France and Italy may have lost cuisine's cutting edge for now but they are still masters of the craft of cooking - and there is plenty to thrill the most selective of culinary holiday makers.Time stands still at some Bordeaux châteaux, where workers use techniques like binding vine stocks with reeds, but this area boasts great food and wine shops, like From agerie Deruelle and the Cave Aux Quatre Coins du Vin, and is littered with hidden culinary gems.

Exceptional restaurants

Lanzarote, the most eastern of the Canary Islands, emerged 15 million years ago through volcanic eruptions. The newest resort offering sun-soaked beaches there is Playa Blanca. Playa Blanca - “White Beach" in the native Spanish - is Lanzarote’s most southern town.

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3 Holiday Present Decoration Tips

The holidays are a time for families to get together, celebrate, fellowship, and in most cases, exchange gifts. While the gifts themselves can show how much you care and can be highly personal, the wrapping can go the extra mile and really showcase a person’s personality and enhance the entire gift. The outside of the gift can give a hint as to what’s inside, or can become a showcase for your feelings towards the recipient. Around the holidays, special paper, trinkets, and a wide variety of ribbons are available in most retail stores, meaning that you really can find something for everyone.

Fun all day long

The open house Christmas theme party is one that you can organize for an entire day over a weekend or over a couple of weekends to ensure that you see all your friends this year.  Be a sport and also invite your work colleagues and neighbors to share in the fun and to show them how to share in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas is a time for Children

Christmas is really the best time for children. There is all that excitement on Christmas evening and desperately trying to keep those tired little eyes open to catch a glimpse of Santa flying through the night skies with his reindeer or popping down the chimney. There is that anticipation of putting out chocolate chip cookies and milk for Santa and his team. Many children write to Santa every year telling him how good they have been and how they deserve that special present and this is why it is a good idea to get them all involved and make this year about them just in case that special present doesn’t arrive. They will be having too much fun to worry about it.

Black and Red and You’re good to go

These are two colors that are just so convenient in the winter months because everyone has them. So if you don’t want your guests to go to too much trouble this is a convenient theme party but can also be a dramatic one. The men will be dressed in their gorgeous tuxedos with a red tie or bow tie and handkerchief and the ladies will add sparkle with their beautiful evening dresses and lots of bling to round things off. Even if you go for a more casual look this theme will be an easy choice for all of your guests.

A Snazzy Way to Entertain

Sometimes it is not easy to come up with a new idea that is practical for entertaining but a cocktail theme party does seem like a good idea. Even if you don’t drink alcohol a cocktail can be made from a variety of ingredients and still be tasty. It probably won’t be a winner amongst your more adventurous guests but it will ensure they remain sober. But try something different this year and invite your guests to come up with the most outrageous cocktail recipe that they can. The criteria for outrageous can be based on taste, color or the kick it provides. As long as it doesn’t taste vile then it is acceptable. Judge on the aesthetic appeal as well. This idea is sure to get your guests into a festive mood and it allows them to become creative, bring their own drinks and do a bunch of taste swaps throughout the evening.

Friends Caring for one another

Unless you are super wealthy it is impossible to purchase gifts for twenty or thirty of your closest friends and family members. Many families actually just confine their gift giving to children. This year however get all your friends together and suggest that everyone purchase a gift of a certain value for the guys and girls. At least this way everyone will receive a wonderful gift to take home with them.

Every year it seems that people enjoy getting more and more creative with their parities, even for holidays. People enjoy bringing different themes into the mix to help break away from the ordinary and to keep things interesting. People have been coming up with their own unique ides, and there’s no reason you can’t come up with some of your own. Here are a few tips, tricks, and hints you can use when throwing a themed holiday party of your own.

Picking a Theme

The holiday’s calls for decorating your house with trimmings of the season, which help people, feel welcome and merry. Unique ideas make your house your own, and show everyone your personality. Coming up with different and non-traditional ways to decorate for the holidays will really show that you are able to be festive with your own twist.

One way of decorating that can really make an impact is going old-fashioned. Time periods from the 1800’s to about the 1950’s were full or beautiful candles, lush fabrics, and classy colors. Creating to a throwback to a bygone time creates a nostalgic feeling that being around family can enhance. In contrast to today’s widespread brighter red and green, and old-fashioned Christmas will feature many metallics and deeper, richer colors that feel comfortable and inviting.

Sometimes coming up with ways to entertain the Children can be Hard Work

Wow it’s that time of the year again when you need to put your thinking hat on and find ways to keep the children from becoming bored and destructive while on holiday. It is mid-year and you don’t have plans to go on holiday to the beach or to go on a skiing trip so what do you do with young children to keep them out of mischief! 

Christmas is around the Corner

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know.” Everyone is so excited. It is that time of the year again when we can all take a break and relax and plan a few special functions for those closest to us. And nothing says classy quite like white does. Plan a white Christmas for your friends from the invitations to the decor to put everyone in that mood. Send out your invitations in a white beaded box with white chocolates inside and in line with your theme request your guests to write their own Christmas songs this year and share them around your home fire.

Hats Off to You

People are always looking for simple fun ideas to spruce up their holidays and the ugliest Christmas hat party is one way to do that. There is little fuss or expense involved but the memories of the ugliest hat party can be captured on camera or video and be enjoyed for years to come.  Whether you have a dig around in the attic or pay dear Aunt Mel a visit to borrow a hat, get it wherever you can. Buy it from an antique store or the local market and dress it up or down. Make it bright and shiny or just plain crazy. The more laughs and merriment you can generate the better.

The Brighter the Better

During those cold and dreary winter days what could be better than a Christmas party with a Cirque de Soleil theme! The thoughts of all those brightly dressed acrobats, dancers and other entertainers from this spectacular show just get the creative juices flowing. Of course if you are a good performer and can entertain at your party this is even better. Make sure that you are the best dressed for the occasion and stand out from your guests. The brighter you are the better your chances will be of doing just that. The sun is bright so you may turn your party into a yellow only theme but that could just defeat the purpose. For this theme the more variety there is the more fun you will have.

Finger Meals for Convenience

You have so many people you want to connect with over the holidays but so little time to do it in. The other problem you have is that many are also leaving the city and their time will also be really limited beforehand as they will also be making preparations for their time away. How do you accommodate everyone?  The answer is simple and also a bit time consuming for you but sometimes one needs to make sacrifices to reconnect with friends and family. Throw a finger supper or lunch on one or more occasions to please everyone. The simple part is the food preparation but the complicated part is doing this two or more times.

You could be wondering what vampire electronics are. These are gadgets that still take energy when turned off. Examples are coffee machines, phone chargers, laptop and DVD player. These gadgets sometimes do take energy despite the fact that they are turned off. Unplugging them could save some reasonable amount of money in a year.

I know that if you have had that experience at home, then it is possible that you could be wondering how to take care of the vampire electronics. Some of the things you can do include better insulation, window coverings, and not running appliances at peak hours. However, these measures are not enough; you could do more to bring down the yearly bill.

People are nowadays mores excited about big screens like LCD's, plasma, rear projection and many others. However, people forget about the projector. I know you must have heard that when you want to rock your big screen action, you need to build your home theater using a projector. It feels good to watch shows on a projector. Start with that beam of light that pierces a dark room and hits a projector screen…sometimes it's like you have your movie theater!

In other words, you need a projector in order to have a movie theater in your home faster. The whole system comes with a god sound system in the surrounding, just so great. An example of such a projector is the HDTV. There are many projectors out there raging in different prices. The lowest goes at $ 700 while others go as high as tens of thousands. You will just get what you pay, the higher the price, the better the quality. Before you rush to pour in all your hard-earned money on the latest models in the market, there are guidelines you need to master. You need to consider the following elements when choosing a projector: resolution, lumens, contrast ratio, and bulb life.

Home Entertaining with a Practical Twist

Sometimes thinking up ways to entertain at home can be quite a mission. Do you really feel like going to all that time and trouble to provide entertainment, work your fingers to the bone preparing for the event and then spending the most of the next day cleaning as well? Thoughts like these will clearly deter many from raising themselves to make the effort whilst for others it is exactly what they live for. But then again, they don’t necessarily have all your responsibilities on a daily basis either which makes it that much easier for them. So maybe it will be better for you to make the effort if there is a distinct purpose for entertaining from home. This is especially true if you are a more practical soul. If this is the case then maybe you need to contact your local charities and find out what they need and start from there.

To Kindle the Home Fires or Not

Remember those long gone days when people still used to prefer the hard copy versions of books? Of course there are still many who do prefer paperback and hard copy novels and non-fiction entertainment. On the other hand there are just as many who enjoy their technical book versions. I’m still of the old school and enjoy the look and feel of a novel in my hands. Somehow it is just more comforting and exciting to curl up on the couch or in bed on a cold winter’s day with that new novel in my hands. The anticipation of finding or making the time to escape from the reality of everyday life is with a good book is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.

Multi-purpose Housewarming Parties

Traditionally housewarming parties are a great free for all with friends bringing their own eats and drinks and sometimes gifts that are often very welcome.  It is also often the case that these are arranged for young people who are just leaving home and starting a new life on a very limited budget or for newly divorced people who need some support from friends and family members. This is a good time to make it a really practical and fun occasion by bringing gifts that they will need or that will enhance their living space. The idea here is to provide affordable home entertainment on a shoestring budget. The purpose after all is finding ways to entertain at home without spending an arm and a leg and everyone getting together to add value to someone else life while having fun is a wonderful way to accomplish just that.