For the last few days I have been testing out a few different plugins as I mentioned in the previous post. I do need to make one correction to it so, they are not the simply … plugins on WordPress, but strictly …

1. strictly google sitemap
2. strictly tweet
3. strictly tags

Sorry for the earlier confusion. So far those have already started showing a big difference for me in traffic via social media marketing (strictly tweet really automates this) and strictly tags is an awesome tool for your SEO needs.

Around the same time I found another awesome SEO plugin tool which is quickly becoming one of my favorites to use. It is called “inbound writer” and you will see the link for it on the end of this post.

I would like to tell you a bit more about this FREE WordPress plugin which can make a huge difference for you with your SEO skills. Of course like everything else it has its good and its bad sides. Since I never review a product without showing you both aspects of it I will do the same for this SEO based free WordPress plugin.

The negative:

It really slows your writing down! If you are like me having your writing constantly interrupted so a plugin working in the background can tally up the score would drive you nuts in a hurry. Sadly that is exactly what “inbound writer” does. You can write about 10 words before it throws you into draft mode and analyzes your post.

The good news:
There is a simple way around it. Open up a new post window. Click on the “inbound writer” plugin tool which is located right next to it. Type in the topic keywords you want to use and let it do its magic. Within moments you are going to see a list coming up with stars next to the word or phrase. The 5 star or best ones of course are the ones you want to shoot for. Now that you have your list, open up a Word Program just as I am using right now. Type your blog post out the way you want it to read. Copy and paste it into the html version of the new blog post and let it rest for a minute or two. “Inbound writer” will calculate your score and show you how well you did with the implementation of the keywords. It will show you SEO tips on how to make your score better if you didn’t do so stellar.

The positive:
It is so easy to use and as I mentioned this sweet little SEO plugin is free. As always you can give your thank you via a little donation if you are inclined to do so, but the developer doesn’t force you to. It is a huge help for those of you who have a hard time knowing which words in your topic text would make good keywords. It shows you how many times you used the keywords, the keyword value, and how many different keywords you should be using in order to have your post search engine optimized. It gives you tips on which words should be at the beginning of your title link and more. All in all this is a fantastic little SEO plugin.

I will keep you posted my dear Readers if I find any more worthwhile free to use plugins which can make your writing, SEO marketing and traffic driving workload easier.

If you found this post helpful and enjoyed my writing, please take a moment to hit the little Facebook like button and like my Facebook page for me. Your tweets and retweets are always welcome too.

As always
Regina S.

1. If you don't tell anyone about the things you have for sale or offer nobody will know about them.
2. You can't force people to buy anything, but you can offer it to them in a polite manner.
3. Most people are turned off by "hard sales".
4. Nobody likes to feel as if they are being scammed or sold a lemon.

Now what does this have with my marketing tips via blog posts? Those are the most important things to keep in mind when composing your next fantastic post.

Find the middle ground!

If your readers would want to read a sales ad they could simply click on one of the hundreds of Google generated and read those instead. A good blog post needs to have more than just the marketing text, but offer some sound advice, interesting information or even simply be entertaining.

Don't write while you are overtired or stressed out!

This may seem a bit odd to you at first but once you think about it, it will make sense. When you are already overtired or stressed out you become desperate to get your writing done and over with. You may be a little pushier than usual. Trying to phrase things just right becomes a lot more difficult as well.

Let plugins help you out!

Once the blog post is written you have to get it in the right hands or just out there period. For some people finding the right keywords is difficult, for others it is finding the time to actually tag them correctly etc. WordPress plugins are available in a wide range these days and some of them can do an amazing job in automating your marketing. Consider this the behind the scenes work. I just recently came across these free plugins which you can find in the wordpress add new plugins page:
Simply tags
Simply tweet
Simply google sitemap

You may want to check them out as well. They are awesome and like I said free to use. If you feel the way I did and you want to thank you to the creator of those plugins he has a donation button you can hit.

Stick to the facts!

This may seem anti-marketing to you, but one of my policies is sticking to the facts. If a product or a service I introduce, review, associate myself with has flaws, makes ownership not for everyone, is only for a particular price range etc. I state it in my posts as well. Everyone sees different things as a priority. To me a product costing $50.00 may be enough to stop me from buying it but that doesn't mean someone else won't see that as cheap. By giving my readers all the facts as I am aware of them allows them to make a much more informed decision and they don't feel as if I tried to hoodwink them. Nobody likes the "lemon car salesman".

Always remember whom you are talking to!

Manners, manners and more manners. I can't stress this enough! Just think about how you feel when you go into a brick and mortar store and the sales person either talks to you as if you are an idiot on a stick, a walking wallet, or becomes overly pushy. In basic marketing they teach you to use "call to action phrases". What they don't tell you is to soften them a little bit. It doesn't hurt you one bit to say: "If you are interested in buying this product please click this button now!" See how much softer it sounds than "buy now". This may seem like a waste of time since your reader isn't going to push the buy no button unless he or she is interested, but it does say that you realize they do have an option here. It is just a little courtesy and doesn't hurt anyone.

Give free samples where applicable!

Everyone likes free right? Some of the products I market from time to time are my self published books. In this case giving parts of a chapter or even a sample chapter might not come amiss. If you are selling a product and you have free samples available you may want to offer them. A tested for satisfaction product ends up selling a lot easier since the customer has already been able to "test drive" the product.

Don't make every single blog post a sales pitch!

Lighten up just a little. Even most brick and mortar stores are closed at least one day a week. Unless you are a pure review site, people want to feel as if they are still being treated like human beings instead of cattle being led to the slaughter. Not every single blog post has to be a sales pitch, you will find that your readership will increase if you are more personable from time to time.

Not all links are created equal!

In order to rise to the top pages in search engines you often need to implement the use of incoming links to give you a boost. Think of it as a popularity contest in school. The more popular a person already is the more others are going to want to follow them. Yet even there if they are popular with the wrong types of people, it will keep others away. Be careful when exchanging links with other websites. Look at their content first and see if you feel comfortable sending your readers their way. Remember that your readers trust you! Don't destroy your reputation for someone else. I have written a little post on social media marketing if you are interested you can find it by clicking here!

Give yourself time!

The internet these days is flooded with blogs and websites. Being seen and heard is no longer as easy as it once was. Readers often find themselves overloaded by too much information and even the most avid among us can get tired trying to wade through our favorite blogs. You are not going to start a blog today and make thousands of dollars tomorrow via your blog posts and marketing efforts. No matter what the guru's are trying to sell you, the only ones getting rich on those are the ones who sell you the program. Marketing, sales and creating a network and a reputation for being a reliable source takes time. Be patient, keep working at it, fine tune it as you go along and in due time you will see results.

Remember every little success is worth "celebrating" because it shows you that you are going in the right direction.

As always I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my blog and if you enjoyed the information please take a moment to hit the facebook like button for me.

Regina Sunderland

I would like to address the subject of being an opinion writer for a moment today. To me it is ironic how many good folks have a low opinion of someone who shares their opinions in a straight forward manner on an opinion based website or blog. The funniest part about that is that unless you write pure text book blogs all blogs in one way or the other are opinion based. The difference is that it isn’t clearly labeled that way.

One of the misconceptions I encounter from time to time is that if you are an opinion writer you have to be obnoxious, rude, and without substance. Nothing could be further from the truth actually. In most cases being informed is a prerequisite before you can write a good opinion piece. This means you don’t just throw something out there, but actually pick a topic carefully and research it a little bit first. How can you form an opinion without being at least mildly informed to begin with?

Are some of the topics and opinions going to be offensive? Certainly simply because they voice a personal intake on a subject matter that some people will disagree with. Pay attention in your own circle of friends and acquaintances. You can’t go through the day without offending someone. You don’t even have to open your mouth half the time to be labeled as offensive. Maybe you wore something that is not within another persons moral standard. Maybe you are eating something you enjoy but someone else finds as wrong.

Reality is that you are going to offend someone today if you leave the house. Regardless of what you do, say or not do, someone is going to get their nose out of joint. It is sadly a simple fact of life these days.

I have published a book called “Not quiet Satan” a few years ago via lulu.com. The title alone was offensive to a lot of people. The book didn’t sell very often simply because the title seemed so “out of step” with many. Add to it that it is a pure opinion / sarcasm / humor book and you have a grand mixture of “How dare she?”

I have decided to edit, rewrite and extent the book within the next two weeks in the form of a second edition. Having learned from the mistake of the first title I am going to change it slightly, but the original title phrase “Not quiet Satan” will remain. By the way, no that isn’t a spelling mistake.

The book is held in a humorous way and depicts some of societies most noticeable idiocies these days. The reason it is titled ”Not quiet Satan” is because I am having “Satan” (as in the scapegoat) be my co-writer or sparing partner in it. With other words he refuses to remain quiet or silent.

As an opinion writer nothing is truly safe from me and that of course includes my own foolishness. As I pull the shades away from many topics and shine some glaring light on the dark recesses I most of the time uncover my stupidity as well. Don’t ever think that an opinion writer is exempt from making some really poor choices.

For me at least I think that is where my writing becomes a little easier to swallow for many. I don’t just point the finger at everyone else, but readily laugh and point the finger at myself as well. I am not greater than you, nor do I claim to be perfect in any way. Matter of fact one of my favorite statements is: “I am perfectly imperfect!”

I belief that the one reason an opinion writer is frequently so poorly thought of  is that it seems as if they belief only their opinion is valid and counts. That is ridiculous actually since we are all entitled to our own opinions. Matter of fact I encourage people to form their own opinions about my writing an my opinions as well.

To me being an opinion writer is a service in many ways. I simply voice the things out loud many may be afraid to speak about in a public form. This not only gives them validation that they are not alone in their thoughts, but it also gives others the opportunity to think about the topic at hand as well and form their own conclusions.

Consider it as an open invitation for discussion. I try not to cuss too much or be overly rude in the way I word things. Of course at times when you feel extremely passionate about certain topics you may not edit your language as well as you might like. I am guilty of that myself at times.

The one thing that is for certain is that being an opinion writer means you need to have a lot of courage and grow a really thick skin fast.

Now my dear readers it is your turn. I would like to know YOUR OPINION on opinion writing.

As always yours truly

Regina Sunderland
http://iwriteforcash.com
http://theopionatedwriter.com
http://witchjournal.info

Ever since Yahoo Contributor Network took over a few things have changed and not necessarily to the better either. Before you were able to share your knowledge pretty much in any way you desired as long as it was written reasonably well. Now they “prefer” a particular writing style to which you need to conform in order to be able to get an up front payment, which is pitifully small to begin with. Is it just me or have the pre-payments been lowered?

Page views seem to be missing which affects your royalty payments. Remember that you get a certain amount of money per so many page views each month. I can track from my various blogs which of my Articles have been viewed and those alone don’t even match up with the page view claims that are made on my account. Very frustrating. Now please remember those don’t even reflect the views which may have come from search engines or readers happening on my content.

Many of the more prolific Authors are leaving Yahoo Contributor Network for this reason. Is it a glitch and growing pains or are we truly being ripped off? I don’t know and I would not presume to know the answer to it. At this moment I am simply making the assumption that Yahoo just doesn’t care about the Writers enough to assure they are happy and taken care of.

I have not submitted a new Article in  about 2 months now after I saw the downward spiral develop and I am seriously debating if I should start spending more time on adding new material or not. It is a shame to leave a place in which you have already established yourself and have gained a few friends. For now I will keep my account active on there and probably try to publish a couple of new Articles a week again. Of course I will keep a close eye on the hits I receive via my blogs and which are credited to me. Afterall writing is not “just” my passion but my career as well.

My hope is that Yahoo Contributor Network will clear out the cobwebs soon and make it once more a great place for writers of all topic ranges to not only earn a few extra dollars, but feel appreciated and respected again.

In the meantime I think I will  create a webring and a basic contributor link exchange page on my blogs http://iwriteforcash.com , http://reginasunderland.com and my new upcoming blog for writers who are interested in networking (to be announced soon).

Please feel free to join the webring  and/or  add your yahoo contributor profile URL as well as your personal website or blog if you have one to the YC Contributor Link Exchange page via the comment feature. I will take them and add them to the blog page itself as they come in. I only ask that you do the same on your own blog as well so we can keep the cycle flowing. Make sure you add your page address for this in the command box as well.

Thank you so much and good luck to all my fellow writers!

As always
Regina S.

http://theopionatedwriter.com
http://witchjournal.info
http://iwriteforcash.com
Yahoo Contributor Profile Regina Sunderland

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MizReginaS
Like my Writer Page on Facebook!

I was running out of time and had to make it to the store at last moment before my company was due to arrive. Of course it couldn’t have been just a couple of items either. Oh no, I needed a few special food items for my impending guests since they were vegetarian while I am a proud meat eater. Well needless to say, I was under prepared since they had just given me the notice of their “surprise visit” due in an hour.

Out of the door I ran and walked in a brisk walk to the closest Market. I almost flew through the aisles gathering the things I needed and came to the checkout counter being slightly out of breath with well over 30 items.

As the Cashier was ringing the items up a line started forming behind me. It never fails, when you are about to embarrass yourself you are going to have an audience. I received the grand total, opened my purse and ….

Yup you guessed it my wallet was still nice and snug at home on my writing desk where I had left it after making an online purchase. Talking about my face being as red as a tomato and to my horror I didn’t even bring my cell phone with me so I could call my husband to bring me some money.

Needless to say the people in line behind me were none to happy with me and being forced to wait for the cashier to cancel the order.

When I arrived back home my guests were already there, waiting outside the front door with the air of long suffering. “We told you we were on our way!” Julie announced loud enough for my neighbors to hear clearly. I just swallowed and said to her turning even redder approximately the color of a fire truck. “Well if you think that is bad you will really hate it when I tell you that I just forgot to take my wallet with me to the grocery store to get you something to eat.  I need to go back. Someone give me a ride down there?”

I hurried inside the house, grabbed my wallet and cell. When I got back to the store and after I gathered my items together again my luck sure held. The only Cashier on duty was the same lady who had checked me out before. When she recognized me, she asked with a smirk. “Want to make sure you brought some money this time before I get started again?” I hung my head and held up my money… “I think we are good!”

Yes, there is a reason I hate to be rushed and now you know why!

Here is the challenge:

Write a blog post of no less than 500 words about your most embarrassing moment in 2011.

Title: The most embarrassing moment in 2011 writing challenge – my Story.

Once you have written it come back to my blog and add your blog link to the comments, so we can all enjoy them! You have 24 hours from now to complete the challenge!

Ready – get set – go

Regina

For me it becomes particularly difficult to stay motivated during “famine” times. I talked about this before in many of my posts and articles. The first thing you really need to get used to is the ebb and flow of income when you work for yourself. You can have some really great months and suddenly – nothing! Those months when you work so hard just to see nothing coming in are the most difficult times to force yourself to continue on. Quitting is not an option and deep inside you know that.

How do you stay motivated so and keep your spirit up? Here are a few small tricks which have helped me to stay focused and productive.

#1 I have a specific workspace set up in my house. It isn’t anything fancy, just a little “home office” which is actually nothing more than a room in which I store most of my music instruments, my special clothing and arts and crafts items. I set a desk up with my laptop from which I do most of my work and my office chair. This space is removed from the rest of the house if I opt to close the door. This helps me focus my mind on work! I know that when I walk through the door in the morning and turn my laptop on with my cup of coffee beside me it is time to work and my mind automatically shifts into work mode the way it would if I worked outside the house. Having a designated workplace no matter how big or small, fancy or humble can make a big difference in the end.

#2 I give my-self reward breaks. This means in my case that I have a certain amount to get done and once it is finished I allow myself a cup of coffee or tea and 15 minutes to play one of my silly little quick puzzle pc games or go practice my guitar or keyboard. This helps me shift my mind into break mode which is very important too and when my break is up I am ready to earn my next 15 or 30 minutes to relax again.

#3 I keep a reasonable schedule and workload these days and unless my plans get pushed over by my husband or unexpected visitors, I can get through it pretty good without stressing out about it. I try to mix them up a little daily so I don’t get into a rut which is one of those motivational killers. Since I run about 7 different online businesses that is pretty easy to do. I simply focus on one venue a day.

#4 I have an online “venting” partner. I have made friends online with a couple of self employed women and we get together every morning for a quick chat and a cup of coffee. Think cooler room or coffee room. This helps me and them  to combat the feeling of isolation as we. It is great for “brainstorming” and “venting” purposes. Quiet often by the time we have “bitched” about the bad economy or something that went really wrong the day before we feel better and are now prepared  to tackle the new day. With one particular friend I even have a mutual accountability agreement. We each tell the other one the goals for the day and we check on each other to see how those goals are progressing. You’d be surprised how good that works for both of us.

#5 I know that by 4 pm my time I am allowed to stop! Now that I have finally gotten used to my schedule it has really helped me get past even the worst of days. It helps, because I know that there is an end in sight when it feels as if I just can’t get further. If I procrastinate or try to cheat in any way I have to add an extra 15 minutes for each time I do this. Since I have really come to enjoy my off time now, that is the last thing I want to do. So I make sure I get through my work day and do things right the first time around. If I feel like it or not.

#6 A weekend treat as reward. If I know I am having a particularly hard week ahead of me, be it because the money is slow, I am not feeling well or I am just in general down in the mouth, I set myself a weekend reward that I have to earn. Think of it as a Bonus of sorts. I have to get all the things on my daily work sheet done for the 5 Days I work and in the time frame that I have set for me and I get to do something fun for myself on the weekend. If the money is really tight that week it might be a movie I wanted to see for a long time and I can now rent. If my finances are not the issue, I may decide to break my diet and go have a cup of coffee at Starbucks or buy myself a couple of new books in a series I am collecting. Something small that will keep me smiling and motivated to get through the week.

#7 I have a punching pillow! Don’t laugh it actually works. Sometimes I just feel like I want to punch something or someone because things are just like pulling teeth. The angrier or frustrated I get the less motivated I feel. So instead of eating all that negativity up inside, I pull out my punching pillow and start pummeling away on it imagining it is the person or thing that caused it to begin with. That usually helps a lot and once I feel better I can feel the motivation returning to me.

#8 I set myself a challenge or spend some time on a  project that I would like to work on and is so far in the beginning stages that I know it won’t bring me any income yet. With other words it is a no pressure task since I still setting the foundation for it. I usually set this project for about 30 minutes in the middle of my work day. This means that if I don’t get the other things done that are priority by than, I have to forfeit my pet project and trust me I don’t want to. I call this my carrot and whip trick. It has worked pretty good so far.

Well those are my personal tricks and maybe  a couple of them can work for you as well. Do you have any good tricks that keep you motivated when you just don’t feel like working out of your house?

As always
Regina S.
http://iwriteforcash.com

Instead of making New Years resolutions I have a habit of doing a year in review. I can’t see what is ahead of me, but I can see what is behind me. I can learn from what I didn’t do so well and see where I can make slight changes in order to be better in the year ahead.

Normally I start this during the last two weeks of December and work my way through every aspect of the year. Since I keep extensive journals, records and notes this is not all that difficult to do for me. I keep each thing in its own category and is it was something I could control or if it was out of my control. Actually admitting that some things are out of my control is extremely difficult for me and was something I learned to get better at a little bit at a time. That is actually where the seperation of under my control and out of my control originally came from. Of course I am not allow to make excuses either. 

I do have to be honest with myself at all times. Now ones I have my lists done I can go over them. The things listed under out of my control are just disregard. No matter what I would change there is nothing I could do to change it if it was to happen again. The only thing I can do different is be a little more prepared.

When I look over let’s say the work category I will see themes emerging quickly. Usually it is the same mind set, the same mistake, the same habit repeatedly that caused the problem to begin with. I can now take action and eliminate what has caused the problem. For example I had went into a total burn out last year because I had set too many expectations for myself and had too many venues which didn’t even bring me any money in. My organization had become faulty and instead of being realistic I just cramped too much into an ungodly stretch of time. This of course was a recipe for disaster. No matter what the underlying reason for this was, I went about it the wrong way and in the end caused myself more harm than good. The resolution was a bit uncomfortable for me at first since I hate admitting defeat, but in the end correct a major problem in the relationship sector as well. You have to remember that a lot of the different aspects always have a cause and consequence reaction.

By getting rid of the blogs which didn’t bring me any income or had very low traffic, I reduced my daily work load. Making it possible for me to get through the work load I set myself and take some time off. Which in turn lowered my stress levels and made me more willing and able to spend time with my husband in a fun way. Which in turn made our relationship a lot funner and healthier.

So instead of making resolutions I took action and started the New Year off with a healthier habit. This of course makes it possible for me to sustain it, since I had already gotten myself into a habit and used to it.

Another thing I do is see if something really needs changing or if I just need to adjust the way I perceive or handle it. I am a very opionated person, but 80% of the time my opinions are based on facts instead of assumptions. Instead of trying to “keep my opinions society friendly and so feeling as if I have to be a hypocrite and lie through my teeth, I have given myself an outlet in which I speak my mind without censoring my thoughts. I clearly labled it. Being opionated is not a bad thing and simply means that you can “think for yourself” instead of blindly following what everyone else says or does. You are being authentic.

For example todays blog post on “The Opionated Writer” was about Walmart. The way we act, the way the associates are treated and the stupidity of the higher echolon there.  You can read this here! Yes this piece is full of straight forward opinions, but all of them are based on facts.

Now since the title alone “The Opionated Writer” tells you already what sort of person and writer I am, you can simply avoid it if those sort of blogs irritate you. You are clearly warned of its content and context before going there. If you don’t like reading someone elses opinion you just stay away from it.

You see once again instead of making the New Years resolution that I will be society and politically correct (which is not in my nature) I created a safe place which is clearly marked to vent and be myself. If I would have made this as my New Years resolution I would have broken it in 10 seconds flat since it goes against my personality. Now however I can write my posts in a “reader friendly” way on all other blogs and be my opionated little self on the blog designated for it. Works out all the way around!

I guess I suggest that you find solutions instead of making resolutions.

What is your take on this? I would love to hear what you have to say on this topic. Drop me a comment and tell us how you handle your growth in 2012!

As always

Regina S.

The downside to this is that I work out of my house and with that can be interrupted a lot. I am also married which means often my plans and schedules get changed on a moments notice if my husband wants to do something. That in a way if the beauty and downfall of working for yourself and out of your home. It is really hard for those who work outside the house to understand that you have to be just as diligent if not more so in your efforts in order to meet your financial goals each month.

I am one of those lucky women who has a husband who wants her with him everywhere he goes. We don’t belief in “guys night out” or “girls only night”. We do things as a couple, which has helped us avoid a lot of misunderstandings and needless drama. Of course it is also really difficult when I have to work and he is off. Since I am accountable only to myself, he often has a difficult time understanding why I can’t just drop things when he is ready to go. So instead of causing major waves in my relationship over something that can be adjusted on my end, I just play catch up later.

This week was one of those situations. I am going to lose 3 full work days since we were going to be out running around trying to find things for his newest hobby. Something I am slowly being roped into as well. Smiles, not that I mind. I love doing things with my honey. This of course means that my updates are going to be late, have to be back dated and I’ll end up having to work in the evening instead and work on my scheduled day off. All things which I couldn’t do if I was working for someone else.

Now of course I have to watch out that I don’t fall into the wrong habits of last year. Which means I actually have to be willing to shrug my shoulders and say: “What doesn’t get done, just doesn’t get done. I get a new week next week.” It also means I have to take a look at priorities. Which of the things I need to catch up on have the greatest potential of bringing me a profit and which are still in the seeding period. The ones in the seeding period I can leave at the wayside for one week if I have to, the ones already established and dependent on me following through have to be done.

What I can’t do is drive myself crazy over them. I take the days off knowing that I will fall behind, but I am weighting out what is more important to me. My husbands happiness and our relationship or my schedule  and convenience. Since I love my husband more than anything else, he will always win out in the end. That is just a choice I made a couple of years back. Of course now he is going to have to understand on Thursday that I will have to put a full days work in and will not be available to him but in bits and pieces. Something he knows and understands. I know I will be able to count on him to help me out a little bit with household related things as well.

I have recently filmed a relaxation mesmerization clip which deals with this. It was created for everyone who simply can not shut down and realize that sometimes you just have to say: “It is ok for me to tell others they have to wait a little while because I can not be in all places at once.”

We create stress for ourselves more than is necessary. Slow down a little bit, realize that sometimes you just can’t meet your goals and you will be surprised how much more you will actually accomplish once you take the pressure off.

As always

Regina S.

I am not a Christian so I do not celebrate Christmas instead I celebrate Winter Solstice and that happened a few days ago. I do remember the years when my kids were small so and back than we celebrated Christmas for them. I never saw any reasons to make one celebration ok and boo boo another. Especially when it comes to the little ones. My favorite part of Christmas day was by far watching my kids opening their presents and acting sillier than usual. If you want to see joy – that is that time. Eyes glowing, little fingers going quickly and half the time them rolling around in the wrapping paper. You could have thought I had kittens instead of kids.

Somehow it made all the shopping stress and irritations we adults put ourselves through for days before that worth it. Those few moments when there is nothing but happiness in their little eyes.

What are your favorite moments on Christmas Day? I would love to have you share them with us.

Blessings to all

Regina S.