http://youtu.be/AFvRf8PfpKw

This is one of our favorite Christmas songs at the Davis household.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Went and found my favorite of the short stories I shared last Christmas:

“Norman Vincent Peale, noted minister and author from the previous century, tells the story of a young girl from Sweden spending Christmas in big, bustling New York City. She was living with an American family and helping them around the house, and she didn’t have much money. So she knew she couldn’t get them a very nice Christmas present – besides, they already had so much, with new gifts arriving every day.

With just a little money in her pocket, she went out and bought an outfit for a small baby, and then she set out on a journey to find the poorest part of town and the poorest baby she could find. At first, she received only strange looks from passersby when she asked them for help. But then a kind stranger, a Salvation Army bell-ringer, guided her to a poor part of town and helped her deliver her gift. On Christmas morning, instead of giving them a wrapped present, she told the family she served what she had done in their name. Everyone was speechless, and everyone was blessed – the girl for giving, the wealthy family for seeing others with new eyes, and the poor family for receiving an unexpected gift.

All of us have opportunities both large and small to show kindness, especially at Christmastime. We can help strangers by delivering gifts to needy kids or serving homeless families at a soup kitchen. Or we can simply look for everyday ways to be kind, like allowing someone to go ahead of us in a lengthy line at the department store, or giving that bell-ringer a little change and a few encouraging words.

Maybe it’s because we’re in gift-giving mode anyway that giving to others becomes so important at Christmas. Or because we’re more aware of our families and friends and communities. Or maybe it’s because two thousand years ago, the earth received the most perfect, most loving gift of all, helping us to understand true kindness.

Whatever the reason, don’t let Christmas pass you by without showing kindness to someone. Because it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.”

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Officially one week out from Christmas today.

And since we still have small children at home, my favorite Christmas story is “The Grinch Whole Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss.

Here are my favorite few lines:

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn’t come from a store.

"Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!"

Maybe I’m just a little bit of a sap, but I think that there is some magic to Christmas. And that it doesn’t come from a store.

As we make this last push towards Christmas, let’s focus on more than the packages, box and bags.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Bonus Materials:

The Gring song: http://youtu.be/ZgP0aUKlmNw

The whole text to the book: http://bloggingmis.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-grinch-stole-christmas.html

Today is my birthday.

Maybe it is just that I am so old now, but birthdays mean something different now.

The last couple of birthdays have been more about thankfulness than anything else.

Thankfulness for a wonderful wife.

Thankfulness for three great kids.

Thankfulness for all the opportunities and challenges.

Thankfulness for all of you who let me invade your inbox 5 days a week.

There are so many things to be thankful for and a birthday is a great time to sit down and count your blessings.

So, thank you to each and every one of you.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

http://youtu.be/zIEIvi2MuEk

This is a great video about a great idea executed by WestJet.

This certainly falls into the category of “great marketing ideas”, but it also made me realize something about “great marketing ideas”.

Those ideas that are really great marketing ideas are really just great relationship and people ideas.

This really hit home for me with this video when the lady was actually crying when she opened the camera.

Think about that. An airline gave a lady a camera. But they did so in such a meaningful way that it made her cry.

Want to make this Christmas special? Add some special meaning to what you do for others.

Help out a neighbor.

Find someone in real need of something. And then give it to them.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

MS* – Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale

JW* – Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. – Calvin Coolidge

EB* – The earth has grown old with its burden of care, but at Christmas it always is young, the heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair, and its soul full of music breaks the air, when the song of angels is sung. – Phillips Brooks

JD* – Now, the essence, the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so, and lo, it presently turns out to be so. – Stephen Leacock

Forgot to gather quotes from everyone so I went and found some Christmas themed quotes.

I really liked the last one.

Let’s all make it a point to make believe that Christmas is a time of love, peace and generosity.

Maybe, it just might turn out to be so.

Merry Christmas,

Jake

http://youtu.be/meU4cxhdjJI

While I think this is a fun/funny Christmas song, it mostly reminds me of my favorite lines from that movie.

Here are the words spoken at the beginning:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.

The video is here: http://youtu.be/PMScPVO4rLw.

Every time I watch that movie I am reminded of my favorite part of Christmas. Spending time with loved ones.

And when I think of those moments, I agree with the sentiment from the movie. Love is actually all around.

What can you do to look for the good this holiday season?

Merry Christmas.

Jake

Today’s email will be a slight addition to yesterday’s.

In yesterday’s email I encouraged everyone to find something small they could do to show appreciation and make the day of someone they know.

But it can be even simpler than that.

Just wishing for the happiness of a complete stranger can cause you to become a happier person.

Norman Vincent Peale illustrated his version of this in "The Power of Positive Thinking". Anytime he was in a crowd, he would choose a person and say a little prayer for that person, hoping for their happiness and health.

I encourage you to try this little thought experiment today.

Pick a stranger today and think a positive thought about them.

And see how you feel afterwards.

There is something about thinking about others and thinking positively that changes the way our brains work.

Merry Christmas.

Jake

I love my dad. He takes me to Bloomington Blaze games and he takes me to his work. His name is Jacob. – Margaret J Davis

Our oldest daughter wrote this and it made it into the Pantagraph this week.

And while it is tempting to use today’s email to brag on Maggie and her brilliance or my brilliance as a father, I am going to take a slightly different angle.

Those few words made my day.

Those simple phrases made my day.

And those little things I have done for and with Maggie made her day.

Seeing this written down from her and the way it made me feel made me realize how important those little things can be.

We can choose to do little extra things for others and make their day.

This next part I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing that if you made it a habit of doing nice little things for others for an entire lifetime you might just get to the end of your life full of love and happiness.

Each day is a renewal of opportunity.

The opportunity to make small, meaningful impacts on those we encounter.

Seize the opportunity.

Merry Christmas,

Jake

Trust is the byproduct of integrity. – Zig Ziglar

Many of you have seen me draw Andy Stanley’s "trust vs suspicion" illustration lately, so when I saw this Zig Ziglar quote it reminded me of the next logical question.

Once we identify the importance of trust and situations where it is missing, how do we build more trust?

I think Zig has hit the nail on the head in this quote and it answers the question well.

Trust is the natural byproduct of a relationship built on integrity.

As we deal with different expectations, integrity can build a foundation for all of us to work from.

If others can always expect the highest integrity from you, trust will be built and maintained much more easily.

Relationships with others can be difficult enough without having to throw in the difficulties that arise from a lack of integrity.

Now for the really hard question.

Are there relationships in your life where trust is lacking because of a lack of personal integrity on your part?

Is there someone who being more truthful with is needed?

Is there a customer or prospect that needs to hear something from you that they don’t want to hear?

Is there a coworker that needs to hear the truth about why you can’t help out on that important project?

Make the hard choice to build integrity in everything you do.

Merry Christmas,

Jake