Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Advisor of MomForce.com and Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com. She chronicles her experiences as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com. As Thanksgiving nears many may notice the holiday decorations going up at malls, shopping centers, and around neighborhoods everywhere.  And with that comes thoughts of gift exchanges, Secret Santas, and Yankee swaps sweeping over the office cubicles, playgroups, and book clubs.

Gone are the days of yore when the person in charge of the said gift exchange had to keep meticulous records and notes carefully hidden from all the participants.  Just like Fantasy Football, Secret Santas can now be organized online, too.

Gift exchanges used to be purely for fun, but now those pinching their pennies are using the Secret Santa as a way to save money.  Rather than get a gift for everyone in your family, which for some people can be in the double digits, a gift exchange retains the spirit of giving on a much smaller scale.  An added bonus? If you only have one person to shop for and therefore spend less overall, you can spend more time and thought on the actual gift itself.

With so many in need around the world, another great way to leverage the Secret Santa concept while giving back is to donate money to a charity in the gift recipient’s name. But don’t just pick a random charity, think about the gift recipient’s interests and passions and let that guide your charity choice. (more…)

HalloThanksmas II
by moroka323

The intention and initiative for this blog post was pretty simple. We are about a month away (as this article was posted) from Christmas. As the holiday is getting nearer, we thought it’s about time to decorate the desktop while counting down.

Let’s leave the recession drama aside, and celebrate this holiday season with true Christmas spirit. But first, you might want to dress up the desktop a little bit. Here are some really Beautiful Christmas Wallpapers for your desktop. Full list after jump.

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One of the largest homes in Boston with 250,000 lights. Homeowner Luberto hopes the lights will serve as a reminder to some 47,000 people who drive by his home each day that Christmas should be celebrated in style. Photo Paul Keleher

While the earliest origins of celebratory lighting during winter festivals predate Christianity, it’s the European, and later North American partly secularized traditions associated with Christmas which are now commonly recognized and enjoyed as festive Christmas Lights. (more…)

Tissue Rectangles with Cutaway Label Reveal

Combining bits of papers lends a personal artistic touch with surprisingly incredible results. Anything goes — from pieces of foam rubber to paper bags and even fake credit cards!

All you need are fragments of paper, tape, glue sticks, hot glue or double sided tape. For added interest, try making use of unusual materials not typically used for wrapping such as twigs. Go ‘green’ by using colored paper shopping bags that you receive while buying gifts and recycling pieces of ribbon.

The center of attention is the front of the package, so don’t worry about the back which only plays backstage — it’s perfectly OK for the back to be a little untidy. The wrapping usually gets ripped off in a frenzy anyway! (more…)

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