Seasons
Greens add a touch
of holiday spirit.
FILE PHOTO/ERIE
TIMES-NEWS
animals and books. While shopping, you can take a break
at the Sunset Café adjacent to the gift shop. If you love
our treasured state park, you’ll be pleased to know that
all the proceeds from the gift shop, staffed with volunteers, are used to enhance Presque Isle State Park.
A beautiful photo of Lake Erie, a lighthouse, Dobbins
Landing or other area landscapes make great gifts for
anyone who loves Erie. Gibbens Creative owner Paul
Gibbens has all of those photos and more with various
sizes available and starting at just $3. Custom framing
is available, or you can order your print on just about
anything, including, canvas, metal and acrylic, according to Gibbens.
AND AAAAHHHHH! FINALLY,
enjoy the season
One thing that you can’t put off until the last minute
during the holiday rush is the important time you take
for yourself and for family. It’s something you should
plan.
“When we take time to be more mindful, we are able
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to experience the holidays with intention,” says Mandy
Fauble, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., vice-president of clinical
operations at Safe Harbor Behavioral Health. “That
means anticipating and planning events, then getting
to enjoy them and building lasting memories that make
those events stay with us longer.”
“It can be tempting to try to try to jam in activities,
but then we can get so busy moving from one thing to
another, that the holidays become a blur. This really
adds stress instead of creating the holiday many of us
imagine and crave. When it’s all said and done, we feel
exhausted and not very satisfied,” Fauble says.
If you are going to cook a big meal or bake cookies for
your neighbors, do it together as a family. Shop together
as a family, especially at locally-owned stores. Enjoy
what the community has to offer, whether it’s a holiday
church production or a seasonal museum exhibit. Plan
ahead and make time for it.
There are clearly many opportunities to simplify your
decorating, shopping and cooking tasks so that enjoying the season with loved ones doesn’t become a missed
opportunity. LEL