So what is the “in” gift for the Hollywood holiday season this year?
�Libye, via Facebook

Well, there are the gifts that stars tell us they’re buying�mostly precious charitable donations, green eco-Earthy crafty things, that sort of whatnot.

“Stars like Jennifer Aniston and Kristin Davis are promoting the ‘Give Thanks’ rhinestone T-shirts from St. Jude’s, and Jennifer Love Hewitt always makes a donation to a favorite charity in the name of her friends,” personal shopper and gifting guru Lash Fary of Distinctive Assets tells me. “And I know many, many stars like Pink, Adrian Grenier, Leo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are always looking for ‘green’ gifts.”

Gift baskets are great gifts for virtually everyone on your list for any type of occasion. Even though you may think of gift baskets as impersonal on one hand, on the other hand gift baskets can be truly a creative gift for anyone to receive. Prepackaged gift baskets, however, may actually be those impersonal gifts that many people don’t like to receive because they may only include generic gifts anyway, such as hot tea packets, chocolate candies, and other types of food or candy that you may not even want. However, if you make a gift basket right and include all of the things that the person you are making it for may like then you definitely have a good shot at pleasing the recipient. After all, giving a gift is the most important concept about a gift basket so making sure that it is received well is of utmost importance!

Everyone knows that the Christmas season is all about giving and that no one should be concerned about how much a particular gift costs but most of us also have to worry about our budgets while we are doing our Christmas shopping. While there are truly some people to which money is no object the reality is that most of us simply cannot afford to purchase everything we want during the Christmas season. We all have to make some concessions while we do our Christmas shopping and keep our eyes open for great deals. Fortunately there is a great deal of bargains to be found during the Christmas season.

If this is your baby�s first Christmas, there are many wonderful ways to make it Memorable. The most obvious of course is to take many movies and still pictures of baby. Under the tree, in their Christmas outfit, sitting with Grandma and Grandpa, visiting Santa Claus and sitting with cousins among the Christmas wrapping paper and ribbon.

The baby may be oblivious to the Holiday but you can�t let it pass by without buying wonderful things for your baby�s first Christmas. One Christmas gift that my son received on his first Christmas now is the proud possession of his one-year-old daughter. Furniture is a wonderful way to preserve the memory of the first Christmas.

2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
6 straight-sided wide-mouth pint canning jars with lids

Directions:
1) Sterilize 6 (1 pint) straight sided wide mouth canning jars, lids and rings by boiling for 10 minutes.
Keep the lids and rings in the hot water until needed.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Dry jars and let them come to room temperature.
Grease insides of jar well.