Category Archives: Occasion

Safe Graduation Party Essentials

High school graduation is a huge deal! And graduates deserve a huge fuss to celebrate their accomplishment. More and more schools are hosting graduation parties (like after-prom parties) to encourage kids to stay safe and celebrate without alcohol or drugs. If you’re a graduation party planner, here are the things you’ll want to have lined up for a fun and successful time.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Food and Drinks

Let’s start with the most obvious: food and drinks! Growing teens have the luxury of youthful metabolisms, and they can’t have a party without stuffing their faces! It’s tough to go wrong with pizza, and local pizza places often cut deep discounts or donate food to schools (especially if they have a family connection with a student.) When buying food and drink, think ahead to clean up. Individually prepared portions or finger foods are best, and it’s always good to buy individual cans or bottles of soft drinks with recycling boxes or cans nearby. Buying 2-liter bottles may seem like a good idea until you have to clean up the cups!

Games and Activities

Keeping the kids busy and engaged is an important responsibility for a graduation party planner! You can “go big” and rent bouncy houses, wind tunnels, or karaoke machines. If you don’t have the connections or budget for that, there are no shortage of DIY competitive games that are easily found with an internet search, tons of fun, and can be done using household items.

Photo-Heavy Decorations

You’ll want to have flashy decorations, whether they’re store-bought or made at home. A graduation party planner should remember that the purpose of the event is to make memories and reflect on the students’ time in high school. If it’s possible to incorporate photos in the decorations or to make slideshows on TVs or monitors using digital pictures, they’ll be a big hit!

5 Reasons Why Christmas Candles Put You in a Good Mood

This Christmas season enjoy the beauty and aroma of holiday candles. Enjoy the numerous benefits that candles provide. Scented candles are one of the most popular Christmas gift ideas for mum this season. More than a practical way to provide light, candles bring relaxation and romance to a room, adding to your mum’s home décor. What are some of the ways that Christmas candles benefit your overall mood and health?

Beautiful Memories

Christmas candles in familiar scents like candy cane, gingerbread, and sugar cookies brings back fond holiday memories. Besides being pleasing to our olfactory glands, these comforting scents trigger pleasant neurological messaging, releasing feelings of happiness and joy. Find candles for less with popular online retailers during the holiday season. Some other popular scents for mum include evergreen, vanilla, and even chocolate.

Pleasant Ambiance

Does your mum seemed stressed, working hard to manage family and her job? Does she need a calming, relaxing atmosphere to come home to? Christmas candles provide a beautiful ambiance that creates a cozy home. The soft light gives her eyes a moment to rest from the harshness of the fluorescent lights or computer glare. Besides decorative holiday candles, invest in aromatherapy to foster relaxation.

Good Health

Our mums often burn the candle at both ends, working so hard to do their best that they forget the power of self-care and relaxation. Lighting candles produces a sense of calmness, reducing anxiety. Candles are often helpful for meditation and visualization exercises that minimize stress. Spend time with your mum doing yoga or tai chi in candlelight each day during the busy Christmas season and reap incredible health benefits.

Home Décor

Nothing says it’s Christmas like a home brimming with beautiful holiday candles, evergreen wreaths, a towering Christmas tree, and shimmering ornaments. Candles extremely versatile. Place a small peppermint candle in the bathroom to add a nice seasonal touch and reduce odor. Line your fireplace mantle with a string of matching holiday candles. Purchase an extra-large vanilla candle in the family room and enjoy hours of pleasant relaxation even during the busyness of the season. Don’t just buy any candles this for your mum. Try to find candles that suit her individual taste. Is she elegant or is she a little quirky? Does she prefer a shabby chic or perhaps she enjoys vintage candles with traditional trim?

Fragrance

This may go without saying, but a peppermint or gingerbread scented candle can cover a variety of unpleasant odors from children, pets, the bathroom, and garbage. Fill a bathroom with the powerful scent of peppermint or lace the bedroom with sugar cookie. There are numerous scents available at Christmas, some of which have cheerful names like Woodfire, Sparkling Cinnamon, Winter White, and Visions of Sugar Plums.

Give the gift of good health and happiness this Christmas season when you give your mum a holiday candle. Let her enjoy the countless benefits to her overall well-being. Bring her joy and Christmas cheer.

Something for the crew this Christmas

Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Are you a generous boss? Are you willing to give cellphones, desktop, or a musical instrument like a weather king to your loyal and deserving employees this Christmas? Well, that would be the best thing to do if you’re an employer who cares for the welfare of your staff. By recognizing their effort, the more they will be inspired to give their best foot forward.

But an extra cash for a performance bonus apart from the 13th month pay would surely be appreciated by your loyal employees. Think about it. 🙂

Repost: Grannies want to spend Christmas as free individuals

Old and weary.

It doesn’t matter if they don’t have a place to stay or relatives to welcome them with open arms. What is important for old persons, who have served more than half of their lives as inmates at the Correctional Institution for Women, is to walk as free individuals.

Some old folks who don’t have families to come home to were brought to the Home for the Aged for care.

I have met some old women inmates at the CIW when I was still with PJI.  They cried the moment they began telling their stories…I couldn’t help but cry with them too, especially when they talk about their children and how miserable their lives have become when they were sent to prison.

They’ve missed their children’s birthdays, graduation days…special events in the lives of their loved ones that they wish they were a part of…They even missed burial of their own children…so tragic, but true.

I still keep some of their photos. I’m not sure if these two grandmothers have been released from the institution. Both of them originated from the north and have been charged for drug-related offense.

If both of them have not been released yet, I hope that they will get their freedom back soon.

And if they were already reunited with their loved ones, I wish that they (relatives) have accepted them wholeheartedly so they could live the life they truly deserve as free individuals.

Photos taken by PJI photographers for People’s Tonight