I hope that wherever you are and whatever you do this day that you are surrounded by love and laughter and that you feel content and grateful. Today we are going to talk about gratitude, contentment, the difference between the two and how to foster both this holiday season.

Curious how to develop a habit of gratitude in yourself?

What you need is a daily gratitude practice!

ONE Gratitude Practice that you MUST adopt this Holiday Season!

Let’s touch first on what gratitude is. Gratitude is defined as The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

A gratitude practice is a daily practice where you practice stretching, growing and honing your gratitude muscle – this is how muscles grow! A habit that you do each and every day that gets you in the literal habit of being thankful and grateful for the things that are already around you!

My gratitude practice is that each morning, as a part of my morning routine, I write down 5 unique and specific things that happened in the previous 24-hours that I’m grateful for. As a result of this gratitude practice I found myself looking for things throughout the day that I was thankful for!

Contentment – a state of happiness and satisfaction – and why we should strive for contentment in our lives!

Three things that can help you to feel content – happy and satisfied with what you already have:

• A Daily Gratitude Practice – each and every day, practice being grateful!
• Mindfulness – check out Breathe Empower Achieve by my pal Shonda Moralis for expert tips on introducing 5-minute mindfulness breaks into your every day
• Change your Focal Length – consciously change your focal length from seeing the mess to seeing the magical – focus on the good, the cheerful, the people, the craziness, and the joy that sometimes brings out the mess

Christmas Gift-Giving and Budgeting

We use a framework for gifts at our home – aiming to get for each kiddo something (one thing) from the following Christmas Categories:

Want	Need	Wear	Read
A big ticket or big sized item that they’ve been wanting all year	A level up from their basics, or fulfilling their basic needs	A special, new, or out-of-the-normal-budget piece of clothing	A book! An age and reading level appropriate book

Holiday Budgeting

Budgeting in advance of Christmas – like 12 months in advance – budget budget budget – create boundaries for yourself and use cash to enforce those boundaries. First you create the budget – you’re the boss… then, once the budget is agreed upon by you and your spouse – then the budget becomes the boss!