The most wonderful time of the year (the Christmas season) is also the most stressful for lots of people struggling to fit in increased end-of-the-year workloads, holiday parties, shopping, guest hosting, travel, and seeing friends and relatives who you'd otherwise avoid. Luckily, the same coping mechanisms that can help relieve stress and find better balance during the year also work for this holiday.

    Here are four tips to finding work—life balance during this season.

1） Know and avoid your stressors(压力源).

    If cooking for a large group, baking cookies, or Christmas shopping are your key stressors, don't do them. Lots of grocery stores will help cater your next holiday meal. Bakeries exist for a reason, and gift cards are much appreciated by all. Stop trying to live up to someone else's expectations of the holidays and stay merry by outsourcing the pain points.

2） Get flexible at work.

    If you normally travel an hour each way at work, see if your boss will let you work from home in this special season to save time, get more done, and reduce your stress. Or ask if you can start work from home in the mornings and come to the office later in the day to avoid peak hours. Leave early and finish your day from the comfort of home, too.

3） Make your own list and check it twice.

    Make a to-do list for yourself, for both work and life, then divide it up into categories like “must do,” “want to do,” and “feel obligated to do.” If you can remove any or all of your required list, the rest of your to-dos will start to look a lot easier.

    Once you have your lists in order, it's time to start crossing things off. In between your must-dos tasks, include a want-to-do task to break things up and re-energize yourself. Yes, this holiday is a time to give back to others and be selfless, but there's still a bit of “self” in selflessness, isn't there?

4）If you start to feel a cold coming on, come to a full and complete stop.

    The best way to stop a cold from exploding into a weeks-long sickness is to stop it at the start. Unless a task or activity is an absolute necessity, cancel your plans, put away your to-do lists, and settle in for a long winter's nap. A day of rest and enough sleep is the only thing you NEED right now. Feel bad about declining holiday invitations from your friends and family? You're doing them a favor. Once people hear that you're sick, they'll be glad you stayed away — they don't want to come down with a cold during the holiday any more than you do!

    It is certain that you can feel less stressed in this hectic season when you stop expecting so much from yourself, because nobody puts so much expectation on you as you do to yourself. Trying to satisfy clients, co-workers, friends and family can be draining and can finally negatively impact you in many ways. When you simplify things up front, you relieve the stress off of yourself and everyone else in the process. Stop focusing on what you feel like you're obligated to do, and start focusing on what you want and need to do, the load will get lighter and you will feel a lot merrier under the Christmas tree.

B

    I am Peter Hodes, a volunteer stem courier. Since March 2012, I've done 89 trips of those, 51 have been abroad, I have 42 hours to carry stem cells(干细胞) in my little box because I've got two ice packs and that's how long they last, in all, from the time the stem cells are harvested from a donor(捐献者) to the time they can be implanted in the patient, we've got 72 hours at most, So I am always conscious of time.

    I had one trip last year where I was caught by a hurricane in America. I picked up the stem cells in Providence, Rhode Island, and was meant to fly to Washington then back to London. But when I arrived at the check-in desk at Providence, the lady on the desk said: “Well, I'm really sorry, I've got some bad news for you-there are no fights from Washington.” So I took my box and put it on the desk and I said: “In this box are some stem cells that are urgently needed for a patient-please, please, you've got to get me back to the United Kingdom.” She just dropped everything. She arranged for a flight on a small plane to be held for mere-routed(改道) me through Newark and got me back to the UK even earlier than originally scheduled.

    For this courier job, you're consciously aware than that box you're got something that is potentially going to save somebody's life.

    If you're planning to go on a diet o1 if you suffer from serious conditions like diabetes( 糖尿病), knowing exactly what and how much you're eating is essential. In this day and age, we have calorie and nutritional calculators even on our smartphones, but they act only as guides, whereas Panasonic's revolutionary new device, CaloRieco, actually analyzes the food on your plate and provides accurate in formation about in just a few seconds.

    You've probably used calorie calculators before,and you know that they only offer general information. For example, a calculator will tell you the average number of calories in a hamburger, but it can't tell you exactly how many calories are in the hamburger. The same goes for nutrients like protein or fats. And this is what makes the new CaloRieco so special.

    Displayed at a recent tech show, CaloRieco is a high-tech device that uses light reflection technology to determine the nutritional values of almost any food and also provide accurate calorie estimates.All you have to do is put your plate in the box-shaped device and wait between 10 and 20 seconds for it tc analyze all the food on there.

    Once it's done analyzing the various ingredients(原料)in your meal, CaloRieco displays the number of calories, as well as the nutritional content on an LED display, According to Panasonic, the device is able to recognize the vast majority of foods, except soups and very dark dishes.

    CaloRieco can also connect to your smartphone via an app, and send all the data about analyzed foods to your handheld, so you car access it whenever you need.

    Panasonic said that its outstanding invention is aimed at dieters and diabetes sufferers, both of which make up a large market.Unfortunately,you'llhave to wait a bit longer to your hands on your very own CaloRieco, as the device presented a the show is just a prototype(样品) which needs to be improved. It 's scheduled to hit the market sometime in the next few years, but the price remains unknown.

    Some people find visiting ordinary museums to be a bit dull. Fortunately for them, there are unusual museums to check out, such as underwater museums!

    How can you visit and what can you see?

    Many underwater museums are supported by companies that offer guided tours. A trained guide leads groups around a stunning underwater display of statues in each museum. Depending on the depth of the museum, visitors may be able to view the sculptures from a glass bottomed boat or by swimming on the surface. Other underwater museums are deeper and are most accessible to scuba divers.

    Why are the museums underwater?

    Underwater museums have many functions. One of their aims is to create a man-made reef environment where sea creatures can live. That's why some of the museums are located in areas that were damaged by hurricanes or are considered underwater ''deserts''. The statues in the museum are designed in a way that encourages the growth of coal and plant life. Over time, the statues and plants attract a growing number of fish to the area.

    Florida, U.S.A.

    Florida is home to different types of underwater museums. The state's newest underwater museum, the Underwater Museum of Art, can be found off the coast of Grayton Beach. This part of the Gulf Mexico is an underwater desert, so creators hope that the exhibit will improve the marine ecosystem.

    Cancun, Mexico

    For years, Cancun has been a popular tourist destination. And one of the major draws is the water. The Museo Subacuatico de Arte is an ideal place for snorkelers and first-time divers. There they can enjoy more than 500 statues that help to make up a man-made reef. This museum was created to offer visitors a replacement for the areas natural reef, which has been damaged.

    Canary Island, Spain

    Museo Atlantico, off the coast of Lanzarote, has an impressive display of more than 300 statues. They were created by the same sculptor who made the Cancun statues. They focus on man's interaction with the marine world.

    Kentucky Fried Chicken has filed a lawsuit（提起诉讼） against three companies in China, because their social media accounts spread false information about its food, including that its chickens have eight legs. The case comes as the Beijing government holds an activity to clean up rumours （谣言）on social media（媒体）. Internet marketers have been accused （指控） of trying to control online opinions of their customers by posting false information about their competitors.

    In an announcement posted on its Chinese website, KFC said one of the best-known false rumours was that chickens used by the company have six wings and eight legs. It is requesting 1.5 million yuan and an official apology from each of three companies. It is also asking for an immediate stop to their activities to hurt it by spreading rumours.

    The fried chicken chain is China's biggest restaurant operator and is a kind of fast food for young people in China. It has more than 4, 600 restaurants in the country, and on average, opens a new branch every day. KFC'S China chief executive officer（行政长官）, Qu Cuirong, said that it is difficult for companies to protect their brands（品牌） against rumours because it is hard for them to collect evidence. She added, "The efforts by the government in recent years to purify（净化） the online environment have offered us much more confidence."

    The companies are Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Company, Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Company and Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication in Shenzhen, south-east China. Calls to numbers listed for the companies either rang unanswered or were not available. In fact, authorities（官方） began an activity two years ago to clean up what they called online rumours. Comments in state media have argued that a clean-up is needed.

You've heard the phrase "home for the holidays", but I would like to introduce a new phrase: hygge for the holidays. A hygge holiday is all about peaceful, quiet and cozy (温暖舒适的) surroundings. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? Holiday hygge is easy and comforting. Most people are already doing at least some of these simple hygge holidays without even knowing it.

Hygge is a Danish word originally coming from an old Norwegian word meaning well-being and protection from the outside harm. It's known that winters in Denmark are severe and last long. The concept of hygge has been used by Danish people to keep themselves mentally positive in the dark winter season and fill their homes with comfort and love.

Hygge is a very important word to Danish people, often used to describe what their culture is all about and it is not necessarily a thing, something you can buy, but rather more of something you feel. Hygge really is a reflection of one aspect of Danish living, and, happily, in the last five years the concept of hygge has made its way to the US and many other countries. I mean what's not to like about nurturing (培育) peace and quiet and coziness? 

Here are some more descriptive words for hygge: comfort, familiarity, friendship, laughter, and even seasonal homemade food and drinks. While it is possible to achieve hygge any time of the year with hygge activities—an outdoor BBQ with friends and a movie under the stars with family are good examples of summertime hygge, it is most commonly associated with the colder months because of its ability to lift one's spirits during dark winter months.

Hygge is the most suitable for the November and December holiday season because it's all about peaceful and cozy surroundings that fill you with contentment. There is indeed something you can do to bring holiday hygge into your home this season.