Useful Holiday Tips - Enjoy your holidays & be healthy!

Holiday season is the best among all seasons. Holiday season is the best for family gatherings, spending time with friends, and snowball battles. All of us want to enjoy holiday season. Several people feel migraine problems and severe headaches due to wrong strategy of spending holidays.  You should follow some guidelines to enjoy wonderful holidays.

Following are some ideas that will definitely help you to make great holiday season:

During holidays try to eat little of everything whatever you want because holidays means fun not eating! Eat little instead of joining a gym after holidays.

Avoid potatoes & stuffed food. You should eat more vegetables during holidays to be fit and fine. 

Don’t spend your holidays in watching TV. You should spend your time with your nears & dears. 

Dubai Holiday Apartments

Property investors have managed to make great premium on their property and are now considering putting the properties in the market to support the tourism boom which is about to hit the UAE by 2010 where Dubai will have the tallest skyscraper in the world, the largest manmade island on earth, by far bigger than Manhattan and the largest shopping malls in the globe.

Government figures show Dubai now has 7 million overnight guests per year and should achieve 15 million tourists per year by around 2015. Tourist from the United Kingdom and Germany prefer to stay in a Villa or an apartment.

If you are a Dubai home owners you notice that Jumeirah beach residence and Nakheel have started handing over thousands of apartments beach facing to land lords who have waited for this day hoping to start using their holiday home for their families and visitors and their retirement while they can drive income from their investment while they are away by short term furnished rentals Jumeirah beach residence a part of Dubai Properties Has announced on their web site that Minimum rental period furnished allowed is 6 month Homeowners and real estate agencies have not been aware of this policy The developer had no restrictions on how long a homeowner could let the unit for .

Traveling For Thanksgiving - Keeping Kids Busy

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering the family, but how do you keep kids interested while in the car or sitting in airports? Have them keep journals.

Thanksgiving Travel

Nothing beats getting your extended family together for Thanksgiving. It is a great time to catch up and laugh about old times. The only aggravating thing, of course, is actually traveling to meet up. There are already stories of travel nightmares in the news two days before Thanksgiving. This can be particularly troubling if you have kids who become easily bored. 

In these days of the Internet and video games, the average child seems to have an attention span of about 30 seconds. If a glassy-eyed child killing things on a screen is not your idea of good thing, what alternatives do you have? Giving your child a writing journal is a great way to keep them busy without resorting to violent video games. 

For many kids, the only way to truly get their attention on a thanksgiving trip is to get them involved. The best method for doing this is to give them a journal and ask them to keep notes on everything they seem. At the end of the day, they should be encouraged to write a journal entry about what happened during the day. It will give them an outlet for their thoughts, promote good writing skills and preserve family experiences they would otherwise forget with time. 

How to Travel with Food for the Holidays

Preparing food to share at the holiday festivities is a common practice in our society. However, you need to be able to travel with the food so that it will remain delicious when you arrive at your destination. Foods can move around causing them not to look as pretty when you arrive. You also don’t want the food to tip over and get all over your vehicle. This can be extremely messy as well as be quite frustrating.

There are some wonderful containers out there that allow you to transport foods for the holidays without too much trouble. They are insulated containers that will keep the foods hot or cold. Many of them come with a covering that zips up around them like a suitcase. They even come with a handle. You should consider placing these items in a box so they won’t have as much room to move around while you travel to your holiday destination.

You do need to be very careful about food spoiling when you transport it for the holidays. You definitely don’t want to get anyone sick due to food poisoning. If it will be hot or you are traveling a long distance avoid foods such as potato salad with mayonnaise that can easily spoil quickly. Be prepared for delays too because the amount of people traveling on the roads over the holidays can result in the food being in your car for hours more than you had originally anticipated. 

You can also place such items in a cooler with plenty of ice to keep them cold while you are traveling your holiday destination. Make sure you keep an eye on the amount of ice in the cooler and then refill it as necessary. If you are carrying breast milk for an infant along for the holiday travel you need to keep it cold in a cooler as well. 

Thanksgiving Traditions Which Can Be Shared Year after Year

Thanksgiving is a holiday each year where your family can really start some great family traditions.  Often families tend to get into a rut after a while, and adding some new and interesting family traditions to the Thanksgiving celebration can really liven things up and give people something to look forward to all year.  

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for those people we treasure in our lives and those things we have been blessed with over the past year.  A nice tradition to start is having everyone present at your Thanksgiving gathering go around the room and tell what they are thankful for in their lives.  In addition to what they are thankful for, you can add on the tradition of also saying something nice about each person in the room.  

Another great family tradition is to have a white linen tablecloth on a different table than the one used for serving food, so that it does not become stained.  Before or after the meal, hand out a black permanent marker to each person and ask them to write something on the cloth and sign their name and date it.   You can then use the same cloth each year and have people continuing to add their information on it, or you can use a different cloth each year, maybe a smaller one, and have someone in the family turn them into stitchery or even a quilt.  

Planning Thanksgiving Dinner

Planning Thanksgiving dinner and preparing it can be very stressful, especially if you have a large family or are expecting a number of guests. In order to make Thanksgiving more enjoyable for yourself as well as your guests, some advance planning and preparation will work wonders. Use these tips to make your holiday a stress-free, memorable occasion: 

10 Days before Thanksgiving: 

A week to 10 days before Thanksgiving, make your guest list. If there are any friends or family members you have not yet contacted, do so now to give them and yourself plenty of time to prepare. If any of your guests will be bringing a special dish, add it to your menu. You can also download some recipes from the internet to enrich your thanksgiving menu.

If you will be cooking turkey, decide upon fresh, frozen, or smoked. Make sure you have room in your refrigerator and oven. You should plan on one to one 1/2 pounds per person and even a bit larger if you want plenty of leftovers. 

Deciding upon your final menu should be completed at least a week before the big day. Consider the number of people you will be entertaining and if you have children on your guest list, try to plan a couple of special dishes or treats especially for them. 

Tips for Finding the Best Holiday Travel Deals Online

The internet gives us access to just about anything we can imagine. This includes finding flights, trains, buses, hotel rooms, and rental cars that we can use to travel for the holidays. While most of these entities are more expensive when you travel over the holidays due the demand, you can still find some good deals if you take the time to look. 

You will generally find that you can save the most money on holiday travel if you purchase a complete package deal. This is less expensive than buying each piece that you need individually. It also provides you with only one confirmation number that you need to keep track of instead of several different ones. 

There are literally hundreds of sites online where you can look for holiday travel deals. You can search by your destination in a search engine or choose the various sites you have heard about. It is a good idea to keep a list of the sites you visit and the prices you are coming across. This way you can compare the prices and easily remember where you want to go back to.

Most of the time fares will be cheaper online than by contacting the place directly because it saves their business time of having to set up the travel arrangements for you. Make sure you carefully read all of the information though because some travel deals have hidden costs that you don’t want to be liable for. You also need to check into the cancellation policies and about rescheduling your trip. 

Children Traveling alone for the Holidays

Due to the number of non-traditional families in our society, it is common for custody agreements to require children to travel over the holidays to be with the other parent. This is an issue that many parents have to deal with in the best way possible. If the parents live in close proximity they can easily drive them to the agreed upon destination. If the divorce is amicable it may even be possible for each parent to drive half way for the exchange of the children.

However, it isn’t always possible for parents to be able to do this for one reason or another and that means that children will end up traveling alone for the holidays. You want to make this as smooth of a process for them as you possibly can. Make sure you talk to your child about the process and they know exactly what will be taking place. It is important that you talk to them about not going with strangers for any reason while they are traveling alone for the holidays.

Make sure you pack your child plenty of activities for them to entertain themselves during the flight. It is a good idea to pack them drinks and snacks too in case they get hungry. Never leave your child until they have boarded the type of transportation they are taking. If there is a layover or a cancellation they will be left alone.

Going on a Kitesurfing Holiday

One of the best things you can do during a holiday is to discover a new activity. A kitesurfing holiday is ideal for you to explore the new extreme sport that's taking the world by storm.

What is kitesurfing all about? Well, it's all about you, the wind and the sea. Actually, it's all about maintaining control and getting the most out of life while strapping yourself onto a board, launching a kite, and hanging on. If you want to discover what it's all about during your holiday, then here are some things you should know:

1) Training matters – if you are new to the sport, then your holiday might be a great way to try out this sport. You might not hit grab the kite and hit the water right away but you will definitely enjoy kitesurfing after a brief training. Kitesurfing, after all is an extreme sport for a reason. There is danger involved. When you are being taught, you need to listen.

2) The equipment – Since it is a holiday, you might be given the opportunity to rent or lease equipment. However, that does not mean that you shouldn't check out the quality of the equipment you would be using. Make sure that the safety gears you are using are effective and rated. Kitesurfing is an activity that relies on equipment to give you the enjoyment and safety you need. Do not take the tools of the trade for granted as they may be the only things keeping you from an accident.

Why Visit Turkey?

Why Turkey? That's often the initial response from someone when they hear that you are going to Turkey on Holiday.

It's a huge country littered with interesting artefacts and populated by some of the friendliest people on earth. Flowers seem to burst from every crevice, the sun shines endlessly, transport systems are efficient Scenery ranges from dull to mind-boggling, beaches are fair, prices are low and shopping is excellent, especially leatherware in Istanbul. Driving is suprisingly safe, apart from mad Istanbul taxi drivers and night driving.

Knocking at Europe’s door yet on the threshold of Asia, Turkey is truly a land of contrasts. Here you can scale the icy heights of remote Mount Ararat in search of Noah’s Ark, cross the historic Euphrates and Tigris rivers, follow in the footsteps of St Paul or simply relax on the golden Mediterranean sands of Patara beach. 

The holidays are upon us

Do difficult relatives ruin your holidays year after year? I had a colleague, Traci, who proclaimed a few weeks before Thanksgiving that the family gathering would be ruined as usual because of her sister-in-law, husband, and meddlesome nephew. She had a defeatist attitude plus she figuratively put on full battle gear ready to go to war with these despicable in-laws.

I reminded her from previous conversations that you can’t change the other person, but by changing how you approach this person, you could get a more favorable response. I explained that the minute they walked in the door they would sense her hostility and react accordingly. I suggested that she pretend this is the first time they are meeting. Welcome them into her home and as the hostess, keep the conversation light.

At the same time, she can make wise decisions based on their experience with the misbehaving nephew. She has a right to set boundaries and enforce them if the parents don’t. What could she do differently this time since he didn’t listen previously to not touch the computer? Traci decided to remove the keyboard from the computer. She also denied him access to the hot tub, which he had damaged the previous year.

Solving Holiday Shopping Woes

Finding the perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for husband, sister-in-law, nephew or pal is an annual challenge for holiday shoppers. Searching through shopping malls or clicking through hundreds of Web sites can dampen even the highest holiday spirits.

Now at FindGift.com, gift-givers can connect with unique finds like OneShare.com, where you can buy a beautifully framed individual share of stock in one of 130 U.S. public companies. This gift doesn't require batteries or assembly, won't wear out, is never the wrong size and lasts a lifetime. The frames are engraved with the company's services, products, characters and history. 

New parents or first-time grandparents, for example, can celebrate a child's first Christmas with a first share of Disney stock. Instead of a box of golf balls, golf lovers will appreciate a share of Callaway stock. If you have a biker on your list, you can honor his alter ego with a share of Harley-Davidson stock. And for mothers, a share of Tiffany & Co. or Martha Stewart is sure to please.

Planning for the Holidays

If you’ve been to any store lately you’ve seen that the holiday decorations have hit the stores. It’s the time of year that puts everyone in a good mood until the time that the family arrives on your doorstep. Then of course, the rush is on to get it all done in time. If you’re anything like me and my family, there are always last minute trips to the store to get everything that is needed for the dinner and the delivery of presents. 

Now is the time to plan out your whole event. You should know now whether you are traveling to a relatives’ for the holiday or even just for dinner. It’s a good time to start planning your menu’s and your presents for the people on your list. 

Here are a few things to make your holidays run a bit smoother:

• Write a list of each person who is to receive a present. If you need to draw names, make it happen via email this week.  Then select a budget for each person and draw the cash out and put it in envelopes. Make a vow to stay within the budget you’ve set. 
• Start by perusing the catalogs. It’s an easier way to shop. There are so many catalogs on line now so shopping on line will help you stay away from that crazy holiday rush. 

Going On Holiday? Take A Kayaking Tour

When you go on vacation, you will probably want to try something new. Sea kayak tours are a great option for adventure that is safe.

A kayak sea tour is a great activity for a vacation. Such tours are popular in tropical locations. In fact, a large percentage of people use kayaks. You do not have to be a strong kayaker as long as you enjoy it. When you sign up for kayak sea tours, an experienced guide always accompanies you to help you if you have problems. Every year, more and more people are taking kayak sea tours. The tours are enjoyable, great exercise and a wonderful tropical adventure!

There are many different things to do on a kayak sea tour. You can select activities including scuba diving, fishing, deep sea snorkeling, island exploring and a whole lot more! These are excellent and very exotic trips that anyone would love! When you are kayaking, it makes everything seem different. Kayaking on the ocean is not the same as kayaking on a placid lake. You will find yourself surrounded by giant waves and being tossed around by them! But the waves are part of the fun. You of course wear a life jacket and learn all the safety rules before going out.