Christmas – Page 3 – Melissa Schlies

Buying Gifts For Each Other At Christmas

Ever notice how sometimes the hardest person to buy a Christmas gift for isn’t your great aunt on your mother’s side? Instead, it’s your significant other? They’re the person you spend the most time with, and who you know better than anyone else. Yet some years it feels like solving world hunger would be easier than finding them the perfect gift. Only, I don’t believe, as couples, that the gift is always our main problem.Yes, there is typically the stress over what to get each other. But our initial struggle of gift giving usually begins when we don’t talk or [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-12-05T16:35:49+00:00December 10th, 2018|Categories: Christmas, Marriage, Relationships, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Love: My Favorite Books 2018

Read to the end to find out how to win one of my favorite books! Recently, I heard someone use the word “intimate” to describe the experience of reading. Think about it. Usually, when we read a book, we tune out the rest of the world. We put down our phones. We stop our busyness. And in many cases, we go to a quiet place, sit, and give our full attention to the words of someone we’ve never met. For a few hours—or a number of small moments over a few days or weeks—it’s just us and the book. Now, [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-12-06T02:10:35+00:00December 6th, 2018|Categories: Christmas, Good Books, Health, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Uncategorized|1 Comment

He Always Comes

One of my favorite books growing up was The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Early in the story, one of the main characters, Lucy, finds herself in a magical, snow-covered land. The first creature she meets there is Mr. Tumnus who is half man, half faun. Though she is taken back by his appearance, he is very kind and they soon become friends. Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy that she is in Narnia. The reason it is so cold there, he explains, is because a witch has cast a spell causing it to always be winter [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-12-04T12:55:34+00:00December 3rd, 2018|Categories: Christmas, Faith, Hope, perseverance, Uncategorized|3 Comments

Love: Out of the Box Christmas Gift Ideas

The Christmas craziness has begun. Thanksgiving is over, which means Holiday parties abound. It is time to decorate trees and houses, write and send Christmas cards, and shop for presents to put under the tree. All while balancing our everyday responsibilities. There’s no question it’s the most wonderful time of the year—but, it’s also a little chaotic. That is why, over the years, we’ve found ways to trim down some of the craziness of the season, without losing any of its joy or meaning. For us, it has meant sending fewer cards, only decorating our tree (rather than the rest [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-11-14T19:15:54+00:00November 29th, 2018|Categories: Balance, Christmas, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Merry Christmas

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day. Don't clean it up too quickly." -Andy Rooney There is this part of me that is always ready to move on to the next thing. At the end of a Christmas party, I am already planning when I am going to wrap those gifts or bake that dish for the next event. I am always planning, always thinking about what is to come. And in many aspects of life, this strategic part of me works on my behalf. But not [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-17T23:52:51+00:00December 25th, 2017|Categories: Christmas|Comments Off

Love Learn Lead December 21, 2017

The countdown to Christmas is dwindling. In a few days Tony and I will get on a plane and head to the cold, northern shores of Lake Michigan to see our family in Wisconsin. There we will be greeted by one of the greatest gaggles of nieces and nephews ever. Every one of them will have grown way too much over the past year, which will make us feel both old and sad that we live so far away. But it will also make us savor our time with them all the more. As we prepare for the Christmas weekend [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-17T23:56:12+00:00December 21st, 2017|Categories: Christmas, Lead, Leadership Tip, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead|Comments Off

When Old Stories Become New

Have you ever heard a story so many times that you almost stopped listening whenever it was told? You knew the story, so why listen? You had it all figured out, so why pay attention? For me, I think there are many stories like that, and one of them is the Christmas story. I have heard and told the story of Mary and Joseph in the stable so many times that there’s been seasons where it almost lost it’s meaning. But interestingly, there has been other times, where the story came alive to me all over again. Surprisingly, for me, [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-17T23:58:31+00:00December 18th, 2017|Categories: Christmas, Faith, grief, Hope, Waiting|Comments Off

Peace on (our bleeding) Earth

Our country is bleeding. The first time I realized this, I was twenty. Two planes had just torn through the twin towers in New York City. I had come out of a class at college, and was walking through the student center, when I passed a classmate who looked like he had seen a ghost. He couldn’t tell me what had happened. I walked a little further down the hall and into a lounge where people had gathered around a TV. My sheltered belief that I lived in a safe country in a relatively safe world, was shattered. The news [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-18T00:24:45+00:00December 11th, 2017|Categories: Change, Christmas, Courage, Freedom, Hope|Comments Off

Love Learn Lead December 7, 2017

Happy Thursday! This past weekend, Tony and I went to a Christmas Tree farm with our closest friends, to cut down our tree. It has become a great tradition over the past few years. One that usually entails all the guys going ahead to scope out the best tree, while us girls slowly walk behind, shoving our hands in our pockets to keep warm, and talking about our favorite TV shows or catching up on the week. The guys find the trees, we give our approval, and then they are cut down and strapped to our cars. There is something [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-18T00:27:12+00:00December 7th, 2017|Categories: Christmas, Freedom, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Success|Comments Off

Wishing you a Very Hallmark Christmas

Since October, the Hallmark Channel has been playing Christmas movies almost non-stop. And I wish I could tell you I am immune to its candy cane coated version of life, but I am not. Over the past month or so, whenever I’ve felt under the weather or had to fold laundry, I have found myself sucked into another one of their love stories. She’s a lawyer who just wants to make ice sculptures and he’s the Christmas tree farmer with a broken heart. Or He’s a movie star looking for a place to call home, and she’s the woman planning [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2018-07-18T00:28:41+00:00December 4th, 2017|Categories: Christmas, Freedom|Comments Off

Buying Gifts For Each Other At Christmas

Love: My Favorite Books 2018

He Always Comes

Love: Out of the Box Christmas Gift Ideas

Merry Christmas

Love Learn Lead December 21, 2017

When Old Stories Become New

Peace on (our bleeding) Earth

Love Learn Lead December 7, 2017

Wishing you a Very Hallmark Christmas

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