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Little Known Thanksgiving Trivia

Inside This Issue:

Spot a Texting Driver

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Tips for teaching and Protecting Your Children

Unexpected Uses for

Peanut Butter

Plus much, much more!!!

“Our Services” Include:

Kitchen/Bath Remodels

Basement Finishing

Additions

Whole House Remodeling or Build

Energy Efficient

Siding/Windows

Home Offices

Certified Aging-in- Place Specialist

Specialized Patio Covers

Outdoor Kitchens

CHRISTIE’S DESIGN/BUILD REMODELING

The famous pilgrim celebration at Plymouth Colony Massachusetts in 1621 is traditionally regarded as the first American Thanksgiving. However, there are actually 12 claims to where the “first” Thanksgiving took place: two in Texas, two in Florida, one in Maine, two in Virginia, and five in Massachusetts.

President Jefferson called a federal Thanksgiving proclamation “the most ridiculous idea ever conceived.

Held every year on the island of Alcatraz since 1975, “Unthanksgiving Day” commemorates the survival of Native Americans following the arrival and settlement of Europeans in the Americas.

Even though President Madison declared that Thanksgiving should be held twice in 1815, none of the celebrations occurred in the autumn.

In 2007, George W. Bush granted a pardon to two turkeys named May and Flower. The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys began in 1947, though Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.

Thanksgiving football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.

Long before the Pilgrims, native Hawaiians celebrated the longest thanksgiving in the world—Makahiki, which lasted four months, approximately from November through February. During this time, both work and war were forbidden.

In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held a parade with about 50 people and Santa Claus bringing up the rear. The parade is now known as the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade and is the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade.

The average long-distance Thanksgiving trip is 214 miles, compared with 275 miles over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.

Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the next-to-last Thursday in November to prolong the holiday shopping season, many Republicans rebelled. The holiday was temporarily celebrated on different dates: November 30 became the “Republican Thanksgiving” and November 23 was “Franksgiving” or “Democrat Thanksgiving.

NOVEMBER 2012 NEWS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

How to Spot a Texting Driver

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Texting while driving is illegal in 39 states and the District of Columbia. In most of those states, it's a primary enforcement violation, meaning the officer can stop a motorist solely for texting while driving, says the Governors Highway Safety Association.

The laws are having an unintended consequence. Instead of holding the phone up by their face, violators are putting it down in their laps. They think officers, cops and troopers won't be able to see it, says the National Troopers Coalitions, which has 45,000 members.

The troopers say these texters are more dangerous because their eyes are off the road for a longer time, but they are just as easy to spot.

Generally, they act like drunk drivers, going too fast or too slow for the traffic, weaving or not paying attention when the light turns red or green. Sometimes their heads are down and only one hand is on the wheel.

Officers advise motorists to give plenty of space to a texter, because he's an accident waiting to happen. Texters are 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident than non-texting drivers.

If you spot a very dangerous driver, call 911. Police say you should never confront the individual. That's where road rage could begin.

A 2009 study showed that sending a text or email takes a driver's eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. That's about how long it takes a vehicle going 55 mph to cover the length of a football field.

Around The House Newsletter

Typewriter Words TYPEWRITER (10 letters) can be typed using only the top row of keys on a standard keyboard. Other ten-letter words with this property are PEPPERROOT, PEPPERWORT, PERPETUITY, PEWTERWORT, PIROUETTER, PREREQUIRE, PRETORTURE, PROPRIETOR, REPERTOIRE, REPETITORY, TETTERWORT. If hyphens are allowed, then TEETER-TOTTER (12 letters) is possible, as is TEETER-TOTTERER (14 letters), although the latter is not found in dictionaries. Another possible 12-letter word, POWERTRIPPER, is also not in any major dictionary.

SHAKALSHAS (10 letters) is the longest word which can be typed using only the middle row of letters on the keyboard. Others include HAGGADAHS, FLAGFALLS, HADASSAHS, GALAGALA, GALAHADS, HASKALAH, and ALFALFAS.

The only dictionary word which can be typed using only the bottom row of letters is ZZZ (to indicate sleeping). (There are no vowels in the bottom row.)

AFTERCATARACTS, TESSERADECADES and TETRASTEARATES (each 14 letters) are the longest words which can be typed using only the fingers of the left hand, using the standard method of typing.

Using only the fingers of the right hand, one can type the 12-letter word JOHNNY-JUMP-UP (common name for a flower) including the

hyphens, and also PHYLLOPHYLLIN (13 letters).

Just for Fun

Inside each set of the following words, there are a pair of smaller words. By putting & between them, lo & behold, you'll make a familiar phrase. For example, "Thighbone/Swallowtail" conceals "High & Low." 1. Skyrocketing/Trolleyman 2. Thermometer/Apoplexy 3. Delaware/Bordering 4. Surprised/Trashiness 5. Throughout/Stumblebum Answer on page 8

Sleep Tight! Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite!

Christie’s Design/Build Remodeling

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1. Tie up any loose ends prior to getting into bed. Finish anything that needs to be finished. Go to bed with a happy and content mind knowing that all of your chores are accomplished.

2. Get comfortable clothes to sleep in. If your pajama pants are too tight, or if your night shirt keeps hiking up, you will be busy fixing them instead of enjoying sleeping in them.

3. Arrange your bed for comfort. Remember that when you start to doze off, your body temperature drops. When this happens, if you do not have a warm enough blanket, you will get a chill and be unable to sleep. On the other hand during the hot months, if your blanket is too heavy, you will sweat and once again be unable to sleep.

4. Relax by reading before shutting off the light. This will take your mind off any personal problems you might have, and when you start getting tired, you will fall asleep easier.

5. If you have trouble sleeping in a new place, turn the temperature a little bit. Not sure why, but changing the temperature helps some people sleep better. So find a comfortable temp. to sleep in.

Around The House Newsletter

November Is:

Child Safety Protection Month

Aviation History Month

National Adoption Awareness Month

National Model Railroad Month

Native American Heritage Month

Peanut Butter Lovers Month

National Epilepsy Month

National Sleep Comfort Month

National Novel Writing Month

At Walmart stores, Christmas shopping started in August. Though the company charges a $5 open account fee and requires either $10 or a payment of 10 percent of the $50 or more purchase, customers will get $5 back in the form of a Walmart gift card after making the final payment and pickup by Dec. 14.

Customers have told Walmart they need two extra paychecks to buy what they want for Christmas and starting the service in August helped them buy what they wanted

Layaway programs have become popular since the economic downturn in 2008. Customers want to make choices early, but don't want to charge to their credit cards.

Kmart, Sears and Toys R Us have

abolished all fees for layaway purchases.

Time to Layaway!

Around The House Newsletter

Page 4

To solve a sudoku, you only need logic and patience. No math is required. Simply make sure that each 3x3 square region has a number 1 through 9 with only one

occurrence of each number. Each column and row of the large grid must have only one instance of the numbers 1

through 9. The difficulty rating on this puzzle is easy.

Around The House Newsletter

1. Accept your role as your child’s protector and teacher. The kinds of issues our children are expected to deal with today are complex and often dangerous. Problems like violence, bullying, and online predators are commonplace in their world. To protect your son or daughter’s emotional and physical well-being, you must learn about these and other tough issues and develop the skills to discuss them effectively. (See related article “Make It Easy for Your Kids to Talk to You.”)

2. Teach your child that he/she has the right to be safe. From the time your child understands words, instill in her the core belief that no one has the right to make her feel threatened or unsafe. This right is non-negotiable and is guaranteed by the United Nations/UNICEF Children’s Protections Rights.

3. Prepare – don’t scare – your kids. It is easy to get overwhelmed with your worries about your child’s safety. But, research shows that if you contaminate what you are trying to teach with your fears, your child won’t remember your message, only that you were scared. Practice using moderate language and a matter-of-fact tone when you discuss sensitive issues. Focus on what your child needs to learn rather than why it upsets you. Share your fears and worries with other adults rather than your children.

4. Help your child say ‘no.’ Did you say no to your parents? Do your kids say no to you? Whether or not your grew up with the right to set verbal boundaries with adults in authority, children need to be empowered with the right to say no to anyone who is acting inappropriately, regardless of their position or power. This is a first step in turning “nice” kids, who are compliant in most situations, in to “safe and strong” kids, who obey adults unless they feel confused or threatened.

5. Teach your child to recognize, trust, and act on her instincts. Help your child respond quickly and self-protectively if he or she gets an inner signal that something is not right. It might be a voice in her head that says “Uh-oh, this isn’t OK.” Or maybe it’s a feeling in the pit of his stomach. Regardless of how the warning alarm sounds, the important thing is that your child be taught to listen to it and not rationalizes a person’s behavior or wait for the situation to escalate.

6. Teach and model healthy boundaries in relationships. Beginning with body awareness in pre-school, children need to learn what a “respectful distance” looks and feels like. They also need to recognize if someone is ignoring their boundaries and what to do about it. The respect that you show for your children’s physical and emotional space will set the tone for how they let others treat them.

7. Protect, Prepare, Practice, Praise, and Preview. Use these 5 steps to teach your child skills such as crossing the street safely, riding the bus, walking to school, basically any skill where his safety is at stake. The emphasize is on supervised practice, which allows you to gauge your child’s progress and ensures that you don’t give him a new privilege or responsibility before he is prepared to handle it successfully.

8. Monitor your child. Protective parenting is not about hovering or being paranoid. It’s about being a good observer, supervisor, and sometimes a detective. Listen to and watch your child. Be curious, involved, and ask questions. Notice any changes in her behavior or moods. You want to catch early signs of a budding problem rather than deal with a full-blown crisis.

9. Cultivate your child’s self-esteem and desirable traits. Be strategic and enthusiastically praise glimpses of behavior that you want to see more of, such as using good judgment or acting responsibly. Your child or teen will pick up on your pleasure in watching him become trustworthy and responsible and will try harder to demonstrate those kinds of behaviors.

10. Tell them you love them. In addition to expressing your love and appreciation when you feel proud of your child, be sure to express your love for no special reason or when the going gets tough. Kids who are loved unconditionally feel more worthwhile and are less vulnerable to mistreatment by others.

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WE WELCOME THIS MONTH’S NEW CLIENTS TO THE “CHRISTIE’S REMODELING FAMILY”

Here are some of our new clients that became members of the “Christie’s

Remodeling Family” this past month. I’d like to welcome you and wish you all the best!

Jesus & Lindsey Ramirez of Ft. Lupton Diane Wade of Longmont

10 Tips for Teaching and Protecting your Child

Around The House Newsletter

Page 6

Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole

Ingredients

3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons butter divided

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

1 cup water

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 cup finely crushed herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix

1 cup cooked, diced turkey meat 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

2. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over low heat. Blend in the flour. Slowly stir in evaporated milk and

water, then season with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Stir sauce over low heat for 5 minutes.

3. In a separate saucepan over low heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Blend in the dry stuffing mix. Place the turkey

in the prepared baking dish. Pour the sauce over turkey, then sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Spread mashed

potatoes over cheese. Top mashed potatoes with the stuffing mixture.

4. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven.

Recipe Source: AllRecipes.com

Peanut butter, a staple in most household pantries, can serve an astonishing variety of household purposes. Try these:

Use a bit of peanut butter on a cotton cloth to rub off label adhesives.

Massage a bit of peanut butter into hair to remove a wad of chewing gum.

Use a thin coat as a substitute for shaving cream. (Really! Hydrates and moisturizes.)

Polish leather and vinyl items using a bit of peanut butter on a cotton cloth. Buffs up wooden items, too.

Hang pine cones stuffed with a mixture of peanut butter and coarse cornmeal as a treat for winter birds.

Smear it on garden tools (including wooden handles) as a winter preservative and on lawn-mower blades as a lubricant.

Spread some on a slice of apple or a scrap of bread for a good mousetrap bait.

Encourage your dog to swallow a pill by sticking it into the center of a little gob of peanut butter.

Marshmallow and Peanut Butter Dessert

1 cup marshmallows

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1 (1.69 ounce) package candy-coated milk chocolate pieces Place the marshmallows and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and stir constantly until the marshmallows have melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the candy. Pour into a bowl, and let cool; eat slightly warm or cool.

Call Today To

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(303)

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Around The House Newsletter

**$1,300 REMAINING**

Each year, because of the nature of our business, we spend thousands of dollars on advertising, much of that money

wasted over the past years learning what works for our company. Since referrals from our clients and friends have

always been the best source of new business, we thought, “Why waste our money on unproductive advertising and

spend some of our advertising dollars on what works best - referrals”? It’s our way of saying, “Thanks for the

Referral” and giving recognition to our good friends and clients who help support us!

As this is our slower time of year we are now offering anyone who

sends us a referral and this referral signs a contract by the end of

the year for over $5,000, we will send you a $500 reward!!!

Page7

$2,500 Give Away!

CHRISTIE’S DESIGN/BUILD REMODELING is asking for your help. When you send your referrals,

you are helping the business grow. To say, “Thank You” Christie’s is offering these special rewards for you and your friends and family. Here’s how it works: You’ll receive $200 for each referral. That’s $200 for referring your friends, family, and your neighbors, etc. WOW that’s easy money! *

Your referral will receive $500 discount off their final payment*

There is no limit to the amount you can earn! Refer as many times as you want.

You or your referral can call, fax, or email their contact information to us and we’ll take it from there!

Our rewards program runs until the $2,500 is gone or until the end of the year (12/31/2012), whichever comes first! Watch for future newsletters for the future balance.

Rest assured, at CHRISTIE’S DESIGN/BUILD REMODELING we’ll treat your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers with the care and professionalism you’ve come to trust.

Call: (303) 833-4715 Fax: (303) 325-7344

Email: Office@ChristiesCompleteServices.com

**We must receive the referral information in our office or we won’t know to give you credit for the referral. To receive the $200.00, the contract minimum is $5,000.00. A contract must be signed and deposit received by Christie’s before the referral compensation will be issued. There is no limit to the number of times you can receive compensation.

Around The House Newsletter

114 8th Street, #105

Dacono, CO 80514

(303) 833-4715

(303) 325-7344 fax

Office@Christies

CompleteServices.com

www.ChristiesComplete

Services.com

CHRISTIE’S REMODELING Money Saving Coupon

Basement Finishing ~ Bath Remodeling ~

Kitchen Remodeling ~ Additions ~ Whole House

Remodeling ~ Siding ~ Windows ~ Outdoor

Kitchens ~ Decks ~Energy Efficient Makeovers ~

Tenant Finishing ~ Handicap Accessibility

Remodeling ~ Certified Aging in Place Specialist

(CAPS) Remodeling ~ Home Offices

Winter is upon us, is your

home ready?

We are offering 10% off any energy saving projects (i.e.

new windows, insulated siding, insulation in your attic,

etc)

HURRY - CALL NOW!!

303-833-4715

CONTRACT MUST BE SIGNED BY

December 31, 2012

1. Rock & Roll 2. Mom & Pop 3. Law & Order 4. Rise & Shine 5. Rough & Tumble