to adopt some safety methods before you get started with this sort of fun with your children. Along with this, it could also be worth looking for helmets and pads to keep everyone uninjured.

Snowball Fighting: Going back to snow, it’s time to think about another classic. Snowball fighting has been around for a very long time and is a great way to get the kids out for free. As long as everyone has a good pair of waterproof gloves, you will be able to handle the snow for hours at a time, and the kids will have loads of fun. You’ll just have to make sure to set up some rules before you get started.

A New Friend: Finally, as the last idea on this list, you could think of something much more long-term. A dog will live for many years, requiring walking throughout the course of its life. This sort of addition to your family will go down very well with children. With the right preparation, you could have this be the best gift of the year, arriving on the day itself. Of course, though, this is a very big decision to make.

Hopefully, this post will inspire you to start working on some ideas to get your kids outside this holiday season. It can feel very uninspiring to go out when the weather is bad, and a lot of families will spend most of the season indoors. While there are no problems with this, it could be much more exciting to do some outdoor activities, as well.

Featured Blogs

Posts That Caught My Interest #7

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Here are a couple of posts to appreciate.

Fearless Friday

Even when it seems we don’t have it all together, there might be a smidgen of courage in there somewhere.

The Big C

A beautiful, honest and sensitive post.

12 ways to maintain the Christmas spirit after Christmas

The spirit of giving shouldn’t be only for Christmas.

I am hoping for some good karma 

Has your site ever gone missing on you? How did you resolve it? Can you help Cathy?

As a parent, we all do it

A post that made me smile. Parenting is the hardest job we get to do. No manuals, no classes. You simply jump in and wade your way through.

Comments closed to encourage you to visit the featured links.

Regards and have a great weekend.

Jacqueline

Personal

Yesterdays’ Moonlighting Job…

Tuckered out after a busy yesterday spent writing an exam (talk about adult night schooling) and covering a photo shoot and editorial for a customer later on in the day, I am spending a lazy Saturday today.

Let me share a bit of my moonlighting work with you 🙂

Santa in the House as Jump-Boxx celebrates its 2nd-Anniversary.

The best memories of our lives are truly made of those beautiful, little things and happy moments that life brings our way. At the top of these best things in life are the joyous moments spent with our loved ones.

We may not realize these things as they happen because they seem so ordinary, but as time passes by, we only grow to appreciate these wonderful moments in time.

A good afternoon spent yesterday at Jump-Boxx brought childhood memories of Christmas past flooding my mind and as I write this article, reminisce takes me down the lane of those days filled with activities building up to Christmas morning.

You could literally smell the distinct fragrance of Christmas in the changing atmosphere and the cold, crisp morning breeze carried certain excitement in it.

Our parents shopped for toys and lovely clothes for us. Indulgence in eating during this season was and is still common.

Our Christmas gifts always turned up each Christmas morning, nicely packaged and delivered by Santa.

Though I tried many times to stay awake and catch Santa as he made his trip from the North-Pole to our house, alas, I was never lucky enough to catch him. I presumed that I never caught him because we had no chimney that he could slide down in, so he left his gifts at the door and my mother always found them.

We looked forward to the trips to our schools Santa’s grotto back in the days, where our eyes rounded out like saucers in wonder as we looked at this white-bearded, red-velvety garbed robust mystery with his jolly good HO, HO, HO laughter and a twinkle in his eyes as he handed out wrapped gifts that we couldn’t wait to tear into.

Indeed, as I watched the excited children meet a jolly good Santa yesterday at the 2nd-anniversary celebration of Jump-Boxx, a quote from Winnie the Pooh comes to my mind, “We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.”

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Here’s a slide of some of the photos I took. There are more through my photos in google link.

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Featured Blogs

Featured Posts – Share your post links

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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Do step in and show some love.

The stain of ingratitude A beautiful post to start off the day.

Motivation An uplifting and cheerful Christmas beat that will have you tapping your feet.

Can I get one more chance? Ah! Life hands you circumstances that make you wish that you would rewind the clock just for a second time around. Sad, poignant and enlightening.

Total Recall A must read for you, you and you. We all play this comparison game.

Why write with Nanowrimo? Why do you take part in Nanowrimo? I enjoy reading other people’s take on why they write and their approach. You always glean something.

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.

Rononvan's Weekly Haiku Challenge

Gifts of Gold – Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge

Image result for images of the three wise men

Bearing gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense
they sing songs of Joy
and bow to the Him, The Cornerstone

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Ronovan writes weekly haiku challenge – Gold & Sing

Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge Image 2016

Devotions · Gratitude · Musings · Quotes For You

What Is It All About?…

It’s Christmas Day in two days, but it’s been Christmas for longer than these days in my heart. Always something

I am grateful for all the lovely messages of Glad Tidings floating around cyberspace.

I am grateful for all the smiling faces and happy vibes that I see all around me in my neighbourhood.

I am grateful for provision and for the time spent with my loved ones. The children are on school break and it’s a beautiful time of laughter and squabbles.

I am grateful for the ”Reason for this Season, Jesus Christ” – the center of my gravity, my peace and redemption.

Christmas is not just about the bright lights, the gifts or the plentiful eating happening all around, but about the Birth of the Messenger of Peace and Love.

Indeed, we can experience bone deep peace and joy of Christmas in our lives, even beyond this time if only we look up and try.

Remember that it is the little things that makes the difference. What are you grateful for today?

You can join Colline’s  or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

Blessed Love and Peace to You and Yours. Merry Christmas.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Dubai · Family · Gratitude · Inspiration - Motivation · Love

….And We Get To Rest.

Oh Yes! In the presence of the Lord,Each day
I will bring my gift,
In thanksgiving and joy,
There is joy in my heart,
It is flowing like a river,
And I will praise the Lord,
In Thanksgiving and Joy.

For today’s gratitude challenge, I am thankful that I don’t have to jump out of bed early for a couple of days and rush around like a headless chicken, to ensure that the children are ready for school.

It’s National Day celebration over here, so we get today and tomorrow off school which spills right into the weekend. Yes!!!

I am thankful for the season that we are in. I feel the joy in the air. Even in this city that is Muslim dominated, there is so much liberalism at this point.

Christmas decorations are popping up at the malls and Christmas tunes float in the air from several shops. It’s amazing and I am thankful that we are in a city that is tolerant of other peoples’ religion.

I am quite sure that you have something to be thankful for today.

Blessed Love.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness, it will change your life mightily.” – Gerald Good.