I’m fairly certain I’m going to detach myself from my laptop this Thanksgiving and actually enjoy the holiday, so here’s my Four Foods on Friday post! If you want to join in, all you have to do is answer the four questions on your blog and leave your link with Mr. Linky!

1. What’s your favorite carbonated beverage?

Champagne is considered carbonated, right? I like the cheap stuff…Andre and Asti!

2. What’s your favorite spicy food?

I don’t seek out spicy foods, so I don’t have a particular dish in mind, but I’m finding that the older I get, the more I like spicy foods. Are my tastebuds getting worn out?

3. How do you handle hot dishes? Oven mitt, pot holder, towel?

Oven mitt. We just bought a new one last week after Mike and I both did the “oh hot, that hurts, eh eh, hot” dance around the kitchen after using a damp towel to take a pan out of the oven.

4. Ice cream. How do you like yours?

Straight out of the pint. Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, please!

I leave for NYC in the morning, and am still debating whether to take my laptop or not. Between site seeing, dinner reservations, and the little guy below, it seems like a hassle to take my laptop when I might not even have time to blog anyway.

Maybe I do want the HP Mini for Christmas! Until then, I’m probably going to be taking a Thanksgiving hiatus. Have a great holiday!

I’ve been addicted to Tetris since 1989, when my sister and I won a Gameboy for selling the most candy bars in a school fundraiser. No lie. I used to play Tetris so often that in my daily life, I could see where a S, T, or Z would fit perfectly.

I always start on level 9 and I always make it to 100,000 points for a rocketship. Mike’s even impressed with my Tetris skills. He regularly hands over the Gameboy for me to get him out of sticky situations.

I’m also one of those Tetris players that will settle for nothing less than a Tetris, so I’ve been frustrated and heart broken by the scenario to the left many times.

This holiday season, I think we should all stop worrying about wants and start addressing needs. Christmas For Payatas is an charity I think we can all agree there is a need for. If you don’t know how the children of Payatas are living, keep reading…

The landfill in Payatas, The Philippines, is notoriously known the world over as Smokey Mountain. For over 35 years, the smoking dump site has grown to become a stark and heart-tugging reminder of the desperate conditions of humanity.

On a daily basis, children pick through newly arrived garbage to
collect material to sell. The earnings made by one child are not enough to even buy food for the day. Hence, entire families are forced to climb the mountain each day, hoping to earn enough to feed everyone. Children as young as four years old are forced to work in this daily struggle for survival.

In response to the plight of these children, Totedaddy.com is working with Lighthouse Center For Children Foundation to bring a little cheer to the children this Christmas.

Totedaddy.com has kicked off with a cash sponsorship of USD 10,000 to enable the children to celebrate Christmas. FusionExcel International has also pitched in a USD 5,000 in cash sponsorship. The money raised will help fund the projects already in place, and help fund additional projects aimed at providing better housing, and a means of livelihood for the Payatas community.

It is hoped that by creating better awareness to the plight of these children, more support can be garnered towards their betterment. Together we can bury poverty!

It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Entire families sorting through mounds of trash collecting enough items to sell to feed themselves for the day. If the description alone isn’t enough to convince you that there’s a need to help these children and their families, the video will…

Just a small donation to Christmas for Payatas can help fund the programs that provide housing, food, education, and jobs for these families so that they can start to build a solid community that can support its residents.

Wow – the pashmina giveaway is officially my biggest giveaway to date with 1,130 total entries! That’s a lot of Stumbling, Twittering, blogging, and commenting – Thank you!

Patti Sherman, Mia J. and Aimee are the big winners! Congratulations! I’ll be sending an email to verify your color choice and mailing address!