I know, I know. It is the Holidays Season, we are all busy, or maybe a bit upset that the 2020 holiday season doesn't look like what we are used to; still, here are five shorts for you to take a moment to lean back with your hot-mint cocoa and get inspired to find your JOY.

Let's go!

Short 1 - The Difference Between Joy and Happiness
Doing quick research (thank you, google) brought up many different perspectives about this topic. Despite the different perspectives, the consensus is that happiness depends on external factors to exist. Happiness happens to us. Even though we may seek it, desire it, pursue it, feeling happiness is not a choice we make. Joy, on the other hand, is a purposeful choice. Joy is an attitude of the heart and spirit, present inside. It's possible to feel joy in difficult times. Joy doesn't need a smile to exist, and it can share its space with other emotions like sadness, shame, or anger. Happiness can't.
 

Short 2 - Volunteering
The research shows that when we feel emotional pain or chronic physical pain, the best medicine is volunteering. When we feel the pain, we go inward. When we help others, we move outward – it's being shown that when We experience joy when we achieve selflessness to the point of personal sacrifice.

Short 3 - Teaching Our Kids the Joy of Giving (Hanukkah Edition)
Here is the deal: there is no such thing as giving the kids eight gifts in Israel. I believe it is because we don't need to compete with Christmas; Lets' face it, no one can compete with Christmas, even though our family doesn't celebrate it, I can attest it is the best Holiday E-V-E-R. Even though we live here for 15 years, we still give our kids one gift on the first night of Hanukkah.
Let's face it; many kids these days don't need too much while others don’t have anything. When I ask my kids what do they need for birthdays or holidays, they pause and can't come up with anything they need because they live in the Amazon prime realty. Still, there are others who don’t have this privileged.
Inspired by a friend, my husband and I decided to take advantage of the eight-night of Hanukkah gifts idea and tell our kids that fortunately, there is nothing they need, while during this period of COVID, there are many that do need support. Therefore night each one of us chose an organization they care about to donate money to. When we light the candle, the child or parent had to explain the organization to the family and share the link to donate. Each kid had two nights, us the parents one. Eight nights, eight donations – that's joy ;-)

Short 4 - Christmas Songs
One of my favorite things since I moved to the US, is Christmas Songs. My favorite station, after checking Amazon, Spotify, etc, is actually Pandora. This weekend I baked cookies with my older son and put the Christmas songs in the background. Yep, – Joy.

Short 5 - Cookies!!!!
My husband and I follow Paleo guidelines, and our daughter follows a GAAP/SCD diet, and she is also allergic to eggs. Now baking was not my forte for many years, but like any mother, I wanted my daughter to enJOY her food and baked goods – which is not an easy task. This means that in the last four years, I have experimented with baking with Almond Flour (I do not use gluten-free flour) to try and find good recipes that will bring a smile to my daughter's face (and us too). Here are our two Holiday Season recipes – if you are moving to this way of eating for health reasons or just because it is the new year, check those out. My favorite recipes are from ComfyBelly.com – I haven't failed with any of her recipes. Check her out:

Gingerbread Cookies (great for breakfast)
https://comfybelly.com/2020/12/gingerbread-cookies-dairy-free-grain-free-egg-free/

Thumbprint cookies (I prefer them without the jam – just plain and simple) https://comfybelly.com/2017/12/thumbprint-cookies/