Write A Santa Letter To Your Children

HO! HO! HO!

If Santa has never written a Christmas greeting to your children, you’d better remedy that by writing him right now at the North Pole, care of the United States Postal Service.

The Fairbanks, Alaska, postmaster delivers Santa’s mail each year to boys and girls all across the country (or world if you have access to U.S. stamps).

Here’s what to do: You are Santa and you write a letter to your children. You can use fancy holiday stationery, including ones with Santa’s jolly likeness. In the letter, tell your children how they are on your Special List of Good Children. Children love it when you personalize the letter with details like their latest accomplishments, awards or grades, their friends’ names, a pet, or a lovey or blanket.

You can include information about the North Pole, the elves, Rudolph training the youngest reindeers, Mrs. Claus and whatever strikes your fancy. If you mention a specific toy, be absolutely positive it’s going to be under the tree (I would only include something that’s already hiding in the closet — you know how those mad shoppers can be).

Santa’s whirlwind flight around the world requires a lot of energy, so Santa Claus should ask for a plate of cookies and a glass of milk. Kris Kringle never worries about calories because the chubbier, the merrier.

When you’ve written the letter, place it in a matching envelope with a Christmas stamp and address it to your child with your full U.S. postal address. In the upper left corner, just write Santa Claus, North Pole (or St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pere Noel or whatever is your children’s favorite name for the jolly fellow in the red suit).

Seal the envelope. You can decorate it with stickers or even a fancy wax seal of a snowflake, Rudolph or an initial like S for Santa or C for Claus.

Place the letter your children will be receiving into a larger envelope, properly stamped for First Class or Priority Mail and address that envelope to:

North Pole Christmas Cancellation
Postmaster
5400 Mail Trail
Fairbanks, AK 99709-9998

The elves at the North Pole Post Office will postmark Santa’s letter with this postmark and send it back to your children!

Your request must arrive before Dec. 15. After that date, the Postal Services requires priority mail postage to ensure the letter’s arrival before Christmas because Santa just would not send his mail after he already came down your chimney.

For a list of other holiday-based towns which will also postmark your mail, click here.

For a list of all the Works For Me Wednesday participants, head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Advent Wreath

Egg Tip

Black Friday Holiday Shopping

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Black Friday Shopping: No Lines, No Crowds, No Waiting

Does that headline sound like the biggest oxymoron of the millennium?

It won’t once you experience on-line shopping with all the sales, deals and savings offered at my Amazon Affiliate Black Friday page at Infinity Goods.

Today, Friday, November 23, 2007 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, you will be able to stay home in your PJs and take advantage of special affiliate sales. No crowds, no bumper to bumper lines in the parking lot, you won’t even have to get showered and dressed before the sun is up, yet you can still shop to your little heart’s content and enjoy all the Black Friday sales, deals and savings. At infinitygoods.com we normally carry selected items of interest to families, but on Black Friday we’re linking to the entire Amazon Web site so that you’ll be able to save on all the sales, deals and savings available to Amazon Affiliates. So be sure to go to our store today. It will definitely be worth your while because there will be hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. There will even be gift wrapping for only $.99 per item to make the busy holiday season that much easier for you.

Happy shopping without the crowds!

Infinity Goods wishes you a great Thanksgiving Weekend

and a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Thursday 13 #7 — Thankful for God’s Comforts

 

Happy Thanksgiving To All!!!

Thank you for coming back to Thursday Thirteen. On this day of giving thanks I let you know about 13 things I am thankful God gave us and which comfort my spirit and soul. You’ll notice a major theme with water.  All photos from Flickr’s public files.

1. Lakes
2. Beaches
3. The smell of a redwood forest
4. Rain taping on a window or on my face
5. Birds singing
6. Cuddling up in a comfy chair with a warm blanket and a great book next to a fire while the rain taps its music on the window pane
7. Hot tea
8. The sun creating rainbows through a church’s stained glass windows
9. Early morning fresh air
10. Being perfectly still and quiet, watching nature unnoticed
11. A brook or small cascade gurgling
12. The cool softness of moss
13. Morning dew

 

Don’t miss my posts about Black Friday and Holiday Shopping.
Thanks to the Internet we can have our cake and eat it too:
Let’s shop all the Black Friday sales WHILE we stay home in our pajamas!!
Now that’s a good reason to TGIF!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

WFMW — Household Tip for Eggs

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!

Sometimes a recipe will call for only an egg white or only an egg yolk.  Don’t throw out that good leftover!  Just freeze it and add it to your next omelet or scrambled eggs.  If you make sure they don’t get freezer burn, they will last quite a while, but I like to use them as soon as possible.

For more Works For Me Wednesday participants be sure to visit Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Black Friday Holiday Shopping

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder 

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Sales, Deals and Savings

The morning after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year here in the United States and it even has it’s own name, Black Friday. While most people go shopping at ungodly hours like 4 to 6 a.m., I usually stay snug in my bed just so I don’t have to fight the crowds. This year we can have our cake and eat it too. With our store, infinitygoods.com, being an Amazon Affiliate, I was told of a special Black Friday opportunity. If you link to my store on Friday, November 23, 2007 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, you will be able to stay home in your PJs and take advantage of special affiliate sales. No crowds, no bumper to bumper lines in the parking lot, you won’t even have to get showered and dressed before the sun is up, yet you can still shop to your little heart’s content and enjoy all the Black Friday sales, deals and savings. At infinitygoods.com we normally carry selected items of interest to families, but on Black Friday we’re linking to the entire Amazon Web site so that you’ll be able to save on all the sales, deals and savings available to Amazon Affiliates. So be sure to go to our store on Friday. It will definitely be worth your while because there will be hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. There will even be gift wrapping for only $.99 per item to make the busy holiday season that much easier for you.

It works for me and it will work for you too. For more Works For Me Wednesday participants visit Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Don’t Waste Those Eggs!

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

In the meantime, Infinity Goods wishes you a great Thanksgiving

and a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

SSSS — Training Hearts Blog Oozes with Christian Love

Super Simple Spiritual Sunday is a carnival list of blogs, posts or websites which are spiritually encouraging. To join in or to find other participants, visit Heart of Wisdom.

I’d like to share with you a blog I just discovered yesterday, but found to be a real blessing.

Training Hearts is a blog written by a Christian homeschooling mom named Tamara. Her blog oozes with thoughtfulness, generosity and Christian love. You’ll find lots of encouragement, Bible verses, household tips, homeschooling resources and ideas, prayers, and lots more.

Her readers love her and reward her with lots of comments.

You’ll want to visit again and again because her blog will give you a nice warm and cozy feeling. You even get to pick what her blog looks like with the theme picker.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give it to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

John 14:27

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Bookcases at the Breaking Point? Join Paper Back Swap.

I meander through blogs one click at a time and I found what seems to be a great Web site for all of us bookworms. I periodically lighten the load on my bookshelves by taking lots of boxes to my local charity and start the process all over again by filling up those shelves quicker than my wallet appreciates. I know all of you fellow bookworms can identify.

Well, I’ll still give to charity of course, but I’m going to give Paper Back Swap a try and see if I can’t give my wallet something to cheer about for once.

Basically you sign up your unloved books (hardbacks too) for adoption at Paper Back Swap. When a fellow PBS member wants to adopt your book, you mail it to them and you can adopt someone’s unloved book. It’s an even trade book for book. The site is free. Even with postage, which PBS tells us is $1.59 for a paperback, that’s still cheaper than buying from a used bookstore.

They claim their members are the best part about their club.

Co-founder Robert Swarthout says, “What started as a trading system has turned into a social community of readers that share so much more than books. Our members transcend miles and become best friends through club communications, discussion forums and coffee-time chat rooms.”

There’s also a writer’s corner called The Eclectic Pen and a recipe corner, too. They claim to have a large selection of homeschooling books.

They have almost 2 million books available and have been recommended by Good Housekeeping, Wired, Real Simple, Martha Stewart.com, The Today Show, CNN, Nasdaq’s Marshall Loeb, ABC News, and numerous more media sources across the country, so they should be a reliable site.

I’m going to give it a try, and if you already have tried them, please let me and my readers know what you think.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Thursday Thirteen #6 — My Interests

I am sharing with you 13 topics which interest me and are important to me. They are in no particular order, because most of these would all tie with each other. These are topics
you see and which will recur on my blog. To see more participants in this carnival or for
details on how to join, visit Thursday Thirteen.

1. Computers/Internet/Blogs/Technology/Science
These sort of overlap in many ways. I’m forward thinking and I’ve been using computers
since before my teen years, back in the days when people were saying it was a waste of
time, and it wouldn’t last. Wait, aren’t a lot of people still saying that? Well 30+
years later, I’m still interested. I remember asking for a calculator as a Christmas gift
when I was in Kindergarten. The people selling them were flabbergasted that a child would want one and thought no child would ever need one. This “pocket” calculator, the smallest on the market at the time, was about the size of a small paperback!

2. Fine Art
I was an art history minor and an art minor. I seriously considered switching it to my
major, and often wonder if I didn’t make a mistake. I draw, paint, photograph, make
ceramics and do a lot of new media paintings — that’s every stroke hand-painted by me, but instead of using paint, I use computers. Museums and galleries recognize new media, but the average person out there still claims the computer makes the paintings. Not so! This would be the equivalent of saying oil paint and brushes are the artists making the artwork. Computers do not make art. Paint and brushes do not make art. The people, the artists make art, regardless of which tools they use.

3. History/Biographies/Autobiographies
As much as I like the future, I also like the past. We can learn from our past and our
past can help us understand our present. I’m very much interested in people and their
lives which is why I like history and also what leads me to the next item.

4. Psychology/Sociology
I’m interested in people and what makes them tick. I’m also interested in science, so
psychology helps me understand the individual and sociology helps me understand the groups and societies we live in. In college my sociology professor had wanted me to switch majors to either sociology (he hoped) or psychology (which he admitted was related and thought I would like too). I ended up with an additional certificate in psychology, but I never switched majors to either psychology or sociology.

5. Cross-stitching/Crafts
My grandmother taught me how to cross-stitch and I spent numerous hours watching her even before she taught me how to do it. I find it very relaxing and as I like art and to create, cross-stitching and other crafts are just related to that.

6. Reading/Writing/Journalism/News/Books
These are all intertwined. As a professional journalist, writing and reading are just my
life. I just could not live without reading. I have to learn at all times and reading is
the best way for me to do that. I have been wanting to write since early childhood. I
have attempted not to write for a living, but life was just too miserable without a pen in
my hand or a keyboard at my fingertips. I’m a published journalist, but I would love to be a published author using either my journalistic skills to write non-fiction or even writing a
novel. I’m one of the crazy participants in National Novel Writing Month. Any publishers
out there interested in my writing voice?

7. Religion/God
I believe in God and shout it from the rooftops, but won’t attempt to convert atheists as
belief needs to come from inside your heart and soul. I worked for my parish for several
years and wanted to work there until retirement, but an evil man came into our midst,
getting rid of staff and clergy, swiftly putting a financially viable parish in the red,
and destroying the work of the last 40+ years. Some will turn away from God because of
him, but the destruction he brings is not of God. Destruction can never be of God.

8. Education
I love to learn, my husband and I have both taught, and since we have a son, education is very important to us. He went to private schools for several years and while that was fine, we found something better through an excellent public school system with an independent study program. Forget all the stereotypes of homeschooling and of public school. That’s not what it is. It’s more a combination of when people had private tutors teach their children, the one-room schools and parents nurturing their own children. The program is what it is thanks to our son’s wonderful teachers, especially the founder, Resa Steindel Brown. If you want a glimpse at what it’s all about, read her fantastic book, The Call to Brilliance: A True Story to Inspire Parents and Educators. You can also read about his science teacher in my blog posts here and here.

9. Family
Family and extended family is extremely important to me. It is where we receive and give love and support. Here on Earth, not counting God in Heaven, it is the one most important thing and it just doesn’t get more basic than that.

10. Movies/Plays
I don’t watch much TV, but I love a good movie or play. While it can’t replace a good
book, it’s still a story, whether real or fictional, and I love to be entertained. I
prefer comedies, especially for movies, because I don’t know about your life, but my life
is enough of a drama as it is. I just don’t need other people’s too, especially the made-
up ones. I really like adventures too, because this way I can escape to some fabulous
world and live vicariously. I would like science fiction, but most don’t meet my quality
standards unfortunately.

11. Hiking/Walking/Swimming
I enjoy being in nature and these are the most fun forms of exercise for me. These are not boring to me. I enjoy the scenery. Running would be too fast and strenuous to enjoy the
scenery. These are also quiet and since I despise noise, anything with bouncing balls,
whistling referees or echoing gymnasiums just would not work for me.

12. Cooking/Gourmet Food/Reading Cookbooks
Yes, I read cookbooks. I actually read cookbooks more than I eat or cook. As a teen my
mom would tell me that I read cookbooks instead of eating. I also love to cook when I
don’t have a full-time job. If I’m working, then cooking is no longer a pleasure and
something that I do for the family that I love. It becomes a chore and a race to put
anything on a plate in front of starving eyes in less than half an hour from the time I run
through the front door. But when I am not working, I will use all my knowledge from
reading all these cookbooks and all my creativity and use cooking as another art-form. I
also like real food. I am against eating engineered chemicals, dyes, artificial products.
I like wild salmon, trout and other fish, I like real butter on all my foods and especially
my popcorn. And you really don’t want me to get started on cloned meat, or cloned
anything, because I’m really against that!

13.Travel
I don’t travel enough. I would love to travel 365 days a year, but that’s simply not
possible. I put roots down with a family and a house. Once upon a time I contemplated
becoming a foreign correspondent, a travel writer and even a pilot or a stewardess, just so
that I could travel, but I will just have to be satisfied with having been to Germany,
France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Arizona,
Nevada, Georgia, … Oops, that sounds like another Thursday Thirteen! 😉

Just click on Mister Linky to add your Thursday 13 link and see the other participants who linked here. And please don’t forget to post a comment. Thanks!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

WFMW — Organizing Household Binder

I love to organize with binders. One of my favorite binder is my household binder.

In a regular school binder I put in sheet protectors and add all my household warranties, receipts, and manuals like the ones for my washer/dryer, my dishwasher, my air conditioning, my roof, my blender, etc., etc., etc.

In that binder I also keep information about who installed them or who repaired them, such as business cards of my plumber, bug exterminator, roofer, electrician, etc.

If a friend recommends a service provider, I add it in too, along with the name of the friend’s name, the date and any comments.

It’s not information we need often, but when we need it, we need it fast and we need to know exactly where to find it.

When I add something to it, I take a minute to look through for any obsolete papers which can be thrown out.

When it comes time to move, I can give all the appropriate paperwork to the new owners and I add my latest coupons for the local pizza and Chinese takeout for an easy moving day dinner.

I first saw this system used when I was a teen and my parents purchased a new home. The housing developer gave them just such a binder with all the appliance manuals, recommended service providers, local schools, phone numbers for cable, utilities, newspaper, etc. and my mom and I liked the idea so much that all these years later, we still use it.

I think Realtors could use this idea too.

It really works for us! It keeps our homes organized.

For a list of this week’s other participants, stop by Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any on my previous Works For Me Wednesdays and household tips, just click below.

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Holiday Shopping List

Here are my picks for a 21st Century Holiday Shopping List, and you can shop right here from the Internet and not have to fight for a parking spot at the mall. Just click on the links to see more and to purchase.

Music Downloads The teens and music lovers will enjoy Amazon’s new music downloads for their iPods, MP3 players, cell phones and other musical gadgets. Starting at only 89 to 99 cents per download, it’s in anybody’s price range and can be given even to paperboys (do they still exist??), teen gardeners, babysitters and others you want to recognize with a gift but don’t want to spend a fortune on. Your own kids will love a more generous download amount, and you will love this clutter-free gift which won’t be sitting around your home gathering dust.

Video Downloads Forget driving to the video store or messing with mail order video memberships. Now you can download your videos straight from your computer. Video downloads can be either rented or purchased from Amazon, a trusted Internet source for years, not a new fly-by-night company you’ve never heard of before.

Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series is “a tour de force … a masterpiece,” wrote the New York Times. Using revolutionary new filming techniques, with a budget of more than $25 million, “Planet Earth” is the epic story of life on Earth as you’ve never seen it before. The Chicago Times praised it as “an absolutely extraordinary achievement.” Five years in the making, using 40 cameramen spanning 200 locations, this 11-part series is hailed as the ultimate portrait of our planet. It also features a 150-minute documentary about our future. “Simply radiant” said Entertainment Weekly and “breathtaking” according to Time Magazine.

The Bible Experience: Old Testament (Inspired By) You can no longer say the Bible is boring or that you don’t have the time. Now you can be entertained during your long commute by an unprecedented cast of more than 400 actors, musicians and clergy, including Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Bishop T.D. Jakes, LL Cool J, Forest Whittaker, etc. in this dramatic audio recording of the Bible. Even the youngest child can “read” the Bible by listening to the Old Testament, the New Testament or the Complete Bible and the whole family can gather around, too. This audio Bible is from Zondervan, the world’s leading Bible publisher.

LEGO Mindstorms NXT This is much more than a toy, it is science lessons in a box and was recommended to our son by his science teacher, a research scientist who participates each year in the DARPA Urban Challenge with Autonomous Robot Cars. Mindstorms is exciting for children and teens (adults too) and will nurture their curiosity. Parents will love that it’s not some mindless, brain-rotting toy. If you missed the posts about the Urban Challenge, you can click here and here to learn about the cars that drive themselves and will be picking up our groceries in the very near future.

iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver The Jetsons have finally arrived. This round vacuum may not look like a robot, but it will automatically vacuum your home, spend extra time in the dirtiest spots and return to one of its two battery chargers to ready itself for the next clean up and you won’t have to lift a finger. Spend the extra time laughing with your children, cozying up with your spouse or pampering yourself.

This great carnival of shopping list ideas was thought of by Chili at Don’t Try It, where the rest of the participants are listed.

For more on holiday shopping, check out my post about Black Friday Sales, Deals and Savings and visit our store on November 23, 2007 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.