This dog is so special I’m sure he keeps his family entertained for hours. Enjoy!

Here are ways to say “Happy New Year” in such languages as Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, Hebrew, Korean, Swedish, Vietnamese, and more.

Happy New Year!

I know many of us have things that they do together as a family and this is one that I feel is very special for the kids.  Today Tracy at Having Fun Saving has a fun tradition she and her family wanted to share with us all today.

Each year they deliver baked goods to the neighbors in their subdivision.  They get together with friends and bake  and decorate everything from cookies, breads, muffins, to chocolate covered pretzels!

You can put everything in tins or on holidays plates and wrap them up nice and then get ready to spread some Holiday Cheer!

You can have the kids deliver the cookies – that way they also learn how good it feels to make someone smile…especially around the holidays.

The holidays are a time of giving, and I think that sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the holidays we forget about the true meaning of the holidays.  Spread some Holiday Cheer!

Thanks to Tracy at Having Fun Saving for the Winter Wonderland information!

Click here to learn how you can make a child’s Christmas wish come true.

I know we have talked some about the horrible tragedy that happened in Connecticut, and if you find yourself wanting to help in some way there are various funds you can donate to and organizations set up, (there is a nice list on CNN.com), as well as a mailing address to accept cards and letters.

The Connecticut PTSA is requesting that Snowflakes be made and sent in order to create a Winter Wonderland for the temporary middle school that will become the home for Sandy Hook Elementary students and teachers for now. It’s a small request, it is definitely something that children can participate in and perhaps open the line of communication for those of you who have decided to tell your children.

If you would like to participate with Winter Wonderland – send your snowflakes to:

Connecticut PTSA
60 Connolly Parkway
Building 12 Suite 103
Hamden, CT 06514

Please pray for the victims and keep them in your hearts and minds during this Christmas season.

Thanks to Tracy at Having Fun Saving for the Winter Wonderland information!

“A friend is a gift you give yourself.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

“it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

“He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.” ~Frederich Nietzsche

“The gift of giving is worth more than the gift.” ~ Unknown

“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.” ~Ambrose Bierce

“Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold. Purchase not friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give, such will cease to love.” ~ Thomas Fuller

“Let your heart feel for the affiliations and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.” ~George Washington

“If yo give money, spend yourself with it.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“Hands that give also receive.” ~Unknown

“We are rich only through what we give and poor only through what we refuse.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think.” ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I have always thought of Christmas a good time; a kind, forgiving, generous, pleasant time; a time when men and women seem to open their hearts freely, and so I say, God bless Christmas!” ~ Charles Dickens

Do you like to solve puzzles? Do you want to challenge your children or grandchildren this year? Have them guess what each item in the song would cost in to-days dollars and then Google each item to find the current cost.

Hint: There are several internet sites that will list these prices but it is part of the hunt for them to find this information on their own.

This is a great challenge in that it involves:

1. Research
2. Addition
3. Multiplication

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Lyrics:

On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

Click here to learn how you can make a child’s Christmas wish come true.

Guest post from Tracy at Having Fun Saving.

Are you guys excited for tonight’s Christmas contest with Operation Santa and twentieth Century Fox?  I know we are!  I thought everyone would like a nice and fun recipe to get the kids even more excited about Santa’s upcoming visit.

Look how adorable these Santa Hot Dog Crescent Rolls are… they are fun to make and your kids will LOVE them.

Ingredients:

• Hot dogs
• Crescent rolls

Instructions:

• Slice the hot dog in the middle so that it has legs
• Make small slices on the sides to give Santa some arms
• Form the Crescent Roll dough to form the hat and accessories
• Bake until golden brown (about 11-13 minutes) at 350 degree

If you are looking for ways to save money this holiday season – either on your holiday shopping or your groceries, be sure to visit Tracy at Having Fun Saving. She has fun, frugal ways to enjoy the holiday season and save while doing it.

Click here to learn how you can make a child’s Christmas wish come true.

As you know, because of the horrific events at at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last week we just didn’t feel it was appropriate to run a contest during a time of national shock and mourning. We have rescheduled the Movie Night for tomorrow night, December 18 and hope that you will join us. Please pray for the victims and keep them in your hearts and minds during this Christmas season.

Operation Santa Claus in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment invites you to “Movie Night” tonight, December 14th.

We will be watching Love’s Christmas Journey and will be tweeting all night about the movie. Grab some comfy pillows and blankets, a mug of hot chocolate,some cookies and your family and friends to watch this great Christmas movie with us. We will be asking questions about them movie throughout the evening and would love to visit with you online.

Buy the movie here or search the Hallmark Channel and schedule it to record so you can watch it with us.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

How to Win

Join us on Twitter during movie night as we will be tweeting about the movie all evening and will be asking a lot of questions about events in the movie. Since people from all over the country will be watching, we are not setting hours, but will be tweeting during the evening hours up until Midnight EST.

Use @OperationSanta and the hashtag #HallmarkSanta to be eligible to win one of our our three GREAT prizes. We also invite you to join us on on Facebook page here, and we absolutely want you to join us on Twitter!

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Click here to learn how you can make a child’s Christmas wish come true.

Christmas is just around the corner and I say it is time to do some serious decorating, and I don’t just mean home and hearth. I mean your online real estate as well.

I found some great and FREE WordPress plugins that you can install very quickly and easily to share your Christmas spirit with your visitors. In fact, I installed my favorite one here on this site  just a few minutes ago. It is called Holiday Message. This plugin allows for several different options so you can place it where you like on the page and even has a very cool “snowfall” effect.

WP Christmas

You can see this one in action on Santa’s blog here. The snowmen are very cute,  and they dance to music while the message dances above their heads. There is also a light snowfall effect which is very light and not at all intrusive. Very festive!

One of the nice things about this particular plugin is that you can configure it to use a cookie so that it only shows once to each visitor, or you can have it show every time they visit.

You can also choose what pages or posts you want it to show on, based upon tags, categories, all pages or just some pages. Click here to download.

Christmas Countdown Clock

This plugin can be used to display a Christmas Countdown clock anywhere that you can put a widget and the widget can be tailored to display the clock with a background color and text color of your choosing. You can also turn the title on or off by ticking a check-box. There are several different clock configurations and several different backgrounds that you can select so have fun and play with it until you have the countdown clock that you want. Click here to download.

Countdown Clock

This one is very similar to the Christmas Countdown Clock and allows you to customize not only the clock appearance, but the message as well, meaning that it would be perfect for New Years. Click here to download.

Christmas Lights

I fell in love with this one but decided after trial and error that it won’t work on any of my sites but would love to see it in action on yours! This plugin puts a string of animated Christmas lights across the top of your site and there are no settings to worry about. Simply upload and activate. And be sure to come back and share the link to your site so I can visit! Click here to download.

Christmas Countdown Widget

This is a cute old fashioned Santa who basically tells you how many days until Christmas, but nothing more. The beauty of this plugin is that there are no configuration options — it is a simple install and then drag the widget to where you want it in your sidebar. Since the countdown automatically updates each year and starts the countdown over again on the day after Christmas, you can leave it in your sidebar all year round if you like. Click here to download.

We did find that trying to install more than one of these plugins caused them all to stop working, so I suggest you download all of these plugins, install them, play with them a little and then decide which one best suits your site. Then be sure to deactivate or uninstall those that you will not be using.
Click here to learn how you can make a child’s Christmas wish come true.