How to Plan A Winning Super Bowl Party

SuperBowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV has finally arrived and after an exciting season it all comes down to this. The Indianapolis Colts will face off against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, February 7 at 6 PM ET on CBS.

The Gathering
According to Hallmark Cards, Inc., Super Bowl parties are one of the top at-home party events of the year. Super Bowl parties have become much more than a gathering of football lovers. In fact, many people attending these parties don't love football as much as they love the excuse to get together with friends.

The Invitation
Create crazy, football-inspired invitations to invite friends and family. Decorate the house with football paraphernalia.

Super Bowl Party Food
The game comes in first and is the strongest focus of the party, but food comes in a close second. Plan a super bowl party menu that anyone would love.  Think man-food when establishing a menu. Buffalo wings are always a big hit with guys and gals who love sports. Pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers also makes a great offering at a super bowl party.  Set bowls of potato chips and sour cream and chive dips, nachos with creamy cheese, cheese crackers, salted nuts, and corn chips on every stand and coffee table for nibbling.  Have lots of paper towels, napkins and rug cleaner handy for messes created during exciting plays.

Super Bowl Party Decorations
Decorating for a super bowl party is quick and easy. When planning the party, be sure to move furniture in order to give everyone a clear view of the television during the game.  Use balloons, team pennants, footballs, jerseys, helmets and all things football to decorate the house.

Super Bowl Party Games
Start the party with a football pool. As each guest arrives, ask him or her to join in a betting pool. Have a basket ready to toss in a dollar or two, along with a signed note stating which team will win and what the point spread will be. The pool adds another dimension of interest and fun to the game.

Super bowl commercials have become as much a fun tradition as the game itself. Who will have the funniest commercial?  Create categories, such as funniest or most boring, and have participants rate the commercials.

Do a quick “Super Bowl Challenge” – give out small prizes to the winners Example of challenge - who won the coin toss – who will score first? Be creative!

Suggestion for Super Bowl Challenge Winners:  The Ribbon Variety Gift Collection offers dozens of current, popular gift items, with something for everyone. 
 
Play Super Bowl Trivia
You will need paper and pens.

Drink Responsibly
If serving beverages that contain alcohol during your Super Bowl party, remember that you can be held legally responsible for your guests after they leave your home. Make sure no one drives while under the influence. Making sure your guests have a great time also includes making sure they arrive home safely after the Super Bowl.

The Fun
A super bowl party with good food, good friends, and good times begins with a simple plan. Make the day fun by using super bowl party ideas that require a minimal amount of effort and time to prepare. The key is to enjoy the party and join in the fun instead of being stuck in the kitchen on game day.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SUPER BOWL XLIV CHAMPIONS

ORGANIZING A DAY OF SERVICE - Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Last year President Obama incorporated a day of service into his inaugural festivities - In 2010 this call to action is answered by millions of Americans.

Things you can do to Make A Difference:

1. Give your community a landscaping makeover.

Grab a group of friends and some garden tools and go to work. Check with your local parks and recreation department for information on which community parks might need your assistance. Or        contact your Keep America Beautiful affiliate to find a way to volunteer in your area.

2. Volunteer at your local food bank.

The effects of the economic recession - high unemployment rates, rampant home foreclosures - have forced one in five Americans to rely on food assistance programs for basic food needs. Use your Day to help support families in need by giving your time at a local food bank.

3. Spend the day with kids.

Investing your time with a child leaves can have a positive impact on their future. Take a few hours to volunteer with a local children's organization or use MLK Service Day as a starting point to become a mentor.

4. Use Your tech skills.

Serve.gov is calling on all web pros to be part of their 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge. The plan is to connect schools with technology gurus who are willing to volunteer their time and talent to give back to schools that need it. If technology is your calling, this is the project for you. You can check out the full list of service ideas at Serve.gov: MLK Day Technology Challenge.

5. Join an existing project.

If the pressure of planning something on your own or making more than a one-day commitment is worrying you, no need to fret! There are thousands of existing projects already scheduled to take place across the country. You can easily hop on board with what someone else is already doing.

6. Don't stop with MLK Day.

Make community service part of your routine. Whether you have a few minutes, a few hours, or an entire day, you can use your free time to make a difference around you. Plus, it's never too early to start planning big for next year's MLK Day of Service. Begin brainstorming now on ways you can build your own Service Project for 2011. Serve.gov has some great ideas on how to get started and what you will need to pull off a successful and impacting service event.

This article was originally posted on Causecast.org
photo:  images.google.com

Happy New Year

The New Year Gift Giving Tradition

The New Year gift-giving tradition has a pre-historic root. Despite the 'Christmas presents' culture, 'gift giving' at New Year is still practiced in many parts of Europe, including France, Switzerland, Russia and Greece. In Europe it was prevalent even before Christ was born.

Today here in USA we are more used to gift-giving at Christmas, rather than the New Year's Day. Historically this owes its origin to the old customs of the German and Dutch settlers. The English and French dominated states though continued with the tradition of gift-giving on the New Year's Day for a long while. However, the combined German and Dutch influences, in time, caused this old tradition to be wiped out giving way to the present custom across America.

Long before the world came to accept January 1 as the secular New Year different people from different parts of the world would have different New Year timings. Yet there were some broad areas of convergence in their diverging customs. And gifts on this occasion is among them as are feast, and community revelry. The idea behind all this was, probably, to greet each other with something auspicious on the wake of the new year .

From the Celts to the Romans:
The Celtic-Teutonic Druids used to make a gift of their holy plant mistletoe at the beginning of the Year. Among the Romans such gifts were called 'strenae', a word said to be derived from the goddess of luck, Strenia. At first the gifts were branches from sacred trees meant for wishing recipients an auspicious New Year. Later objects like gilded nuts and coins bearing the imprint of Janus, the god with two faces to whom January was sacred.

Rome had also developed a custom of presenting gifts to the emperor. But later the spirit ceased to exist and a 'forced payment' replaced the 'gifts'. Courtesy, the power wielding Roman despots. It went on for some couple of centuries until the practice was forbidden by Pope Leo I the Great in 458.


The English and the Scotts:
English royalty, also began to force their subjects in the matter of New Year's gifts as early as the time of Henry III (1216-72). Queen Elizabeth was very watchful of the "who's and what's" of the giving and received great amounts in jewels and gold on New Year's Day. She systematized the practice to the extent of keeping descriptive lists of the gifts presented to her from all walks of life. However, following the splendor of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the practice declined. Finally, when Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came into power, the custom stopped.

The New Year gift exchange was also a common practice among the ordinary English people until the Victorian regime. Gloves were a usual gift. Also popular were oranges stuck with clove, used to preserve and flavor wine. When the English had settled in America they brought in the tradition and continued to exchange gifts and presents at the New Years. So did the French. Thus we find, the predominantly French, New Orleans continued with the New Year's practice for a long time. And in France even today gifts and greeting cards are presented on New Year's Day.

In Scotland, where New Year's is the biggest feast of the year, gifts were solicited by bands of boys who went from door to door begging for money and food and singing the ditty:

" I wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year,
A pocketful of money
And a cellar full of beer,
And a good fat pig
To serve you all the year."

THE CHRISTMAS STORY

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Wise Men
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
gifts
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
Fleeing to Egypt
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

--Matthew 1:18 - 2:23 New International Version

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Every Day is Christmas

Every day is Christmas
When you have the kind of mind,
That stores up all the goodness
And the sweetness it can find.
When you don't need an occasion
To spread a bit of cheer,
But just keep on a-giving,
Of yourself throughout the year.

Every day is Christmas,
With a gaily wrapped surprise,
When you've learned
To see the friendship,
In someone else eyes.
When you try a little harder,
And complain a little less,
Holding fast to all the fervor
Of the faith that you possess.

Every day is Christmas,
When you've found that you can be
More concerned with words like "you"
And less with "I" and "me".
When it's fun to do a favor,
And to lend a helping a hand,
When being understood means less,
Than when you understand.

Every day is Christmas,
With a beauty deeply cast,
When you find it doesn't matter,
If you're first or if you're last.
When you can face your conscience,
And be glad of what you are,
Then every day is Christmas,
With a stable and a star.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

It's Thanksgiving and I would like to personally express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you for your continued support. I like to also thank you for spreading the word and inviting other professionals to join and enjoy our growing network.

I wish you and your families and friends a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!