You’ve heard of the saying ‘You only get one chance to make a good first impression’. Well it also applies to your home. The area leading up to and into your home can leave a long-lasting impression with holiday visitors, neighbours, friends, family, and… potential buyers.

By addressing both convenience and eye-appeal, you can enhance the impact of your entranceway and make people feel comfortable and welcomed. Try these simple ideas;

Outside the Front Door – Ensure sufficient lighting is on when needed. Keep walkways and steps clear of snow and ice. Clear a wide path to accommodate heavy winter clothing and people carrying packages. A festive wreath will add some oomph to the front door. And don’t forget a tasteful door mat!

Provide Convenience – When the weather gets messy, having a convenient place for footwear is essential. For family members and especially when expecting visitors, make sure you have enough room for their boots and overshoes to be placed in a neat convenient fashion. An out-of-the-way boot tray comes in handy for sloppy conditions.

Have a Seat - A sturdy, comfy and cozy chair will be well-received by guest struggling with winter boots. Add a cushion or drape unupholstered chairs with warm fabrics in winter to add warmth.

Have a Coat Cure – An overstuffed closet is both an eyesore and an inconvenience. When expecting guests, clear out any family apparel that doesn’t have to be there. And provide plenty of hangars sturdy enough to take the weight of a winter coat.

Add Flora – Welcome your guests into your home with fresh flowers – to add both an inviting scent and natural, colourful display. Or choose an interesting house plant that will add colour and texture. If space is limited, keep them small and off the floor – but in full view. A festive vase or pot can add pizzazz during the holiday season. Add ribbon or small tree ornaments for a finishing touch that can be easily removed after the holidays.

Something Personal – A family photo in an attractive frame, an heirloom, a small antique curio item – something to add interest and allow some of you to show through.

With a little attention to detail, the entrance to your home will feel so warm and inviting that friends and family members will want to come back.

Finding gluten-free baking recipes that taste good can be a headache for many Canadians who must monitor their gluten intake. Try these gluten-free baking tips designed to add moistness and flavour and help counter the tendency for dry, bland results, and add life to your favourite recipes - during the holidays and throughout the year;

Look for Recipes that contain moist items - sour cream or yogurt, pureed fruit or shredded veggies – ideal choices. Consider banana muffins, carrot or pumpkin cake, sour cream apple cake.

Improve moisture content in recipes like cakes, muffins and breads by adding applesauce, pureed fruit or yogurt. Helps them maintain their moisture.
  
Adding shredded or desiccated coconut, dried fruit, chocolate chips, and chopped nuts, also improves texture and flavour. Experiment with your favourite recipes.
  
Organic brown sugar instead of refined white sugar also increases moistness and flavour.
  
Honey is a humectant and adds moistness, so use less liquid in the recipe when you use honey.
 
Add extra spices and flavourings, like vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg, to deepen flavour.

For more tips, check out this site.

Worried you will harm the environment by choosing a real tree? Definitely not! Rest assured, real trees make good eco-sense;

• Christmas trees are, except for cultivated forests, the most environmentally friendly crop around. This is because most Christmas trees are harvested after ten years. Thus, to ensure future harvests, ninety percent of the farm must remain in trees at all times.
• Just one acre of Christmas trees produces enough oxygen to support eighteen people.
• Trees act as air pollution filters and can remove up to 13 tons of airborne pollutants per acre per year.
• Christmas tree farms are a prefect habitat for a wide variety of birds and mammals.
• Most municipalities collect discarded natural Christmas trees and chip them for use as mulching materials.
• Real Christmas trees are completely biodegradable and will, on their own, break down and return their stored nutrients to the soil from which they came.

Few things are as captivating as the soft glow of a candle. It seems to especially suit the holiday season. But there's an art to burning a candle properly and safely. Did J’a Know these Candle Tips?

• Burn candles in a well-ventilated room, but away from drafts and air currents.
• Place lighted candles at least 8 cm. (3 in.) apart.
• Trim wicks to 1 cm. (¼ in.) before each use to encourage a steady, even flame.
• Always keep the wax pool free of wick trimmings, matches and other debris that could catch fire from the flame.
• Never burn a candle on or near anything that might catch fire, and never leave a burning candle unattended.
• Keep candles out of the reach of children and pets.
• Extinguish any candle if it smokes, flickers repeatedly, or the flame becomes too high. Then when cool, trim the wick, check for drafts, and re-light.
• Don't allow the flame to come too close to the holder or container. To be safe, blow out and discard any candle when it burns down to within 5 cm. (2 in.) of the holder or 1 ½ cm. (½ in.) of the container bottom.
• Never move a lighted candle, and never move a votive or container candle when the wax is liquid.
• To extinguish a candle, dip the wick into the liquid wax, using a nonflammable instrument. This little known technique eliminates smoking of an extinguished wick. After extinguishing candles, re-center wick.

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
~ Plutarch

Edible Gingerbread House Frosting – “I don’t make gingerbread houses with non-edible frosting. I always figure some little boy or girl might not be able to resist temptation and could break off and eat a chunk of icing before anyone is even aware. So I use icing like the one found at this site. It’s ideal – and edible.”

Recipe Substitutes – “Knowing recipe substitutes has come in handy many times when I was sure I had some ingredient in-stock… only to find out otherwise. This site has a wealth of information and options. Makes an interesting read, too.”

Bake with the Kids – “I find when we get together with other families to bake that the variety of recipe ideas is incredible. With the various diets and different information available about healthy eating, it’s a great chance to see what others are doing – and learn from them. This site has some fun recipes to try with the kids. This one, too.”

Music for the Season – “If you enjoy listening or even making music during the holidays, check out this site of carols – complete with guitar tabs.”

With the holiday season upon us, here are a few suggestions to put your computer and the internet to use to help save time.

Buy Gifts Online – No traffic head aches, no line-ups, no foul weather. Leave enough time for delivery! Great for price comparisons and to check availability. 

Find a Real Tree – Find the nearest tree farm, or a service that delivers a real tree.

Surf for Decorations – by theme, colour, price range, proximity, delivery options, etc. Find exactly what you want!

Gift Ideas – suggestions by age/sex, define price range, search hobbies and interests, etc.

Parcel Posting – check comparative options and rates, determine deadlines for parcels local and abroad, track packages enroute.

A Letter to Santa has become an e-mail to Santa. Sites like www.emailsanta.com will connect to the jolly fellow without even giving them your email address. And you get an immediate personal, printable reply.

Check Santa’s Progress on Christmas Eve at www.noradsanta.org as he is tracked making his merry rounds. Download GoogleEarth to watch his progress in 3D (www.earth.google.com).

View Holiday House Bling – those wildly decorated homes in your neighbourhood or around the world. An amazing number of sites await you.

So start clicking those keys. The e-world is ready for your holiday surfing.

Gingerbread House Designs - Petra, age 13, says, “My Mom and some friends and I are making a gingerbread house to be raffled off for charity. The better it looks, the more money the charity will get. So we’re going all out! We found a great blueprint for a Victorian house from this site, plus some great tips.”

Make a Christmas Spider – Mary, age 8, says, “We read the legend of the Christmas Spider found on this site of makeable gifts and decided to make one. Really cool, and pretty easy. Lots of other ideas, too.”

Star of David Decoration – Sara, age 6, says, “My Aunt Hannah and I made a really special Star of David String to decorate our home when people come over to visit. I think they will really like it a lot.”

Snowboarding Tricks – Lex, age 11, says, “This site is syck! It shows you how to do all the best moves and tricks and jumps. I can’t wait for the snow to fall and the slopes to open.”

I love to see homes lit-up during the holiday season, especially now that so many people have made the switch to LED’s to save energy and money. If you have not yet, consider the following benefits:

Much More Energy Efficient – LED’s are up to 90 % more efficient than incandescent lights. A lot cheaper to use!
Much Longer Lasting - LED lights are sturdier and more resistant to damage than conventional lights. Some have been found to have a useful life of about 35,000 hours, or four years of continuous operation.
Much Safer - The plastic outer surface of a LED bulb is cool to the touch.
Much More Convenient – When one bulb goes out on a string, the others stay lit.

If you have already put regular incandescent lights up for this season, plan to recycle them as soon as you take them down and buy LED’s for next year.

Buying Tip; Look for LED’s that have been manufactured recently because technology improvements have led to brighter LED’s than the older, original strings, plus a wider variety of colours and shapes.

"Time's fun when you're having flies." ~ Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson)

“I think that all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not! But I'm sick and tired of being told that I am!” ~ Monty Python
 
“Snackmosphere: The 95% air inside a bag of chips.” ~ Unknown

"If there really is a pole at the North Pole, I bet there's some dead explorer-guy with his tongue stuck to it." ~ Bob Van Voris