by Diana Peyton

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: December 08, 2008

The best-kept secret to enjoying family holidays is to gather a few nuts!

No, not your relatives, get some walnuts. You will not be eating them, but hopefully you will be looking at them a lot. You may be handling them and surely, their symbolism will keep you thinking all season.

What do walnuts have to do with holidays? They go with uncooked rice. Sounds like the worst holiday recipe ever, but be assured, if you follow it carefully you will finish with the most delicious results.

Rice and Walnuts

Get two pint jars (one with lid), 1/2 cup of uncooked rice, and six to eight walnuts. Use one jar to hold the walnuts and one to hold the rice.

Give each walnut a value- something meaningful to you. Examples would be; time spent with spouse, time spent with children, religious activities, volunteering, seeing extended family, eating meals as a family, etc.

Give the rice a collective value. Time spent on TV, hobbies, talking on the phone, wrapping presents, decorating, cooking, cleaning, working overtime to afford the special gift, putting up decorations, sending cards, matching wrapping paper to cards, etc. These would be things that can sometimes be reevaluated for their worth in effort and energy.

Now, try to place all of the walnuts on top of the uncooked rice and put the lid on the container. Can't seem to seal the lid? Perhaps it's because you have forfeited what is most valuable to you during the season with what keeps you busy and absorbs all of your valuable time from the more important "walnuts" in your life.

Feeling discouraged. Hope is on the way. Empty out the jar, and reload with first, the walnuts...your priorities. There will be plenty of space left in the jar, so go ahead, use the same rice (the TV, the cooking, cleaning, wrapping, shopping etc.) once again only this time pour it over the walnuts now try to put the lid on the container. Voila! It closes!

How did that happen? You have wisely planned your time and conserved your energy for the things, which are most important to you, and allowed the incidental things that you need and want to do to fit into your scheduled priorities. Suddenly things get done, loved ones are not neglected, and you are finding the holidays really are something special.

Not only have you managed to place the things of importance to you in their proper place, but the little things you like to do, which sometimes seem important but eat up time, now fit exactly as they should in your holiday schedule.

After you have done this demonstration for yourself and your loved ones, place the jar in a high traffic area in your home, maybe by the door or in the middle of the kitchen. Go ahead; tie a big bright red ribbon around it, because the best gift you will give to those you love is having the right priorities. Even the nuts in the family will appreciate it.

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