If you have a lot of decorations and not much time, you may want to pare down your decorations. Make a list of those you really want to have up and start with your highest priority. You’ll probably want to start with the Christmas tree and work from there. Take a look at the Mahalo guide on how to buy a Christmas tree to help you pick out a tree.

Once the tree is home, you’ll want to look at the Mahalo guide on how to decorate a Christmas tree for tips you may not have thought of and to make the process go more smoothly. You may decide you don’t have time at this point, but a great holiday idea is to make your own Christmas ornaments. For great ideas and instructions, check out How to Make Christmas Ornaments

Although, not a decoration, one thing that can make your house have the aroma and spirit of Christmas is baking homemade Christmas cookies. There is a wide variety of cookies you can make for Christmas and nothing quite says Christmas like the smell of baked goods. Mahalo has a great How to Decorate Christmas Cookies to add a little flair to your cookies.

Even among stuffing-lovers, there is a disagreement over what is the best thanksgiving stuffing. Your stuffing choice is a difficult decision. Should you go with a traditional bread stuffing (How to Make Bread Stuffing) or look for something different to spice up your meal? It’s a tough call–not everyone will appreciate a break from tradition–but it could be the one thing to make your dinner memorable.

Rice stuffing, fruit stuffing and potato stuffing are three great ideas to add a little extra flavor to the stuffing tradition. Take a look at the great article, How to Make Turkey Stuffing for ideas and recipies. There are some more great ideas in the guides How to Make Chestnut Stuffing and How to Make Leek and Wild Mushroom Stuffing. Some other delicious ideas are oyster stuffing, cornbread stuffing and sausage stuffing. Whichever stuffing-recipe you pick, the it is sure to be your guests’ favorite part of your holiday meal.

Whatever the origin, it is certainly the most-hyped shopping day of the year. If you plan to venture out seeking great deals, you’ll want to read this guide on how to get the best Black Friday deals. Many stores open their doors in the very early morning (5 AM or earlier) and stay open late, some staying open until midnight the next day. Black Friday Ads are highly sought after items in the weeks and even months before, as people want to know what the great deals of the day are. Retailers want to keep these top secret for competitive reasons, although some leak early.

Stores often offer “doorbuster” deals and loss leaders that have limited availability, leading mobs of shoppers to rush into stores. This has led to increased Black Friday violence, even deaths. Many stores have added more security officers and other precaution to deal with the problem. Personally, I avoid shopping on Black Friday at all costs and look for Black Friday deals online or wait for Cyber Monday. What are your plans for Black Friday?

If you’re always busy with work you might think you don’t have time to plan your course of action before getting to down to business, but doing so can save you time and effort in the long run. You’ve got to know what your goals are if you’re ever going to accomplish anything. Setting clear, definite goals, both long-term and short-term, is essential in determining how you are going to reach them. Goal-setting is a necessary part of how to be successful in work. You’ll need to write these goals down so you can measure your progress along the way.

The principle of working harder, not smart applies to all kinds of tasks and goals. Exercise, dieting and home improvement are all activities where you’ll want to work smartly. Getting those tasks organized and prioritized are important in getting your paying work done. You’ll feel better, physically and mentally once you figure out a plan to organize all of your projects and maximize your efficiency.

The first thing you may want to consider is your main course. Do you go with the traditional Thanksgiving turkey, or maybe another meat like ham? Check out how to pick out a Thanksgiving turkey and how to cook a Thanksgiving ham when you’re considering your selection of meat.

After you’ve chosen your main course you may want to brush up on how to pick wine for Thanksgiving. Next, you’ll want to consider what sides you’ll be serving. Cranberry sauce and Thanksgiving cornbread dressing are wonderful traditional sides. You can always buy a prepared version at the store, but don’t be afraid to learn how to make cranberry sauce.

You’ll want to be sure not to forget any special dietary needs or preferences of your guests. Read how to survive Thanksgiving on a diet to get tips on what foods you should provide for those trying to stick to their weight loss plans, yet still enjoy the holiday feast. Vegetarian Thanksgiving recipies are available on the internet and provide a wide range of ideas for vegetarian fare for the holiday.

Desserts can be the best part of your Thanksgiving dinner and Mahalo has a great article on how to decorate Thanksgiving cupcakes. When planning dinner, you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of food. Having leftover food is always better than leaving your guests hungry. Check out how to store leftover turkey. So, what do you do with the leftovers? There are plenty of creative ideas about how to prepare Thanksgiving leftovers. You’re sure to find a delicious way to make use of your extras.

Thanksgiving prep may seem like a lot of work, but with a little preparation now, you can make your Thanksgiving dinner go better than you ever imagined.

If your computer is infected with malware or viruses you may need to re-format your hard drive in order to thoroughly rid yourself of the problem. If you do have those problems but are not up for formatting your drive, be sure to check out the guides, “How to Remove Malware From Your Computer”, “How to Protect Your Computer from Malware”, and “How to Protect Your Computer from Viruses”. Malware and viruses could be affecting your performance.

When formatting and re-installing the operating system, you may want to consider dual booting so you can operate more than one operating system at a time. This may be especially true if you’re trying out a new operating system and may want to run some programs that are only compatible with your old one, or you’re just not quite sure about making the switch. Check out the guide, “How to Dual Boot” to learn how. Also, don’t forget to backup all of your important data. Everything will get wiped out when you format, so if you want to keep your data, follow this guide on “How to Backup Your Computer Hard Drive.”

Using these “how-to” guides you can improve your computing experience and make your work go more smoothly. If that’s not enough and you’re just frustrated and want a change, you can always learn how to convert from PC to Mac!

Great, but just how do I re-light it? I know it’s pretty simple but messing with natural gas doesn’t seem like the safest activity. I read the instructions that came with my water heater and it seemed more complicated than I remembered. I had never had to light the pilot in this house, although I have done it before on other water heaters. I’m more of a visual learner, so I thought I’d check out Youtube and see if there were any videos that would make me feel more comfortable lighting the pilot. I certainly didn’t want to blow up my house (or even just blow up myself!)

I was in luck. I found a great tutorial video that walked me through everything. I found a couple others that were pretty helpful too. I followed the guidelines set forth in my owner’s manual with the knowledge that I had from seeing someone do it in the videos and it was a piece of cake.

I thought that my experience would make a great how-to article, so I wrote one. It combines what I learned in the videos, other research, and my own experience. Check out my article on how to light a pilot light on a gas water heater so if it happens to you, you can take care of the problem without having to research it on your own!

October is upon us and Halloween decorations are popping up left and right. It’s time to get into the spirit of the spooky holiday and decorate. Don’t stop at decorating your house though. If you, like many people, spend the majority

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Give Yourself a Hand!

of your weekdays stuck in the office, you should take some of the holiday fun to work.

There are some great tips on how to decorate your office for Halloween at Mahalo. Have a blast and go crazy–just make sure your boss and co-workers share your enthusiasm. Funny tombstones with co-workers’ names on them can bring laughter to the workplace, but make sure you don’t work with a sense-of-fun-impaired spoilsport who will claim that his or her name on a tombstone is some kind of threat. Talk to your boss first if you plan to go wild with the decorations and be sure to get permission for any decorations in common areas. Finally, try to do as much as possible of the work outside of office time, so no one can accuse you of neglecting your work responsibilities. Office rules and politics can be tedious at times, but fun Halloween decorations might just be something that can bring some cheer and youthful fun to the workplace.

Hulu is one of the online services on which you can watch your favorite television shows for free.

Miss the season premiere of your favorite show? Wonder what all the buzz is about for a new show? Want to catch up with a series that you just started watching? If so, then watching TV online is the solution. DVRs are great, but what if the show has already aired and you didn’t know you wanted to record it, or you just plain forgot to record it? Most shows are available on the web, although how long they are available varies by network and by series. Hulu is a popular video service which carries content from Disney (ABC), News Corp. (FOX), and NBC, among others. Other shows may be found on the networks’ websites. Check out this great guide on how to watch tv online for free. You may like it so much that you decide to save money and cancel your cable or satellite service!