Gift baskets are a great gift for families. You can make your own Holiday Gift Baskets inexpensively and easily using some of the ideas below.

Start with a basket or container. Throughout the year, watch for inexpensive baskets wherever you go. I find great baskets of all shapes and sizes at dollar stores. However, you aren’t limited by baskets. Use anything from a popcorn tin to a beach pail filled with goodies for an inexpensive gift.

There are a zillion themes to choose from and they’re very fun to make. Here are just a few ideas, but the possibilities are endless.

Family Movie Night Basket:

Fill a basket with classic movie theater snacks, like Junior Mints and Raisinettes. Include a few family-friendly DVDs. Don’t forget the microwaveable popcorn.

Sunday Morning Basket:

Fill a basket with gourmet coffee and tea, muffin mix, pancake mix and syrup, jellies and jams and other yummy breakfast treats. Line the basket with the funnies from the newspaper. Include coloring books and crayons to keep the kids busy while Mom and Dad fix breakfast.

Making Memories Gift Basket:

This is a great gift for scrapbookers. Include the basics of what they’ll need to create a family memory book - an album, papers and embellishments, markers, a glue stick. Include a disposable camera for each child in the family in the basket so that their memories in the making can be captured through their eyes. You can even include a few photos of the family that you already have to help them get started.

The holidays do not need to cost a fortune. You can give thoughtful Holiday Gift Baskets to family and friends to show you care.

Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane mom and owner of ShowMomTheMoney.com - a fun and informative site to help moms achieve success working from home. She invites you to learn more money-saving tricks at http://www.showmomthemoney.com/TimeSavers.asp and to take her free tutorial for work at home moms at http://www.showmomthemoney.com/free-tutorial.htm

Desolation
[Dedicated to Poet Bei Dao of China]

We are only Free
Because the hunter
Is far away,
(but he is coming)
The sun used to blind
His eyesused to!
Should the prey, think
He is not pray
He will be bellowing
Over dray corpses
Trembling as the hunter wipes
The sun from his face.

Evil comes,
When freedom sleeps:
Comes with a frown,
And leaves with a smile,
Vanishes in the creek.

Evil says:
‘Look at what I’ve done,’
He paints a picture
On a canvas for everyone:
To see, his …desolation.

#838 8/6/05

Newspapers
[Dedicated to: Ryuichi Tamura: of Japan]

I would think
Reading papers, newspapers
Would be hard on your system
IT”S ALL DEPRESSING
Misery loves company they say
Desolation, destruction
In the world everyday
Headlines, phrases
That sways a person’s eye:
Then sways a persons heart,
Ripping his nervous system
Apart…apart, apart!…
And then there is the
Financial pagewhere
Everyone seems to be
In a state of rage.
Reading newspapers
May not be a healthy thing,
Sensationalism-Yes
With not much good to say.

#839 9/05

Macchu PicchuSleeps

[Dedicated to Pablo Neruda: of Chile]

Macchu Picchu sleeps, amongst the stones and shrubbery (on a mountain peak], above, a world, that is bottomless; beside, the golden arms of he Ancient Andes. Macchu Picchu almost touches the sky; unhurried, she remains a symbol of a vague and vibrant time. Her wings now clipped, but not her pride!…

#840 9/05

Note by Rosa; Dennis will be going back to South America in October, for 6-weeks, but will of course be doing some writings, and he will be visiting more countries than Peru. And so, look for his new writings during the 4th of October, and the 19 of November. He will be giving a presentation of his poetry at the Recardo Palma House, in Peru, and perhaps at the Unversity Los Andes, in Huancayo; among other things. Rosa

You can see Dennis’s books at LapidaryArt.com, or his site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com