Home And Family USA

Just because your mornings and the ensuing rat race may feel mundane, the fuel that gets you going and the apparatus it comes in do not have to bore you. I want to revive the reputation of your most under appreciated friend - the coffee mug. Although coffee mugs have been given so often as presents that they carry a boring reputation, they are still a great gift. They just need to be dressed up a bit.

Fill a mug with candy, tea bags or coffee beans. You can put a small stuffed animal in a mug or fill it with silk flowers. Coffee mugs do not have to be boring. Check out antique malls or artsy retailers for a great mug that reflects your personality. You are more than the world’s greatest grandma - say so with unique coffee mugs.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of some types of personalized coffee mugs. I really do not want to wake up and see the skewed face of my mother in the morning. You have seen those, right. The coffee mugs that you can put a picture on? Basically, I think it is a good general rule not to create anything or give anything as a gift that will lead to the recipient eating off of your face. Read that last sentence again and try to tell me that you disagree. If you do, you are kind of a freak, huh?

Coffee mugs can do a lot more than just hold coffee. I own a few large coffee mugs that are the size of soup bowls. I use them for everything from ice cream, soup, cereal or even a pasta dinner. These over-sized coffee mugs are perfect for any food or drink. Since they have handles, as do most all coffee mugs, they are easy to hold onto if you want to have a snack in bed or in front of the television.

Ramen noodles are a perfect fit in these coffee mugs and I think that size of mug is perfect for keeping the spilling accidents at a minimum. As a habitual mess maker myself, I can attest to the importance of dinnerware that is designed in such a way that makes it difficult to spill. The large mugs I use for all kinds of meals can be held comfortably in my hands and I have yet to spill with them. Rethink the great mug. It may be a better gift idea than you remember. You may be able to take care of a lot of the people on your Christmas gift list by finding the right mugs.

My daughter has been a fan of National Geographic magazine for a long time. She loves anything having to do with the outdoors and also loves looking at pictures of other cultures. The photography in National Geographic magazine is breathtaking and I can’t deny that she gets a lot out of it. Her reading is still not very good. If she doesn’t have me to read it along with her and explain the articles to her, she gets very frustrated. Although I don’t want to discourage her from reading the magazine she loves, I also want to complement it with something more at her reading level. That is why I got her Your Big Backyard Magazine.

The your Big Backyard Magazine is put out by the National Wildlife Federation for kids. I expected it to be kind of heavy handed and propagandistic, but it is actually pretty down to earth read. Kids all love nature, the outdoors, and animals. There are lots of nature magazines for kids, but what is cool about Your Big Backyard Magazine is that it has an emphasis on what you can do around your own home. Not everyone gets to live on the edge of a big wilderness. Your Big Backyard Magazine is a great read for people who live in the suburbs or the city, people without access to wild spaces. It tells you how to look around your own backyard to find different plants and animals, and even how to create habitats for wild creatures.

Your Big Backyard Magazine is still not her favorite – not by a long shot. The pictures are cute and there are drawings submitted by kids, but none of them compare with the spectacular photography in National Geographic Explorer. Still, there are some great things about this magazine that National Geographic does not offer. For one thing, it has the project that I was talking about. No matter where you live, nature is all around you. It just takes a little bit of training to be able to look and see what is there. I have always believed that it is crucial to instill a love of nature from a young age in children. That way, as they grow up, they will realize that it is their responsibility to take care of the earth that they live on. Is there a better lesson on that?