The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Facebook tends to give us a personal little peek into the lives of friends and family. This can be both a good and bad thing. I must admit to more than a bit of disappointment in those of you who chose to not only decorate - but also proudly and publicly dis­play - your Christmas trees BEFORE Thanksgiving! (It is intended to be obvious that I'm joking, but I've been misinterpreted often enough that I'm compelled to clarify just to be on the safe side.)

It seems that most of those who did manage to hold out until after Thanks­giving spent the latter part of the holiday weekend dress­ing their homes for the holi­days. Since my dining table (the one that's just for looks) is still covered with fall leaves and ceramic pump­kins, I definitely fall into the slacker category. Like it or not, Christmas is just around the corner and it's time to get a move on. This month I thought I'd share some tips and resources that can help make holiday preparations just a bit easier. You don't even need to be a "techie" to take advantage of many of them.

As one who doesn't hesi­tate to make use of technol­ogy, my preference is still good old paper and ink, especially when the paper is pretty and inspiring. The internet is filled with options for printing out free Christ­m a s planning pages. Do a search for "free Christ­mas planner printable" and you'll see what I mean. I especially liked this set that includes a gift planner, bak­ing list planner, Christmas dinner planner, activities planner and card planner. You can find it here http:// bit.ly/QcGslN

These truly impressive snowflake patterns and in­structions are a ton of fun. Use them to decorate or as a way to keep the older kids busy. Who am I kid­ding? These are addictive for adults as well as kids. Find them here http://bit.ly/ vGVzph and enjoy!

Speaking of kids, yours will love the mischievous little Elf on a Shelf. I in­troduced Elfie at our house last year and, even though my kids are all teens, they still looked forward to see­ing what he would be up to each morning. Elfie made his introduction by hanging off a picture frame, holding a dry erase marker that he'd used to draw beards and moustaches on portraits of the kids. He's bad like that. On subsequent days he was found drinking chocolate milk in the fridge and ly­ing on the kitchen island making snow angels in flour. If you search "elf on a shelf" on Pinterest or "elf on a shelf ideas" in a search engine, you'll find all kinds of ways for your own elf to get into mischief. And if you don't have an actual elf, who's to say a stuffed animal or action figure can't work as a substitute?

Here's a fun way to make use of those photo cards you receive and hate to just toss after Christmas. Take a snapshot of the card with your phone and use it as the person's contact photo. That way you can enjoy it all year long.

And while we're on the subject of cards, you might want to consider the Cards iphone app (yes, it's just called "Cards"). I've used this several times and the product is very impressive. Select a template, add a photo from your phone with a personal message and then address the card from your contacts list. You'll be charged $2.99 and a high- quality card will be mailed directly to the recipient. It's less expensive than buying a card, completely personal­ized and takes minutes. If you only send a few Christ­mas cards, this may be the way to go. A card with a photo of a gift be­ing used makes a special "thank you" card as well. I'm sure there is a similar Android app.

Pandora internet radio www.pandora.com is a great way to create a Christmas playlist for free. Pandora al­lows you to select artists that you like and the station will stream music from those artists as well as similar artists. To create a holiday playlist, create a "new sta­tion" and enter the name of a track, group or artist that you like. I chose Straight No Chaser 12 Days (if you haven't heard them look them up on Youtube, they're worth a listen). Pandora will automatically bring up similar music. Create a few Christmas "stations" and check them all to shuffle between styles. If Pandora plays a song you don't like, click the "thumbs down" button and it won't play that style/artist again.

Finally, here's a tip for using up holiday leftovers. Visit www.recipematcher.com and enter some ingre­dients you'd like to use up. I entered turkey, stuffing, corn and potatoes and came up with a recipe for Turkey Shepherd's Pie as a best match. Not bad, since it made use of all four ingre­dients. Other appealing sug­gestions were Corn, Potato and Scallion Frittata and Atlantic Corn Chowder.