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Holiday Links And Tips For Giving |
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101 Chic Cocktail Recipes
Ways To Be Gracious And Giving This Holiday Season And Always.
Volunteer at an animal shelter. It's important to keep family and friends in mind during the holidays, but don't forget the animals! Hundreds of homeless animals need your time, love, and hugs. Take your son or daughter to an animal shelter to volunteer for a day, or sign up to volunteer once a week to spread the love throughout the year. And if you have the resources and time, adopt one of your own! 
Provide dinner for a family in need.
You can make this holiday season one to remember for a hungry family. Offer a complete dinner through your church or an outreach organization in your community. Ask your children to help you with the shopping list. We bake cookies for our elderly neighbors and families in need. Contact the Salvation Army for more ways you can help our community families.
Donate money or volunteer at a women's shelter or an orphanage. Give a holiday gift to one or more of the shelters or homes in your community. If you know of a family in need or crisis give the gift of caring. Your gift can be anything from a ham to a homemade decoration or a toy. For an extra-special gift, take time out of your busy holiday schedule and help out by serving food at a homeless shelter. You undoubtedly will brighten many spirits, including your own. 
Invite extra guests to join your family for dinner.
The holidays are a time for giving and togetherness. If you know someone who will be alone for the holidays, make them feel loved by inviting them to your family's holiday dinner this year. The more, the merrier!
Remember Givers Gain in so many wonderful ways when we give of our time and help families in need.
Many Holiday Blessings,
Jenn
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Recipe Corner |
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David Bittner's Famous Chili
Igredients:
6 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork sausage mild
46 oz spicy hot V8
3- 46oz cans tomato juice
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP Chili powder or to taste
1 TBSP salt
2 TBSP worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup Western or Catalina Dressing
2 TBSP spicy mustard
2 TBSP garlic salt
Tobasco sauce to taste
2 medium onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
2 cans chili beans mild drained
2 cans northern beans drained
(If you like more beans add to taste.)
1/2 pound uncooked macaroni
Directions:
Brown the meat with the onion and celery.
Drain.
add remaining ingredients as listed and mix after you add each one. Bring to boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to blend flavor and cook the noodles.
This recipe is made in a large stock pot. Makes 6-8 quarts. We love it~ A great comfort food for the winter cold. Take some in a thermos when you go ice fishing.
David Bittner |
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Expressions Gift Baskets
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Welcome to week seven of Expressions weekly newsletter. We will inspire you, make you laugh, make you think and help you grow. I will include encouraging tips for gifts, words for the day and food for thought and lots of fun recipes every week!
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 "Today is a new life. Shut the doors on the past and the future. Live in day-tight compartments."
- Dale Carnegie
In this day and age, with so many developments occurring at lightning-fast speed, it is easy to feel constantly stressed and worried about important situations. Here are some tips on learning how to break the worry habit:
Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries
Cooperate with the inevitable
Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it more
Don't worry about the past -Dale Carnegie
www.dalecarnegie.com
*Gift Card Caution*
Some of you may be thinking gift cards are easy and practical but read this first and also get a list of stores that will be closing some doors. You may want to keep an eye out for them and get some bargains.
http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/wlos_vid_1692.shtml |
Holiday Tips For Blended Families
Divorced parents should make a special effort at the holidays to put their children's feelings first, says psychologist Nadine Kaslow.
( Watch an expert's advice for getting your blended family through the season. ) Our family is very blended. David and I have both been married before and when we joined together we also joined together families. We have my daughters, Ashley and Jessica and David's daughter, Amy. My children's father Mike is remarried as well and his new wife Dawn has two children. So we have had lots of adjustments to go through. Remember the children come first and their safety and happiness must be a priority. Put aside the bitterness and differences and co-parent for the children. Mike and I have been very fortunate that we have worked hard to be on the same page as far as the children are concerned. I hope everyone has the opportunity to co-parent effectivley. Remember, each family has their own way of running their home. If you can communicate with your ex-spouse and try to set similar rules for each home it helps the transition for the children tremendously. But there will always be differences. Some families eat, sleep and entertain much differently than others. It's ok.
Much Holiday Happiness, Jenn
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The Pros and Cons of Gift Baskets:
The advantage of a pre-made gift basket, with the busy schedule that even the giver has is time effective. You can save time by going online and choosing an appropriate gift. The gift basket retailers of today are plentiful and there are many themes, choices and prices out there to view. By choosing this method over a custom made gift basket, one can save time, money.
The disadvantage of purchasing a gift basket online is that there is no sentimentality put into the choosing of what is in the basket. The items are arranged in a premade basket. While you may be able to choose a basket that is best suited for the recipient it is still not custom made or hand picked.
The advantage of giving a hand picked or hand arranged basket, you may fill a basket with items that are delightful for the recipient. These items can be all centered on one theme or item. At times by choosing this method you may be able to save a bit of money. This purely depends on how elaborate you tend to make your basket. The other advantage of a custom made gift basket is your delight in what you are centering it around. You hand pick the items. We take the stress out of purchasing those prearranged gift designs by creating something very unique and memorable for your recipient. If you like a prearranged theme we can accommodate any requests.
Show the recipient of your next gift that you took the time and made a special effort to create something just for them. Let us help you save time and money by creating a gift that keeps on giving!
Test Your Gift Etiquette:
If you are hosting a party, are you required to serve the wine, chocolate or other gifts your guests bring?
Answer: No-
A host is not required to use gifts guests bring to a party. And guests aren't required to bring anything, unless asked. So don't feel like you have to take a host or hostess gift to every holiday party you attend.
Do you have to give a gift that has the same monetary value as a gift someone gave you?
Answer: No. Find the nicest thing you can give in your means. is correct.
When it comes to gift giving, you should make a list of people you want to give to and figure out how much you can spend on each, says Peter Post, co-author of The Etiquette Advantage in Business and Essential Manners for Couples. Going into debt to give lavish gifts is not appropriate.
Someone gives you a gift, but you weren't planning on giving that person one. Do you have to reciprocate?
No. Just say: Thank you. is correct.
You don't have to reciprocate if you receive an unexpected gift. And certainly don't say: "I'll have something for you tomorrow," Post says. "That's like trumping their gift," he says. Just show your gratitude for the gift without making excuses for why you're not giving one, too.
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HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! From: www.idealbite.com
Just wondering: why are we preserving dog poop?
The Bite:
Think about it: by using regular plastic doggie bags to clean up after your best friend, that poop is kept, er, fresh for longer than you probably intended. So switch to biodegradable bags or use a pooper scooper. After all, it's your doodie!
The Benefits:
In the US, the poop that dogs produce could fill an 800 ft tall football field each year. Use biodegradable bags, which break down in as few as 30 days.
Bio-bags are comparably priced to regular baggies.
Pooper scoopers are free after the initial investment.
We switched to bio bags and a scooper. We have two large dogs and do a daily poop pick up. We were using plastic and when I read that article it encouraged me to make the change. Jenn
Simply Festive Gifting!
Last minute custom gifting is our specialty. Take the stress out of the holidays and call us today. This gift design is for a bus driver and is filled with sausage from Marathon, Wisconsin cheeses, crackers, Holiday snack mix, cocoa, tea, holiday chocolates and candies. A nice little "Thank You" gift for someone who takes care of our children everyday!
Shown: $30.00
We Ship Worldwide
Local Delivery Available
Shipping for the holidays. There is still time to ship your gifts for the holidays. Regular ground shipping is still on time for Christmas.
"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."
-- Oren Arnold
Christmas Thoughts and Inspiration:
"Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart."
-- George Matthew Adams (The Christmas Heart)
"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white'."
-- Bing Crosby
"So remember while December Brings the only Christmas day, In the year let there be Christmas In the things you do and say."
-- Anonymous
Have an remarkable week and we will see you next time!
Blessings,
Jenn |
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