My Hometown - The Place To Be For Christmas Fun!

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I think all of us are proud of our hometowns. Like many of you, I was born in one town and moved to another when Daddy’s job changed. I still have relatives in both places. The town I remember, the one in which I have the fondest memories of my childhood and youth, is Andalusia, Alabama.

To say I was blessed to have such a wonderful place in which to grow to adulthood is an understatement. The people who surrounded me were simply the best. I had such wonderful teachers and the best friends. In fact, my best friend and I still keep in touch. We may not see one another often, but when we do, it’s as if we’d just left for a moment or two. Dianne, I love you, girl.

A Priceless Gift

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen the same post repeatedly on social media. It’s a good reminder and goes something like this—Hold people close and remember to hug, say I love you, do today all those things you think you will get to do later. Later may not come for some.

That is such a profound truth. My family and I know it all too well. I have several dear friends who know, as well. You know who you are and know that I am holding you in my heart today, and always.

Holidays are Coming, Will You be Stressed or at Peace?

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

The holidays are coming. Here it is October and it will fly by just as the summer whose temperatures hung on tenaciously. But Fall seems to have finally arrived. With it will come all things pumpkin, changing of the leaves, crisp air, and . . . stress.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. While we always look forward to those joyful events, they bring along unwanted baggage. We scurry around trying to prepare everyone’s favorite foods. We clean, even though we will have to do it again once everyone returns to their own homes. And, if you are like many families, you wonder if, and pray that, everyone will be on their best behavior.

Holidays are just stressful. Thanksgiving is bad enough, but then comes Christmas—

that season which proclaims joy, peace, and goodwill. But sometimes, Christmas is anything but. Insert heavy sigh here. I know you know what I mean. We’ve all been there one year or another. But there is hope and help.

A Day Late, A Dollar Short, and Two Hours Behind

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

If you’re like me, you’re still trying to play catch-up from Christmas, maybe even Thanksgiving. I have to wonder where the time went. Here we are, already smack-dab in the middle of January. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m just now feeling ready for Thanksgiving.

Christmas got here so quickly this year that I missed almost all of the Hallmark movies. Bummer. Christmas came and went without much in the way of decorations or even a lot of thought put into gift-giving.

I’m not sure what that says about me. Never have I felt so much like the proverbial little hamster in a wheel. Were it not for my Soul Care group, I don’t know what I’d do. We have downloadable coloring pages to do every week which help to remind us to rest, take care of ourselves, and spend time with God. Should you need such a group, check out Soulful Ink on Facebook. I know you will be blessed by it. But confession—I’m still trying to get my coloring pages done from back in November. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Soulful.Ink 

Five Ways to Share Christmas Year-Round

 By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Thanksgiving has just passed and we’ve entered into Advent. I love this time of year. Everyone seems to go out of their way to be nice to others on good old planet Earth. Doesn’t it make you wish that we lived in this season year-round?

Good news!

We don’t have to live this way for only a few weeks of the year. We can actually carry Christmas in our hearts throughout the year, and we can spread that joy to those we meet on a day to day basis.

List of Five Things
Here’s a list of just a few things we do at Christmas that we could do at other times during the calendar year.

I Get By With A Little Help - From a Blog

by Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Do you look with envy at all those Instagram and FaceBook posts where people’s homes are decorated to the nines? You know the ones I’m talking about. Your sister who has every cutesy-pie little decorative piece here and there and everywhere and she posts photos of Every. Single. Thing. she owns. You do realize that you are not the abnormal one in this picture, don’t you? So many of us are in the last-minute-club that looking at those photos just sends us into the Guilt Zone─much scarier than the Twilight Zone.