An Open Letter to the Christmas in My Heart

So, it is Christmas in my heart.

It is four days of continuous celebration with the family and friends. It is thousands of pictures taken with my camera and iPad and other cameras owned by the other members of the family. It is lots of traditional Finnish Christmas food, loads of new games played on a game-player. It is Skyping and social networking to keep up with the friends and family who did not make it here. What a difference the Internet has made! Most importantly, it is wonderful conversations with the loved ones who are here. It is figuring out where everybody fits to sleep. It is catching up with everyone on everything that the gone year has bought their way.



The ingredients for the perfect Christmas celebration

The first ingredient is gathering the family from all over the world to one place; from Australia, UK and Finland. It is enduring the long flights through China and Amsterdam and then driving the hired cars for hours in the frozen roads to the destination. It is four generations of people speaking tree languages brought together by the ties of love and family. It is complete mayhem and a wonderful mix of personalities from the one year old to the great-grandma.



The second ingredient is building the Christmas tree. This one is a real Norway Spruce (Picea abies) with cones, brought in from the snow by the favorite broughter-in-law. It has the right kind of smell to it. It requires an engineer's touch with mounting the candles to make it safe. It needs everyone's input to become the perfect symbol for the celebration. And it asks for continuous adjustments and attention throughout it's existence until it is taken away in the new year.



The third ingredient is shopping for the right presents for everyone. It is the Secret Santa gone completely wayward as the presents pile up when 'Joulupukki' brings them and gives them away. It is the thought that counts and there are lots of love shared around. It is the little things from the healthy lifestyle to educational toys.

The fourth ingredient is the music and singing. It is a mix of Michael Buble, Karita Mattila, Gurrumul, HeviSaurus and the traditional Christmas songs, sang by the celebrating group in two languages, the goal being to sing every song in the book and succeeding. It is the sound of all the voices in harmony and joy.



The fifth ingredient is the visit from 'Joulupukki' on the Christmas Eve. Everybody knows that all the Scandinavian kids have intimate knowledge of what the Santa and the Elves look like. They do not have to relay on hearsay. It is Joulupukki himself answering those hard questions right then and there, like how did you get here even though there is no snow? The answer being that the rain-deer does fly, so there is no problem, there.



The sixth ingredient is the sauna and dressing up in celebration. It is those who are bros with it having experienced the Finnish sauna tradition from their birth and those who are being introduced to it. However, it is an important part. It is the experience of being clenched in mind and the spirit.




Mixing of the ingredients

In my experience the best way to mix the ingredients for a perfect Christmas is an appreciative attitude and unhurried space. Everyone is eqully responsble for creating the right kind of Christmas cheer which provides the best of everything for everyone.

What is fantastic in it, is that it is possible to take the best of all the Christmas traditions from each one participant and mix them creatively to form new traditions but with the same flavor that the old ones had. Forming new traditions is the exciting part in bringing together people from different cultures and celebrating the best of the best of everything.

In this new age of forming relationships and close connectedness of everybody, it is wonderful to see the young and the old feeling that nothing was lost but lots were gained by it.

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Inspiration Application; Marketing the Best of You!

Last week I was at the Westside Business Women's Breakfast meeting listening to a very interesting and thought provoking talk by Deborah Jackson about marketing the best of you.

Deborah is a client attraction specialist who has written a book called Easy Marketing for Women. It is Pink!

She has chosen to write her book for women because she feels that most of the books on marketing have been written with men in mind and mostly take their examples from their experience. Her book highlights the female experience of joggling many tasks at one go.

Of course, when listening to talks at breakfast meetings, they are always condensed to their shortest essentials and to get the full benefit, you must then read the books and follow their advise to know if it works. Like other times, this is my speciality. I like following advice, if it leads to something worthwhile.

So, that is what I did. I read the book and followed the leads where it took me. I created a folder on my iPad memos for pursuing the best of me, everything I get inspired about and everything I could do if I wasn't doing what I do now. This takes serious contemplation. My folder contains headings suggested by Deborah, such as Branding, Passion, Reasons, Customers and Ideas.

For a week now, I have been putting some of my efforts into building a make belief company on what I do best. I have had discussions with friends and workmates on what they think about what I do best. It has been a very interesting experience. I really recommend Deborah's book for those who are thinking about starting a business or are seriously concerned about marketing the best of themselves to the well thought target groups.

My Experinnce

Listening to Deborah and other motivational speakers in many seminars over the last few months has left me thinking about inspiration application as a concept.

Every now and then we do need inspiration. Sometimes the inspiration we hold leads to action. If it does not, then we have lost a very valuable opportunity. Sometimes, the action we take is shortsighted as we may think that we know what we want but in the end, what we wanted wasn't what we really needed or what was the best of us.

Deborah gives us good practical tools for considering our marketing strategy. It can be applied everywhere, even in marketing the best of you.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog. Here is a link to Deborah's Website:
Here is a link to Westside Business Women's Website


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad