I believe in "short time" holiday decorating-limiting the exposure of Thanksgiving and Xmas decorations to something close to 10-14 days. It's a personal choice that makes seeing any of these items appear much more dear to me. The one exception to this rule is the door wreath. Wreaths can decorate doorways years round - either changing the actual wreath by the season, or changing some element of it to indicate the seasonal changes. Wreaths are one of the simplest items for anyone to make and decorate themselves, making them a perfect crafty project for a winter afternoon.

This year in honor of Veteran's day, how about spending some time- this weekend, perhaps?- sewing up a couple small items that can shipped to our deployed troops to say "Thank You"? Or reaching out those volunteer operations creating personalized items- and find out how they could use your talents? Operation Support for Deployed Military began as Operation Pillowcase in August, 2004.:

The holiday season is only a couple weeks away, so many of us are starting to make details To-Do lists for all the parties, festivities and family gatherings being planned. Count our dinner plates, check the good silver (then consider locking it away?), getting out the serving pieces and table cloths. We're making sure all the basics will be ready to go at a moment's notice. For the FIRST big holiday of the season -Thanksgiving- let even consider using a centerpiece to dress the table. Most of us put off doing a centerpiece for good reasons:

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose life often feels like one big social network experiment. Like many others, I know that my blogging has suffered at the hands of Twitter. At least once each day, I find myself sharing fascinating links via Facebook. And spending time searching new way to find those links to share - besides other people's Twitter and Facebook links.

While walking her dog, BlogHer member Kelly Wickham (MochaMomma) passes a neighborhood church that lately has an interesting sign in front: So you Don't Want or Need to go to Church? Where do you Learn About Compassion? On the Internet? For Wickham-like many of us- the experience has been an overwhelming "Hellz Yes!"