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What to do on New Year’s Eve

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In between Christmas and New Year’s, is a time I like to relax and reflect. We used to stress about what we’d do for December 31. Pressure was on; but this year I researched some fun ideas and want to share them with you.

1. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC

Dick Clark, on the other hand, has been hosting the New Year’s Eve special on ABC for 40 years! Longer than I’ve been alive. Don’t you feel like he’s the Santa Claus of New Year’s?

   The big show begins at 10:00 p.m. E.T., and Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are scheduled to perform. In 1972, Dick Clark hosted this inaugural show and competed with Guy Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve special which ended-up airing for 21 consecutive seasons since 1928. My family and I like to watch this live show broadcast from New York City with the famous ball drop!

 

2. Family Friendly Events

I found out about this nationwide event calld First Night USA – a nonprofit that offers “community spirit” celebrations in 23 states. These celebrations focus on arts and performance allowing families to enjoy a night of spectatorship in downtowns of cities across America like Council Bluff, Iowa, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and Alexandria, Virginia. I love the idea of exposing my children to art and theatre and getting out of the house to explore this holiday night with other local families.

3. Cooking Dinner for Friends

I read this great article in the Washington Post by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan called, An Intimate Dinner for Friends. It listed some apropos recipes for a calm night with close-knit friends including fennel-roasted salmon and cranberry tart. One New Year’s I had dinner with about five other friends, and as the clock struck midnight, we all went outside and banged on pots and pans under the moonlight. We felt genuine childlike joy as we made each other laugh clanging and marching around in a circle. This is a great tradition for New Year’s Eve.

 

 

4. Don’t forget Happy New Year Cards!

I like sending Happy New Year Cards on both the Eve and on January 1. I like the idea of my faraway cousins receiving Happy New Year Cards on their laptops while they watch New Year’s Day football on the tube; and I want my girlfriends to laugh at their Happy New Year Cards right before they make the Hoppin’ John black-eyed peas receipe for everyone to enjoy that day.

Let’s make a pact to not feel so pressurized this December 31. Hopefully I’ve offered some fun ideas for your New Year’s plans. Watch Dick Clark, revel in family-centric events, cook an intimate meal for friends, or send faraway loved ones Happy New Year Cards. Just make a choice, and do it!

 

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Last Minute Handmade Christmas Gifts

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Crafters and knitters go all out this time of year. Oh what fun it is to make a Christmas stocking from a pattern. Yarn mills and spinneries sell Christmas stocking patterns for $4 online (or you can buy the kit for $20.) But for some of us, it might be too late. The hands on the clock have ticked past, and we can no longer enjoy the luxury of plenty-of-time-to-prepare; instead we must resort to what I call last minute “Christmas Eve Crafting.”

 

 

Martha Stewart’s site has a great idea for a last minute handmade gift. Fill organza sachets with herbs such as lavender, tansy, wormwood, cedar, patchouli, rosemary, cinnamon, or cloves to repel moths. These sachets are a sweet-smelling alternative to your grandmother’s chemical smelling mothballs. They are pretty easy to make. Just buy the organza squares and decorative ribbon from a Joann Fabric Store and dried lavender from a flower store.

Another idea comes from a mother and creative designer in Charlotte, NC. She blogs about this great last minute handmade gift idea.

DIY family photo magnets. Get your magnets from Hobby Lobby and follow this blogger’s tutorial. All you need is photo paper, chipboard from the back of a notebook, rubber cement, and a white marker. Such a personal and inexpensive gift for your family and friends!

Our favorite last-minute ideas are Christmas ecards. A life szver if you forgot to send a printed card to someone. Frankly, I save myself time and effort and send all my friends and my family members a fun or a heartfelt ecard with a personal message from me to them.

Our Sexy Fruitcakes ecard makes light of that time old culinary Christmas gift – the fruitcake. Whether you hate the taste of them or love them, fruitcakes get a bad rap. Lucky for us, The Food Network’s Alton Brown gives the fruitcake a makeover with an updated recipe finally allowing the fruitcake to, in the words of Justin Timberlake, bring sexy back.

Christmas ecards are the ultimate last minute gift. We hope Doozy helps you this Christmas Eve Eve so that you remember everyone on your list.

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Weather Forecast: Snow?

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Christmas is less than five days away. What’s your weather forecast?

 I recently watched Irving Berlin’s White Christmas On-Demand. I love the lyrics to the  song, Snow, that Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and Vera Ellen sing on the  train from L.A. to Vermont. The lyrics go:

“I’ll soon be there with snow
I’ll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I’ll build a man that’s made of snow”

The show business foursome leaves the palm trees of Southern California for the snowy scapes near a New England Inn. According to the Chicago Tribune, “A white Christmas, as defined by the National Climatic Data Center, is one with an inch or more of snow on the ground at 6 a.m.”

The places in the U.S. with the highest probability for White Christmas each year are two cities in Michigan (Marquette and Sault Ste Marie), two in Minnesota (Hibbing and International Falls), and one in Washington (Stampede Pass.)

 

 

 

Chicago has a 40% chance of White Christmas each year. New York has a 10% probability. And Los Angeles is 0%. So think of us this holiday season when you send Christmas ecards. We’re warm here in the balmy weather of Southern California busy making gifts; instead of the toys Santa makes in the snowy North Pole, we’re making Christmas ecards!

 

 





				

				
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How Hanukah is Celebrated around the Nation

			
						

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Hanukah begins tomorrow night at sundown and ends December 28. As you begin your celebrations, here’s a look at how others do it across the country. I like to find out about different customs, and then send faraway friends and family Hanukah e cards.


The National Chanukah Menorah is located near the White House at The Ellipse, in the President’s Park South and will be lit at 4:00pm. Hot latkes and doughnuts will be served.


 


 


 


 


 


In New York City’s Midtown neighborhood, the “World’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah” stands. Certified by The Guiness World Book of Records and designed by artist Yaacov Agam, this sculpture is a festive Jewish decoration amidst the Christmas lights, songs, and colors generally associated with Manhattan at this time.


 


 


In Saint Louis, Missouri, Home Depot sponsors a Menorah Workshop where kids can build menorahs from wood. Started by Rabbi Levi Landa in 2008, this annual event has been so popular that Home Depot is extending it to other cities. It’s a great way for kids to do something hands-on to celebrate the holiday especially if your child has an inclination for doing carpentry or handiwork around the house.


In Boulder, Colorado, Ignite Chanukah with Vodka Latke Party is described as Colorado’s biggest young adult Chanukah party. It’s a way for young adults to share ideas about Chanukah and other Jewish topics in a light-hearted way. The vodka and latkes is the pre-party. The talks and five minute speeches are the main event, and there is usual an after-party as well. What a great way to get into the festive mood.


In whatever way you like to celebrate Hanukkah this season, we’ll be sending Hanukah e cards to all of our Jewish friends and family this year. Nun, gimel, hei, shin!


				

				
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Doozy Brightens a Son’s and Mom’s Day

			
						

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Bob is one of our most loyal customers. He called us the other day with a Christmas message and explained what our service means to him. Bob moved to the Coachella Valley in California some years ago to care for his 93-year-old mother, Liz, whose health had begun to waver in her nineties. Here’s a lovely picture Bob sent us of them both. (yes that’s right; We get snow on our desert mountains here in Southern California!)




On mornings that are harder than others, Bob visits DoozyCards.com, plays one of our animated ecards, and shares it with his mother. He tells us that our light-hearted, animated ecards put both of them in a smiling mood and help them get on with their day. In his message Bob says “We want to thank you for bringing so much joy and happiness into our lives. We applaud each and every one of you.”


We found Bob’s and Liz’s story to be remarkable. The irony that Bob sends us a thank you note with Christmas greetings is that it is perhaps his sunny disposition that deserves the highest recognition. Most us of hope to live to age 90 like Liz; the wisdom that comes with it is earned. Parents dedicate their lives to us and sacrifice so much for us, and when it is our turn to care for them later in life it is truly a gift. We know that Bob and Liz are treasuring this time together. We are glad to bring a little merriment and joy to their day. They certainly bring some to ours! Happiest of Holidays, Bob and Liz!


				

				
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