Spotlight on: Thanksgiving

Rexanne's Web Review
Web Sites & Insights

Issue #93 - November 1, 2005

Brought to You By: Rexanne.com

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Welcome all newcomers and faithful readers!

OK, so how was Halloween? We want to know, please send your stories! We had a typical Halloween ... a healthy dinner for a group of kids, trick or treating in the great neighborhood of homes behind our condo, lots of fun and candy ... our dog, Frankie, is worn out from the long walk but otherwise we all survived this one.

Thanksgiving is upon us in the U.S. Get ready: Rexanne's Thanksgiving

And Christmas is right around the corner! Best start before it gets way too crazy to handle easily: Rexanne's Christmas

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Reader's Comments:

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Martha is helping pets left homeless by hurricane Katrina:

"Please send around." Hurricane Rescue

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Rexanna sent this:

"Map shows where sex offenders live and work in your own little neck of the woods. Fill in your address and a map will come up showing where registered offenders are: Family Watch Dog

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And Rondi Hillstrom is running a special on her book, 'Together, Creating Family Traditions' on November 17. When you buy her outstanding holiday book on that day through Amazon.com, Rondi will include gifts worth hundreds of dollars with your order. Not only will you have a great holiday gift book that offers inspiration and super family holiday tradition ideas, but you will get a package of gifts that are worth ten times the price of Rondi's book. Visit her site for details: Together, Creating Family Traditions
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OK, here's the scoop:

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Quote of the Month: The greatest aid to adult education is children. - Charlie T. Jones and Bob Phillips

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Supporting the sponsors and advertisers in Rexanne's Web Review keeps this newsletter alive and a portion of revenue is donated to various charities. . Each advertiser has Rexanne's Seal of Approval. Please visit them today.

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This Month's Web Review Sponsored By: Personalization Mall

A great gift is even better when it's personalized and the Personalization Mall has so many choices, you'll be sure to find perfect holiday presents for everyone on your list. Shop by recipient, occasion, price, etc. Especially notable is their awesome Personalized Turkey Platter, for your own holiday table or as a gift for the family chef who puts on the Thanksgiving or holiday feast each year. Personalization Mall is an excellent place to begin your holiday shopping.

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Parenting & Family Topic of the Month: How Children Learn
by Anne Beaty

We all know the truism that children learn what they live. A child raised in an abusive household is many times more likely to become an abuser than a child raised in a non-abusive household. Children who are molested are at great risk of becoming molesters. Children who are constantly bullied at home, will tend to be bullies at school.

Yet, there is another part of this, a part that was brought home to me in the scariest way possible.

I had taken my son and goddaughter to Lake Tahoe for a ski trip. They wanted to experience New Year’s Eve amongst the crowds. They were 14 and 15, good kids. So I dropped them downtown, set up a meeting place in case they got separated, and left them there. 2 hours later, I got a frantic call from my son: they’d become separated, and he couldn’t find her. After 6 hours of driving and walking and asking and looking, I finally spotted her walking in the direction of our house. She was fine: she’d been rescued by some college girls who had taken her under their wing, given her a bed, and pointed her in the right direction. What did I learn from this? That you cannot make assumptions. Her mother (in LA) and I both ‘assumed’ when she realized she was lost, she would call home. That had never crossed her mind, she said later. It had never crossed my mind to tattoo our Tahoe phone number on her arm.

The lesson I learned was that children only learn what you teach them. This manifests itself around every corner: the fact that you don’t steal does not necessarily communicate to the child that stealing is wrong: s/he needs to hear you say those words. If you are clear and verbal regarding your ethical stances, then you are providing your child a template against which to judge his/her decisions. Yes, they’re watching you: they can spot hypocrisy a mile away. But they need to hear, clearly and constantly, what you stand for.

I smoke cigarettes (I can already hear the screams of outrage!) People used to ask me: how can you expect your child or students to listen to you about smoking when you smoke; that’s hypocritical. My response always was that I said “I’m not ready to quit, but I wish I’d never started”. My son is a rabid antismoker, and not one of the children/teens in my care ever started smoking ‘because you do.’

The older they get, the harder it is to resist peer pressure. They will give in to it, they will make mistakes, they will do things that are against your moral code. This is all part of growing up, of finding out their own moral codes. If you have managed to build a bridge to your teen, s/he will, even if months later, bring up the incident. This is your chance to NOT react, punish, yell, but to thank them for telling you, and to state again your position. And to acknowledge how hard it is to resist peer pressure, to learn to act according to their own ethical code.

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Anne Beaty is the single mother of one son, who graduated college in 2005. She was a Special Education Teaching Assistant for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 10 years, middle and high school, where she dealt with inner-city, minority and migrant students, most of whom wouldn't have known a manner if it bit them on the leg. At the moment, she is raising her 16 year old niece. Feel free to email:  Anne
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Know of a good parenting or family site your fellow readers might enjoy or do you have a topic you'd like to see covered in this section? Please send your ideas in for possible publication in an upcoming issue: Parenting Site

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--- Food & Cooking Site of the Month: Thanksgiving Recipes

Just in case you need a creative kitchen rush, Diana's Thanksgiving Recipe collection offers plenty of inspiration and choices. From turkey basics to leftover ideas, Diana has it all covered.

Bon Appetit!

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--- Advertisement: Christmas Dazzle

The Art of Christmas ... Unique and high-end Christmas Trees, ornaments and gift items since 1980 with very competitive prices and one of a kind pieces.

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--- Kid's Site of the Month: Thanksgiving at Alphabet Soup

Thanksgiving fun and games, poems, songs and other Thanksgiving goodies that will make the kids smile are on this site. Alphabet Soup is a great place for kids online.
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--- Freebie of the Month:  Thanksgiving Table Place Cards

I use these every year. They are really wonderful place cards you can print from your computer. The kids can fill in names and you won't have to think about "placing" your guests at the table when you've got other things (like cooking!) on your mind.

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--- Advertisement: Russian Legacy

This is one of my top pick online stores for this year's holiday presents. Russian Legacy has great items such as authentic hand-painted and hand-carved nesting dolls with many designs for everyone on your list, darling rocking chime dolls, cool military memorabilia for guys, gorgeous hand-painted and
hand carved figurines, boxes and brooches for the ladies ... really fun and awesome unique holiday gifts from Russia, with love ;-)
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--- Tip or Trick of the Month: Thanksgiving Dinner Hotlines

In case you get into trouble, you can call these numbers for specific holiday dinner issues:

Butterball Turkey Hotline - 1-800-323-4848

Reynolds Turkey Hotline - 1-800-745-4000

USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline - 1-800-535-4555

USDA Poultry Hot Line: 800-535-4555

Land O'Lakes Bake Line 1-800-782-9606

Have a tip or trick your fellow readers would enjoy or could use? Please send it in for possible publication in one of the next issues: Tips

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--- Time Waster of the Month: Planet Spogg
(Because life is supposed to be fun!)

Planet Spogg is the latest online community where you can play fun word, card, puzzle and action games. Play as a guest or register to keep track of your scores and chat with other players.

Feed the kids first ...

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--- Featured Site of the Month: The Origins of Thanksgiving

Facts and interesting information about the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Mayflower genealogy info and more.
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--- Advertisement: Uncommon Goods

Another super find for this year's holiday shopping is Uncommon Goods, where you will find anything but common presents for everyone. You'll love all the uncommon choices at this super online store. The great guys at Uncommon Goods are offering my readers a special 10% discount  on all orders through November 15, 2005! Just enter coupon code REXANNENOV15 at checkout.

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