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With fall already here, the holidays are just around the corner. Even if you love the holiday season and all it entails, too much to do and too little time may leave you feeling anxious. With some preparation, you can enjoy a serene holiday season that’s free of stress and abundant with beautiful memories.
Put Together a Budget
Money troubles can exacerbate the stress that comes with the holiday season. Before you start buying gifts, decorations and ingredients for holiday recipes, spend some time contemplating your finances.
By creating a holiday budget and spreading out expenses over several months, you can keep spending in check and avoid surprise credit card bills in January.
Guard Your Schedule
During the holiday season, you can find “me time” hard to come by as you juggle family get-togethers, office parties and gatherings with friends. To protect your sanity, learn to say “no” to some invitations. For events that you do choose to attend, get strategic about how much time you want to invest.
Between holiday activities, make sure to schedule some downtime for your favorite self-care pursuits — whether you enjoy staying fit, playing with your pet or connecting with friends online.
Get Organized for Giving
Do you plan to give gifts this year? If so, carefully consider your recipients, along with how much you plan to spend on each person.
Understand, however, that no law dictates gift-giving, and you can always choose a different way of doing things. If you’d prefer to cut down your gift list — either the number of recipients or the money you spend — you can draw names or set up a gift exchange.
Decide Which Family Traditions to Continue
For many people, the holidays bring significant pressure to continue traditions. You can decide to skip certain traditional activities — or remake them in ways that help lower your stress levels. For example, if you don’t enjoy sending holiday cards, consider splitting the task with a family member.
By choosing apartments in Charlotte that offer a range of convenient services and amenities, you also gain time for rest and relaxation. To learn more about finding the perfect apartment for you, please contact us.
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The heat of summer is here, and what better way to cool down than to do so at the resort-style pool you have in your backyard? At Ashford Green Charlotte, NC, apartments, one of the amenities all residents can enjoy here is the pool at the center of the complex. In fact, if you have kids, this is the ideal place to take them during the hot summer afternoons! Get them off their devices, have them cool off, and keep them engaged with the following fun poolside games:
4 Poolside Games Your Children Will Love
- Floatie race. Head down to your local dollar store and stock up on some cheap floaties. Get a mix of items – pool noodles, tubes, inflatable pizza slices, etc. – and then have your kids and their friends have floatie races from one side of the pool to the other.
- Airball. The goal of airball is simple: Keep the ball in the air. You can use a beach ball, inflatable ball or any other type of ball that can be easily tossed. The person who drops the ball goes in the middle; to get out of the middle, he or she needs to have someone else drop the ball.
- Sharks & Minnows. This one needs no props. Simply have one person stand in the middle of the pool and act as the "shark." Everyone else lines up on one end, and, when the shark says "go," they must swim to the other side of the pool past the shark. The shark's aim is to tag as many people as possible. Those tagged are out of the game, while those who made it to the other side without being tagged go another round, and so on until only one minnow and shark are left.
- Octopus. This pool game is another good one when you have several kids. Here, kids are tagged like the aforementioned game, but instead of being out, they grab hold of whoever tagged them. And thus the octopus begins with one person and slowly grows into a long human chain.
Questions About the Pool? Don't Hesitate to Contact Our Front Desk Staff!!
If you have any questions about the pool or other amenities at Ashford Green, don't hesitate to contact our front desk! We're always here to help.
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