Here are the Top Three Winning Posts of December 2010

Have a Happy New Year!

In the right hand column there is a listing of the top three blog posts of the week.

These winners are rated by you, my friends of this blog. 

They are rated by how many page views they received in December 2010. 

 And the winners are:

Where's the 'charity' in charitable gambling? I'll tell you where...

by John A Stefani

Where's the 'charity' in charitable gambling? | StarTribune.com

Response to the The StarTribune.com article by Jean Hoppensperger

Hoppensperger did a marginal job representing the current issues of charitable gaming in the state of Minnesota. Charitable gaming in past years had been a huge contributor to charities and they still make significant contributions. Just not as much. There was a time when most gaming managers of charitable gaming operations could budget a month’s revenues based on the revenue’s of the same month in the prior year. This is true no more. What should have been researched and explained better in Hoppensperger’s article is why?

And Whose Footprints are Outside your Door?

These are what the birds and a squirrel left behind under the suet cakes in the fresh snow. They take advantage of the seeds and suet that is dropped by the others a little snack during their day. It's kind of cool seeing all the little foot prints knowing something as simple as hanging a suet cake can feed so many little creatures.

Our Family Heritage Christmas Ornaments

Above is the photo of the front of a single Bulb. It reads, "Look Daddy. Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."--From the movie It's a Wonderful Life. There are two other imprint sides chronicling the stories of our family member's lives this year.

Here are the 22 Bulbs on which we imprinted personalized family stories. After imprinting all messages, the ink on the bulbs must cure for 5 days. There were 11 for the Zaccardi Family and 11 for the Stefani Family. 

We imprint something about each family member in the space on the bulb -- and no matter how "challenging" the year has been, we always try to find something positive to say. Each couple receives a bulb and each child receives one for their family heirloom. Over the years, we've transitioned from imprinting two sides, to three. We did this because