Color Your Life Happy

I was about to open my car door to leave for school one day when my neighbor shouted “You’ve got to see our new baby!”

Since this couple had longed for a child for years, I took a few moments to step over to their porch expecting to see a newly adopted child.

Instead a frisky gray and white Huskie bounded onto the porch, startling me. I was disappointed to see that their “baby” was a dog, but they weren’t. They loved their pet and lavished it with gifts, treats and special treatment.

Like my neighbors, modern pet owners think of their pets as family. Pets are a tremendous source of happiness and joy for pet lovers. They take photos of their pets that they later display at home and at work, take them on vacation, and even take them to pet-friendly parks and restaurants.

According to the American Pet Products Association, more than half of all dog and cat owners will be buying gifts for their pets this holiday season about 83 million households estimated to spend 43 billions! Of the over 140 million households who own a pet, 83% will wrap the pet’s present and 90% even take their dogs with them on holiday.

As you begin your holiday shopping, here are trends to keep in mind for your pet-lover friends.

Promote Pampering

Taking loving care of pets is at the top of the list for pet lovers. Gifts that enhance the pampering experience are winners. Two starters

• How about a a comforting way to clean, dry and groom Poochie? See  The Brush Buddy  with soft rubber bristles on one side, and terry towel on the other.
• Because aromatherapy is for pets too, check out Ecopurenaturals.com

Give Convenience

• Ease the life of aquarium owners with Whisper EX that lets them know when it’s time to change the filter, available from United Pet Group.
• Make scooping up poop easier with a compact refillable dispenser that holds biodegradable doggie clean-up bags. It attaches to any leash and is available from Bags on Board

Treat in Style 

• Yoghund, yogurt for dogs, contains the “good bacteria.”
• Vegetarian baked edibles from the Cain and Able Collection  are good enough for humans, but are made for pets and come in undecorated everyday designs and holiday designs.

There are many other gift items that fall into these popular categories. As you ponder what to give your friends who are pet lovers and pet parents, it’s easy to make the right choices when you keep these trends in mind.

Note from a Nordstrom sales associate.

When we were growing up my sisters and I couldn’t wait to get out of the house to play hide and seek, jacks, and jump rope routines with our friends and neighbors.

 I don’t remember playing games that included adults and children. Now, as a mom and grandma, however, I can see a tremendous benefit to family members of all ages playing games together.

Some families regularly play board, card and other types of games after dinner or during holidays. After big family dinners we usually gathered around the piano to sing since my mother was an accomplished pianist and organist. That was certainly fun, but I don’t remember games. So I decided to introduce games.

Games have to be introduced carefully when they aren’t common in your family. Some members will be suspicious and fearful that they will be embarrassed. Others will get so competitive that they can turn it into a war. One experience we had recently was lots of fun.

At my adult son’s birthday party last month we played a bowling game on the patio. Pint-sized bottles of water were the pins and a $1 plastic ball was the bowling ball. We had 3 rounds that increased in difficulty. First, they could throw the ball the regular way. Second, they had to turn their back to the pins, lean over and throw the ball through their legs. In the third round each bowler had to stand on one foot.

This game was hilarious because my teenage grandsons were overly confident that they would ace this game. After all, it seemed so simple. But they threw the ball too hard making it bounce over the pins.

We laughed with each other, because nobody was expert at this game. Even those who are good bowlers found that trying to control a ball that was light weight and would bounce is very different from the heavy bowling ball with the finger holes.

The prizes were simple items like a pack of gum, pencil, notepad, snack mix and candy.

This game was a big success for a number of reasons.

1. It was simple. Nothing ruins a new game more than complicated rules.
2. It gave skilled and unskilled bowlers an equal chance.
3. The prizes were simple removing any undo competition over prizes.
4. We played enough rounds and had a playoff to allow for multiple winners.
5. We laughed together in a nonthreatening activity that even the hesitant players enjoyed.
6. Even though it was a competition, we were each pulling for each player to score well.
7. The children enjoyed seeing adults participating in a child’s favorite pursuit: having fun just for the sheer joy of it. Of course there’s the added bonus of seeing adults being vulnerable, even if it means looking foolish.
8. It’s a pleasant memory that will be with us forever.

 What games do your family enjoy? What have been the benefits?

In a recent post onthe blog Dumb Little Man , Ali Hale, a grad student in London, suggests that we make someone’s day for less than $1 by simply sending a handwritten letter.

In case you’ve forgotten how to accomplish this simple task, Ali gives tips to get you started. If letters sound too overwhelming, she suggests notecards or even postcards.

Isn’t it interesting that even people who don’t like to send letters, admit that they love receiving them? Handwritten personal letters build relationships in a way no other communication can.

When my children were young they grumbled as I insisted that they send handwritten thank you notes for every Christmas and birthday gift they received. From the way they moaned and whined, you’d think they’d grow up hating to send thank you notes. On the contrary, they even send thank you’s to each member of the interview committee following job interviews.

In addition to handwritten letters, I also like to send “real” greeting cards for holidays when people least expect them. Last year, one friend commented that she didn’t even know they made Happy Thanksgiving cards.

You can buy a set of 6 or 8 of these holiday cards for almost every holiday for less than $5. It only takes a few minutes to address them and most mailmen will pick up outgoing mail when they deliver your incoming mail.

Every Christmas I tell the highlights of our family’s year in poetic form, print it on holiday paper and include it along with a picture in my Christmas greetings. Not only does this delight my friends and family, but it has given me quite a collection of memory details over the years that I would have forgotten otherwise.

I also enjoy sending postcards when I travel. To make this task easy I print off address labels of friends and relatives before I leave town. On the first day of my trip I look for affordable sets of postcards. Then when I have a long ride or down time, I can jot a brief greeting on each card. If I don’t find a post office handy I ask the hotel guest services associate to get the stamps and mail them for me.

Showing gratitude is one of the habits happy people share. The great thing about sending personal handwritten letters is not only do you make someone’s day, but you also make your own.

Anthropologist, Helen Fisher, is known as the expert on romantic love.

To discover what goes on in our brains Fisher took MRIs of people in love and people who had recently been dumped. As a result of her work, Match.com asked her what makes people fall in love with one person and not another. To find the answer, she set up a website, Chemistry.com where she measures levels of certain brain chemicals and then is documenting the choices that attract her subjects to one another.

Want to be part of this research? Sign up at Chemistry.com.

Watch Fisher’s talk from the TED conference below to learn about this fascinating research. Then share your take on this ancient topic.

I was in desperate need of levity and lightness after covering some very serious topics lately. I figured you would appreciate some fun too.

How about popping some bubblewrap?

Sound like fun?

Then here is your link to virtual bubblewrap. Once there you can also learn about various bubblewrap popping techniques, find an array of bubblewrap-related clothes and gift items, find out how bubblewrap is made and lots more Bubblewrapology.

Go for it! You know you want to. Here’s the link again.