Wishing you and your loved ones a holiday filled with merriment and a happy and healthy New Year!

For us, the holidays are about spending time with the people that we love. Thus we have started a tradition of creating holiday activities that are environmentally friendly and that our friends can enjoy with their loved ones. This year’s activity, Alien’s for the Holidays, uses invasive plant species to make holiday wreaths and centre pieces, thereby giving a present to the native plants in our neighborhoods.

To enjoy this activity or last year’s Winter Festivities for the Birds, please find them on our website at www.ahimsamedia.com/educators.htm. Once there click on “Winter Activities” and then on the activity of your choice or both.

According to the Retail Council of Canada, for Holiday 2007, 94% of Canadians plan to give gifts to others, spending an average of $733. Furthermore, we'll spend an additional $714 on travel, decorations, eating out etc. And a word to the wise: according to Moneris (the people who produce the machines we all swipe our cards on) this Friday (Dec. 21) between 2-3 pm is going to be the height of shopping.

 December is a critical month for retailers in Canada. That got me thinking.

Some terrific freebies this week:
1. will donate $1 to the foodbank for each gingerbread e-card you decorate and send. Fun for adults; even more fun for the kids. Try it!
 2. The Pacific Baroque Orchestra is donating a free concert ('Twas the night before Christmas) to the downtown eastside,

Good Morning all you lovely people!

We just posted the end portion of Really Real Films and our kid's science show, The Magic Backpack, on YouTube.  It is the shows synopsis called the Rewindable Recap.  For teachers this is a nice, little stand alone clip for explaining the greenhouse effect to their students.  Enjoy!

The web link is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGPujdD8G2c

If you like it, add it to your favourites, rate it and forward it along to others that you think might enjoy it or find it useful.

My bank, Citizens Bank of Canada, is adding $30 to anyone who opens their Ultimate Savings Account, which pays 3.8% (and is typically, though not always, the highest-interest-paying savings account).  The initial deposit needs to be $500 and you need to leave it there 6 months (ie. not open an account, grab the $30 and leave!).  $30 on $500 plus the 3.8% = nearly 10%!

I'm pretty passionate about the bank (yes, really) - it's owned by VanCity, is all over csr, and gives 30% of its pre-tax profit back to the community -- and has innovative products like term deposits where the funds are used in micro-credit lending.

Offer closes this weekend, so if you want a referral (must be referred by current member) contact me at ngzca at yahoo (the commercial one).

My money coaching practice has no room in it for judgement. Many of my clients do enough of that for themselves - frustrated, embarrassed, referring to themselves as "no good with money" and "irresponsible". The fact is, we all screw up in various areas of our lives. Some of us repeatedly get into lousy relationships. Some of us can't get along on the job. Some of us chronically drink a little too much booze. Etc. And some of us have dropped the ball regarding our finances for reasons ranging from pure exhaustion (managing our money is one more demand on our time) to hopelessness (so why bother). Over the past four years of access to privileged information - how people handle their money, their worries, the foibles - I've learned that it's rarely as simple as, "well, here's the smart thing to do, so just do it already!" This has expanded to macro economics, and my politics.

Citizens Bank of Canada - totally into CSR, a virtual bank owned by VanCity, needs a web designer who can work with drupal.  I work there part-time and thought I'd pass the info along - ideal person would be really jazzed about working at a bank with progressive ideals.

In all the shopping hype across the border, a quiet revolution may go un-noticed. November 23 is Buy Nothing Day!

It's begun: the holiday season. First up? The delightful Santa Clause Parade, this Sunday (Nov 25) at 1pm.






And if wicked clothing/shoe sales are more to your liking, Wear Else is having their Biggest Warehouse Sale Ever!
28 West 7th Avenue (between Ontario and Manitoba)
Thursday November 22nd from 10am to 6pm
Friday November 23rd from 10am to 6pm
Saturday November 24th from 10am to

Like many Canadians, I muse about the future of the Cdn dollar relative to the USD.

Four years ago, Warren Buffet gave his opinion - prescient, per usual. If you haven't yet read him, this is a wonderful introduction. The reading really gets going when he starts describing Squanderville and Thriftville, as illustrative of economies.

Imagine Thriftville and Squanderville as two islands, he says. They have very simple economies - consuming only exactly what they produce. Each resident works 8 hours a day to produce, and consumes 8 hours/day worth of items.