At 4:30am I asked... "What the HECK is that Noise?"

Living in Arizona has it's own flavor, and constant surprises.
I'll tell you what awakened me in a moment, but first, let me tell you a story of holiday grace and class.

I went holiday lights looking in a trolley full of 20 of my new Arizona friends this week. While the trolley drove around for 3 hours, stopping to let us spill off the bus to oohh and ahhh at the decorations, we drank wine, ate caramel popcorn and laughed and sang. Nothing unusual for Christmas time. Until we came to one of the last houses.

Imagine a one-story house whose yard has been stocked full of blinking reindeer, santas, penguins, and any assortment of decorations that had been collected over 40-odd years. Now imagine that the owner has transformed her entire garage into a holiday village... the size of Boston... with a suburb in her dining room. Imagine she'd turned her entire dining room into a multi-layer winter village scene complete with a huge assortment of whirring, blinking, spinning mini houses and carnival rides, decorated trees, miniature people walking about, and 7 tiers of streets hand-paved in round peppermint candies. A labor of love, that must have taken all year to plan and create.

At all the other houses, the front doors were shut tight, the owners cuddled up by their fireplace watching the Apprentice while hordes of people strolled past their houses to admire their handiwork.

But not at this house. The owner was walking around handing out candy canes to the kids, as they marveled at the Disney characters riding tiny merry-go-rounds in her massive village scenes. She busied herself with laying Oreo cookies (the good ones, too... you know, the ones with the double stuff inside, and two flavors to boot!). She had two large urns filled with piping-hot coffee to warm her visitors, and had built a toasty fire pit surrounded by lawn chairs (you know, like the ones your grandma would pull out of the garage for picnics with the vinyl webbing that was frayed at the fringes).

Now imagine...
That the owner is 70-ish years young.

I witnessed pure Christmas spirit that night and decided that THAT would be me in 30 years.

When I am hit with the holiday humdrums, grumbling about attaching lights to my house, and the Christmas shopping craze, and overcome with a bah-humbug because of the commercialization of Christmas, I will from this day forward, think back to this angel who showed me more grace and class in one evening than I've witnessed the entire year. She quite simply embodied the Holiday Spirit.

I met a real, live angel that night... I'm sure of it.

I want to hear your stories of things that have touched your heart this holiday season. Post them below.

Now I promised to tell you what that unearthly sound was last night.
It was an impression at first, that lulled me from my sleep. I groggily thought that kids were playing in the street outside my house until I realized that children do not (normally) howl.
I opened the bedroom patio door and listened intently. I was greeted with yipping and high-pitched howling and suddenly realized I was being serenaded by a pack of coyote! My Christmas just keeps getting better and better...

I have two gifts for you. First, I'd like to share a funny picture of my 17 lb male cat (Scooter) and a frighteningly life-like graphic of him that made me want to spray paint him green.

www.wealthpromotion.com/XmasScooter.htm

Second, as many of you know, I am constantly learning as much as I can about my businesses: Internet marketing, real estate investing and conference production.

I want to share with you one of the most valuable, inexpensive, and easy-to-understand resources I found to get some cash coming in from simple websites. It's just 45 pages and you I read through it in an hour, and implemented something the first day! I know you can too.
You can find details it here:
http://wealthprom.richjerk.hop.clickbank.net

Lastly, I want to wish you an incredible holiday season, and promise I will do my best to help you create a prosperous 2006!

Happy Holidays,
Barbara