For every fan that 'likes' us on Facebook (from now until December 31st, 2010) we're going to donate $1 to Millenium Promise. This is a charity that aims to end poverty by providing clean water, food, and health care to those living in extreme poverty. Up to $10,000 will be donated, depending on how many fans join to help the cause.

Want to help? Become a fan and have $1 donated in your honor.

'Like' us on Facebook and help the cause!

With all the holidays approaching, we wanted to give you a chance to win something nice for yourself. Of course, it could also be one less gift for you to purchase as well! The giveaway features one of the brand new designs that are featured on the website. It's stocked with loads of fall treats and offers an attractive appearance as well in the event that it becomes a gift.

This festive gift basket features an adorable scarecrow decoration, cheddar biscuits, candy corn, popcorn, peanuts, hot cocoa, a pumpkin rice krispy treat and a cookie. The perfect mix for any holiday treat, and it could be yours!

To enter the giveaway:

1) Follow us on Twitter

2) Like us on Facebook

3) (Optional) For a bonus entry, mention this giveaway on Twitter and leave your Twitter username in your blog comment

4) Leave a comment on this post and let us know when you're done!

The winner:

A winner will be drawn and posted a week from today on November 1st, 2010 at 10:00am.

If you're not feeling lucky or your patience doesn't allow you to wait a week, you can also purchase the scarecrow treats here.

The most common jar to use is a canning jar (also called a Mason jar). Before filling your jars, wash them thoroughly and make sure they are completely dry before adding ingredients. Each jar will be filled with only the dry ingredients. Using a small funnel or a rolled up piece of paper can help with getting the layers to lay just right (don't tip the jar while filling). To pack down your layers, a great item to use is a tart tamper. Other things that may work is a small ladle, a spoon, mallet or spatula.

You may want to decorate your jar before filling. If the jar is filled to the top so that the contents don't move much, then decorating afterward is fine too. One of most important parts of your jar is the Mixing/Baking instructions. You can attach this with a ribbon to your lid or glue it to the jar itself. You can have fun with this too! Use stamps or stencils to create a one-of-a-kind personalized label. You can also use your computer to personalize your instruction labels and print them on sticker paper.

Here is one recipe to get you started!

Decadent Brownie Jar Mix Instructions

Jar Ingredients:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1-1/2 cups sugar
* 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
* 1 cup REESE'S Peanut Butter Chips or HERSHEY'S Premier White Chips
* 1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Mini Chips Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Filling the Jar:
First stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Layer the ingredients in a 1-quart glass canister or jar in the following order (from bottom to top): sugar, cocoa, flour mixture, peanut butter chips and small chocolate chips. Tap jar gently on the counter to settle each layer before adding the next one.

Instructions to attach to jar:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.
2. Grease and flour an 8x8x2-inch baking pan.
3. Combine 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted and cooled butter and 2 slightly beaten eggs in a large bowl.
4. Gently stir in jar contents.
5. Spread in prepared pan.
6. Bake for 35 minutes.
7. Cool in pan. Cut into bars.

Makes 16 Bars

Check out Squidoo for even more homemade jar mix recipes and tips!

Wales - A long-held tradition of giving Welsh Love spoons to ones lover still occurs on Valentine's Day. The wooden spoons are intricately  carved with symbols representing a wide range of emotions intended to convey the givers feelings. Some of the symbol meanings are: Heart - Love, Horseshoe - Good Luck, Celtic Knot - Eternal Love, Twisted Stem - Two Lives Become One and
Birds - Love Birds or Let's Go Away Together.

Japan - The traditional gift given on Valentine's Day in Japan is chocolate, but great care is taken to make sure that the correct type of chocolate is given because there are two types - one suitable for friends and one for lovers.  Giri choco or obligatory chocolate is given by women to their male friends, co-workers and superiors. Honmei choco is chocolate given to the man that a girl is truly interested in or serious about.

Brazil - Brazil does not celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th of February. Brazilians celebrate the Dia dos Namorados (Day of the Enamored) on June 12th.  The day is is celebrated in colorful style with festivals and dancing. It is also on this day that couples exchange gifts or give flowers and cards to one another.

Mexico - The most prevalent Valentine's Day tradition in Mexico is to exchange gifts in a secret way. The men of Mexico have another special way of showing their affection to the one they love. In the evening, they show up at the home of their girlfriend with a mariachi band or trio of singers who serenade the girl with 2 or 3 romantic songs while standing beneath her window.

10 Ways To Say I Love You

In common languages of the world!

Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Chinese Cantonese - Ngo oiy ney a
Chinese Mandarin - Wo ai ni
French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore
German - Ich liebe dich
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru or Anata ga daisuki desu
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo

Need a gift for your sweetie?  Check out all of our Valentine's Day gifts!

Although it's not a widely celebrated holiday (except for those who are lucky enough to have the day off from work), Veterans Day holds great meaning for me.  It's a day where I reflect on family memories (Grandpa loves to tell the story of how he celebrated the end of WWII at the top of the Eiffel Tower), I stop to say a short prayer for those who are fighting overseas, and I explain to my children why there are some soldiers away from their families in order for us to keep the luxuries that we have.

To cheer up my dad's friend in the hospital, and to thank him for his dedicated service that came with life-altering results, I'm sending him this patriotic mug gift filled with sugar free cookies.  The cookies are acceptable for his restricted diet, and the mug will be great for his morning coffee!  I'm having the gift shipped to me since dad and I will be visiting Jerry on Veterans Day - I'll be able to hand deliver the gift and see his reaction!  That will be a perfect addition to my personal Veterans Day ritual.

Then there were the mummers - those who went around by day and those who went around by night. The day mummers - the men had white shirts over their clothes, trimmed with ribbons, with fanciful hats. Each man had a partner - a man dressed in women's clothes. Into whatever house they entered they recited their lessons, ate and drank, had a dance, their own fiddler playing the tunes. The night mummers were dressed in the most grotesque manner: some with humpbacks, cow hides and horns projecting, with hobby-horses, small bags of flour, which they used to throw over their followers. Then there were the boy mummers, who went around day and night. On two Christmases I had John Bemister as a partner. He acted as the Duke of Wellington, and I personated Oliver Cromwell.  

Indeed, this is a very powerful statement describing a very personal moment of enlightenment and union with the divine. Isis promised rebirth and salvation to those who believed. During the Isia, on a special day called the "Finding of Osiris," worshipers reenacted the myth of Isis and Osiris, sharing the grief and the joy of Isis searching for the body of Osiris and finally finding it and embalming it. They shouted in unison, "Heurekamen, synchairomen," "We have found! We rejoice together!" It is also said that in one rite during the Isia worshipers gathered in a darkened room and mourned over a prone statue of Osiris. During the ritual, a light was carried into the room; a priest then anointed the throats of the mourners with oil and whispered, "Take heart, 0 Initiates, for the god is saved, and we shall have salvation".

Hope and salvation from all of our troubles and suffering, overcoming our fear of death, and living a blessed life on earth are promises that resonate in all religions throughout the ages. These words of Isis can find meaning for each of us especially during the dark and doubt-filled days of October, when the end of the year and darkness looms in the path ahead.

Modern Ritual of Promise and Hope: The Ship of Isis

In antiquity, a yearly ritual to Isis was carried out on a beach or near water. A model ship was prepared. It was painted with sacred words and text, bearing a special message for the year's prosperous journey. Worshipers gathered around the boat, first purifying it with flame, egg, and sulfur and chanting solemn prayers. They then piled it with small gift baskets, winnowing fans, perfumes, and incense and threw libations of milk mixed with grain into the water. The small ship was set adrift and allowed to sail away on its own, following its own course. Thus, the rite ended.

• Adapt this rite, adding your own very personal prayers and messages.
• Give a small offering to the goddess. remembering that she does not ask for riches or wealth, but commitment. In return she offers faith, hope, and love.
• Set your ship adrift upon the water to be guided by the goddess.

The Promise of Isis

Behold. I come to you in your time of trouble. I come with solace and aid. Put an end to your crying and tears, send your sorrows away. Soon through my benevolence will the sun of salvation rise up. Listen to what I say with great care.

You will live a blessed life. You will have a glorious life under my care and guidance. When you have traveled your full length of time and go down unto death, there also. I will be beside you. You will see me shining on amidst the darkness.

Through your religious devotion and constant faith, you may learn that I have it within my power to prolong your life beyond the limits set to it by Fate. Through me, you may be reborn.

• Judicial duels began in 6th-century Burgundy, as trial by combat to learn the "judgment of God." As recently as 1817, an accused murderer in Britain had to be acquitted because he chose the right to "wage his battle" over trial by jury, and no one wanted to fight him.
• On the European continent, the challenger in a personal duel had the right to choose the weapons, usually swords or pistols. In English-speaking countries, the challenged party had this right. In r843, billiard balls were the weapons in a fatal duel fought in France.
• Duels were fought in New France as early as r646. The last recorded fight in what is now known as Canada took place in St. John's in r873' The death toll in the years between: at least nine in New France, two in Lower Canada, five in Upper Canada, two each in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and one in Newfoundland.
• The last legal duel in Canada was fought on the campus of Dalhousie University in 1816. Although such encounters were consiered a crime, Canadian juries consistently refused to convict duelists if they thought the fights had been fair.

From my own observations (and without the benefit of statistically significant sampling or scientific inquiry), it seems that marriages of long duration have rituals that form the fabric of the relationship. As in my parents' case, arguing is an important one.

I often think about the scene repeated year after year in my home during the Jewish holidays. On each holiday my mother and grandmother would buy Hanukkah gifts and spend a frenzied day completing the preparations for the evening meal - cooking and baking, seasoning and tasting, and seasoning yet again. Each holiday morning, as my father left for work, my mother would admonish him to come home early. That evening my father would invariably return an hour late with a wilted bouquet of flowers in hand, muttering about the terrible holiday traffic (which he seemed to regard as a completely unexpected development even though holiday traffic was bad every year).

My mother, of course, would be waiting at the door and, upon my father's arrival, burst into a litany of angry complaints about the ruined meal-how she had worked all day to prepare a wonderful dinner and now the pot roast was overcooked and the vegetables were limp and, worst of all, the family would have to rush through the meal so my father could get to synagogue on time. He would invariably throw up his hands and, in turn, complain about how hard he worked and how my mother always gave him a hard time regardless of what he did. A few minutes later we would sit down to dinner, all the while assuring my mother that the food tasted just fine.

After watching this scene year after year, I finally asked why she just did not prepare a simpler meal or start cooking later in the day, since she knew my father always came home late on the holidays. (And on every other occasion, since my father, as optimistic about travel times as he is about every other aspect of his life, always assumed there would be clear roads and strong tailwinds.) She rebuked me for interfering in an area that was none of my concern and then pointedly informed me that she and my father enjoyed having this argument.

At the time I was puzzled by her response. After all, it did not look like they were enjoying themselves. Now, after more than a decade of being married, I think I understand. The Jewish holiday fight was a safety valve for them, an opportunity to vent their frustrations safely. Since it was, after all, a holiday, they had to make up quickly. Moreover, it had become a ritual for them and gave them a sense of continuity and comfort.

In my own marriage, our arguments have essentially the same theme, which, come to think of it, is not so different from my parents'. Wife to husband: "If you really loved me, you would be more sensitive to my needs (that is, share more of the household burden, give me more emotional support, and value what is important to me)." Husband to wife: "If you really loved me, you would appreciate me for who I am, stop expecting me to change, and stop nagging me."

With a high degree of accuracy I can predict we will have this fight (in one variation or another) not on the Jewish holidays but on the first day of any vacation, on Mother's Day (the unnatural reversal of roles creates tension in our house), and before we go out (my husband puts on his oldest clothes, I express outrage, he tells me I am a nag and then changes into something acceptable, something he probably intended to wear all along).

Not only do our arguments have the same theme, but like many other couples, I suspect, our arguments have certain parameters. Fighting is unacceptable in front of certain people-professional associates, in-laws, acquaintances, and even certain friends-and is certainly restrained (but, for better or worse, not avoided) in front of the children.

More important, although we have never acknowledged this to each other, there are certain things we will never say, even in the heat of battle, because we know instinctively that, once said, these words can never be forgiven. The forbidden words relate to those areas the other person is most acutely and painfully sensitive about, the words that, dagger-like, quickly and sharply pierce the heart.

Reflecting on thee highly structured, repetitive nature of our arguments, it seems that they actually strengthen our marriage, rather than weaken it. We can let off steam within accepted boundaries; in ways we know will not "rend us asunder." We can secretly mouth the other's expected rejoinders when we begin to argue, and we know when it is time to stop.

In the end, I suppose, what makes a marriage last is not how much you love the other person but how the marriage provides structure, comfort, and predictability in a world that is chaotic, uncontrollable, and profoundly indifferent.

• The previous night, Major McCrae had buried his best friend, 25-year-old Lt. Alexis Helmer, who had been a medical student at McGill University when the poet was a professor of pathology. The young man, one of the brigade's best-liked officers, had been blown to bits by an artillery shell the previous day. (He was buried under cover of darkness for fear of attracting more enemy fire.) The barrage of The Second Battle of Ypres was in its ninth day.
• As the poet wrote, Sgt. Maj. Cyril Allinson arrived on horseback, bringing mail and supplies from the rear. "I saw (Major McCrae) sitting on the ambulance step, a pad on his knee. He looked up as I approached but continued to write," recalled Mr. Allinson, who was the first to read the work. "His face was very tired but calm as he wrote .... The poem was almost an exact description of the scene in front of us both."
• Major McCrae (who had been promoted to lieutenantcolonel in 1914, though the news did not reach him until June I, 1915) made several copies of "In Flanders Fields," with slight variations, and gave them to friends. He sent a copy to Punch magazine, which ran the poem on December 18, 1915, with no byline.
• The verses were reprinted around the world, but the author's name was not known. By the time it was, Colonel .McCrae's "perfect war poem" was famous. It has been called the bestknown Canadian poem.
• Colonel McCrae, who had been at the front from the beginning, was made consultant physician to the British 1^st Army in January 1918. Five days later, he was dead from pneumonia and a cerebral infection.
• "In Flanders Fields" was used in the first observance of Armistice Day in 1918, and this poem and poppies have been part of the November I I ceremonies since. "It never occurred to me at the time that it would ever be published," Mr. Allinson admitted. "It seemed to me to be just an exact description of the scene."