This Father’s Day, celebrate fatherhood with meaningful quotes that will change the way you think of your dad.

Alexander Pope:  We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.

Anonymous:  Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys.

Anonymous: The greatest gift I ever had came from God, and I call him Dad!

Anonymous: One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

Anne Sexton: It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.

Bill Cosby: Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is “soap-on-a-rope.”

Charles Wadworth: By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.

Chinese Proverb:  If a son is uneducated, his dad is to blame.

Clarence Budington Kelland:  Henry James once defined life as that predicament which precedes death, and certainly nobody owes you a debt of honor or gratitude for getting him into that predicament. But a child does owe his father a debt, if dad, having gotten him into this peck of trouble, takes off his coat and buckles down to the job of showing his son how best to crash through it.

Clarence Budington Kelland:  He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Confucius:  The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.

Croesus: I n peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.

Douglas Macarthur:  By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder – infinitely prouder – to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle field but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.’

Erika Cosby:  You know… fathers just have a way of putting everything together.

Euripides:  To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.

Euripides:  Noble fathers have noble children.

Euripides:  Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes.

Fanny Fern:  To her the name of father was another name for love.

George Herbert: One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

Harry S Truman:  I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Imelda Marcos:  I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back.

Jan Hutchins:  When I was a kid, my father told me every day, ‘You’re the most wonderful boy in the world, and you can do anything you want to.’

J. August Strindberg:  That is the thankless position of the father in the family… the provider for all, and the enemy of all.

Jean de La Fontaine:  It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.

Jewish Proverb:  When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery: There’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

Josefowitz:  My father died many years ago, and yet when something special happens to me, I talk to him secretly not really knowing whether he hears, but it makes me feel better to half believe it.

Joseph Joubert:  Children have more need of models than critics.

Kent Nerburn:  Until you have a son of your own… you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.

Kent Nerburn:  It is much easier to become a father than to be one.

Knights of Pythagoras:  A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.

Lydia M. Child:  Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!

Marcelene Cox:  Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eyes:  All fathers are invisible in daytime; daytime is ruled by mothers and fathers come out at night. Darkness brings home fathers, with their real, unspeakable power. There is more to fathers than meets the eye.

Mario Cuomo:  I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.

Mario Cuomo:  I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.

Margaret Courtney:  Be kind to thy father, for when thou were young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee.

Margaret Truman:  It’s only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home – it’s only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love.

Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:  When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

National Urban League Slogan:  Don’t make a baby if you can’t be a father.

Nat King Cole:  I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then, when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me… I was a father.

Queen Victoriaof England: None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world – so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don’t be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, on the death of his son:  My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all.

Richard Henry Dana:  Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked of children.

Robert Burton; Anatomy of Melancholy:  Diogenes struck the father when the son swore.

Robert Frost:  The father is always a Republican toward his son, and his mother’s always a democrat.

Samuel Johnson:  There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence.

Sigmund Freud:  I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.

Sir Stephen Spender:  When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes, I was your son, high on your horse, my mind a top whipped by the lashes of your rhetoric, windy of course.

Stanley T. Banks, Father of the Bride:  You fathers will understand. You have a little girl. She looks up to you. You’re her oracle. You’re her hero. And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party, and from that day on, you’re in a constant state of panic.

Stanley T. Banks, Father of the Bride:  ”Who giveth this woman?” This woman. But she’s not a woman. She’s still a child. And she’s leaving us. What’s it going to be like to come home and not find her? Not to hear her voice calling, “Hi, Pops” as I come in? I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was giving up Kay. Something inside me began to hurt.

Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities:  Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later… that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called ‘Being a Father’ so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.

William Penn:  He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.

Buying Dad ties, power tools, ball game tickets, and other gifts for Father’s Day are all acceptable ways to thank dad. We tend to go for more sentimental ideas, though writing on a poem on a card attached to a gift goes over pretty well too.

Your kids can easily write their own poems as well. Just start with “Roses are red, Violets are blue,” and have them finish the rest. Even the grouchiest of dads can’t resist a young child reading an ode to them. Here are a few noted Fathers Day Poems.

Paul Banas was looking for a business idea that would allow him the flexibility to spend time with his family. Paul Banas is a founder of GreatDad.com – a leading source of experience, recommendations, inspiration and advice for dads – delivered from the male perspective.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=P._Banas
http://EzineArticles.com/?Best-Fathers-Day-Quotes—Celebrating-Fatherhood&id=1243172

Author: Sophie Charalambous

No matter how you define it, motivating and rewarding can be powerful tools, especially for small businesses whose results are generated mostly by people’s performance.

Congratulate: a new promotion, a new baby, a wedding, the opening of a new office, the completion of a major project, meeting a deadline

Celebrate: a birthday, a business or personal anniversary, a holiday, a retirement, a new job, a successful project or proposal

Motivate: for difficult personal or business goal, an unpleasant task, boring work, problem solving, coming up with an idea

Promote: yourself, your product and services, colleagues, referrals for new business

Thank: for business, hard work, extra help, working overtime, opening doors for you

Cheer: during a serious illness or hospitalization, when a deal falls through

Apologize: for missing an important meeting or deadline

Above all, do not forget that one person’s great gift can be another’s horror story. To make sure your gifts are memorable and appropriate, learn some basic gift giving etiquette.

1. Giving gifts year round to reward performance, results and to motivate, will have more impact than simply waiting to do so at the end of the year, where your gift will compete with many others.

2. Do not drop your gift program because of a weak economy. Your team needs the most motivation when times are bad.

3. Set goals for gift giving. Do you want to recognize employees? Thank customers for their business? Celebrate a company anniversary or milestone? Do not start giving unless you have a clear goal.

4. Make sure that the recipient’s company policy allows gift acceptance. If that is a concern, send items that can be shared within the office such as: gourmet gift basket, industry trade magazine subscriptions, charity donations etc.

5. Find time to find meaningful, thoughtful gifts that fit the recipient. Do not assume that everyone likes things that you like. Keep in mind cultural, dietary and religious restrictions. Gifts should not be lavish or very expensive, but appropriate, timely and of good quality.

6. What you give is a reflection on you and your organization, so avoid sending inappropriate, tasteless, offencive gifts.

7. Try to include a personal note with every gift you send. Use a custom card and state briefly your purpose for sending the gift, offering your best wishes. A custom designed note card (4×6) will cost you around $99 for 500 but it will be highly appreciated.

8. Deliver gifts in person when you can, otherwise send gifts priority or express mail.

9. Consider the presentation since the first impressions are always important. Even expensive items might not have the effects you expect them to if they are presented in a tasteless way. Consider adding your company’s logo on the paper and ribbon.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/corporate-gift-giving-etiquette-what-to-give-when-and-how-a-small-business-perspective-116087.html

About the Author

Sophie Charalambous is a Marketing Director at BargainPrinting.com (http://www.bargainprinting.com). BargainPrinting.com (http://www.bargainprinting.com) uses state-of-the-art equipment and an all digital workflow to provide professional quality printing, mailing and design solutions. Located in New York City, BargainPrinting.com (http://www.bargainprinting.com) offers print buyers nationwide competitive prices, fast turnaround and above all Fanatical Customer Service. The proprietary tools and technology on the web store makes ordering easy, fast and rewarding for all customers.

By Danielle Hollister

1. “Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years… Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.”
   – George Matthew Adams
2. “The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.”
   – Louisa May Alcott
3. “Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart… filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever.”
   – Bess Streeter Aldrich
4. ” The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!”
   – Charles N. Barnard
5. “Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”
   – Peg Bracken
6. “The earth has grown old with its burden of care But at Christmas it always is young, The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair And its soul full of music breaks the air, When the song of angels is sung.”
   – Phillips Brooks
7. “I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never aone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.”
   – Taylor Caldwell
8. “Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.”
   – Charlotte Carpenter
9. “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
   – Calvin Coolidge
10. “Christmas, in its final essence, is for grown people who have forgotten what children know. Christmas is for whoever is old enough to have denied the unquenchable spirit of man.”
    – Margaret Cousins
11. “Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.”
    – Bing Crosby
12. “Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing: Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears, Let us hold close one day, remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men. Let us get back our childlike faith again.”
    – Grace Noll Crowell
13. “It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one’s fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit.”
    – Isabel Currier
14. “Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.”
    – Hugh Downs
15. “They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart.”
    – Mrs. Paul M. Ell
16. “Christmas, my child, is love in action.”
    – Dale Evans
17. “Do give books – religious or otherwise – for Christmas. They’re never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.”
    – Lenore Hershey
18. “My first copies of Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn still have some blue-spruce needles scattered in the pages. They smell of Christmas still.”
    – Charlton Heston
19. “At Christmas, all roads lead home.”
    – Marjorie Holmes
20. “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
    – Bob Hope
21. “The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.”
    – W. C. Jones
22. “A Christmas candle is a lovely thing; It makes no noise at all, But softly gives itself away; While quite unselfish, it grows small.”
    – Eva K. Logue
23. “Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.”
    – Robert Lynd
24. “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
    – Hamilton Wright Mabi
25. “The merry family gatherings– The old, the very young; The strangely lovely way they Harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time– Traditions that recall The precious memories down the years, The sameness of them all.”
    – Helen Lowrie Marshall
26. “There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.”
    – Bill McKibben
27. “I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.”
    – Harlan Miller
28. “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”
    – Joan Mills
29. “Christmas is, of course, the time to be home – in heart as well as body.”
    – Garry Moore
30. “What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.”
    – Agnes M. Pharo
31. “Mankind is a great, an immense family… This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.”
    – Pope John XXIII
32. “One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”
    – Andy Rooney
33. “Christmas–that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance–a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.”
    – Augusta E. Rundel
34. “Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”
    – Charles Schulz
35. “As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is.”
    – Eric Sevareid
36. “Christmas is the day that holds time together.”
    – Alexander Smith
37. “Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.”
    – Ralph Sockman
38. “Christmas … is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.”
    – Freya Stark
39. “Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”
    – Margaret Thatcher
40. “At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.”
    – Thomas Tusser
41. “What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.”
    – Unknown
42. “Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.”
    – Unknown
43. “If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.”
    – Unknown
44. “Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display–so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn’t the holly, it isn’t the snow. It isn’t the tree not the firelight’s glow. It’s the warmth that comes to the hearts of men when the Christmas spirit returns again.”
    – Unknown
45. “Many banks have a new kind of Christmas club in operation. The new club helps you save money to pay for last year’s gifts.”
    – Unknown
46. “Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world – stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death – and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.”
    – Henry Van Dyke
47. “Christmas is for children. But it is for grownups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.”
    – Lenora Mattingly Weber
48. “Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance – each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.”
    – Deborah Whipp
49. “Somehow, not only for Christmas, But all the long year through, The joy that you give to others, Is the joy that comes back to you. And the more you spend in blessing, The poor and lonely and sad, The more of your heart’s possessing, Returns to you glad.”
    – John Greenleaf Whittier
50. “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
    – Larry Wilde

Resource Box – © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine – A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like – love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. All new subscribers get a free ad. Read it online at – http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Danielle_Hollister
http://EzineArticles.com/?Top-50-Christmas-Quotations&id=5767

Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights
By Gail Leino

Also called Hanukkah and Chanukah, Hanukkah is one of the most important Jewish holidays. It takes place every year in mid to late December. Though the date varies on the western calendar, it always begins on the 25th day of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar. The celebration begins with the menorah, which holds nine candles. Eight candles represent the eight days of Hanukkah, and the ninth, the Shamash, is used to light the other candles.

The Hanukkah tradition recognizes oil as one of the central themes of Hanukkah, and this is reflected in the foods enjoyed on the holiday, foods like latkes, or potato pancakes, sufganiyot (jelly-filled donuts) Cheese Blintzes, and cheeses and dairy products are the staples of the Hanukkah diet, so obviously that would be incorporated into any Hanukkah celebration.

Supplies for traditional Hanukkah games such as the Dreidel Game, in which participants sit in a circle, and are given twenty candy drops (peppermints, special foil-covered chocolates that look like coins, or even pennies) and they spin the Dreidel, a toy that looks like a spinning top, which, alluding to the miracle of Hanukkah, have letters on each side:

Nes (N-miracle), Gadol (G-Great), Haya (H-happened), and Sham (S-there, meaning in Israel).

Each player gets equal amounts of candy or coins. Each player places one in the center, or “pot” and each player will take turns spinning the dreidel. If it lands on Nes, the player gets nothing. If it lands on Gadol, the player gets all the pot, and each player again contributes a candy to allow the game to go on. If it lands on Hey, the player collects half the pot, and everyone contributes again. If it lands on Sham, the player puts one of their candies back into the pot. The player with all the candies, wins the game. If time is a constraint, just give a specific amount of time, and the one with the most pieces wins.

The most important thing about Hanukkah is celebrating the miracle of the menorah, which burned for eight days on enough oil for only one day. That miracle is the basis for the festival of lights, called Hanukkah. Each day of Hanukkah, a candle is lit, progressing until the festival of lights is complete, with all eight candles burning, and one and all giving thanks for the miracles God has given in their lives.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies (http://partysupplieshut.com), using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has a huge selection of free party games, coloring pages, word find, word scramble, printable baby and bridal shower activities. Hanukkah Party Games (Hanukkah-fun.com), holiday party planning tips, trivia, history, recipes, printable activities and free coloring pages.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gail_Leino
http://EzineArticles.com/?Hanukkah:-The-Festival-of-Lights&id=350827

Hanukkah and Christmas are just around the corner. Are you ready for the holidays? Have you made your list and checked it twice? Your family and friends are on your list, but does your list also include your valued clients, employees and business associates? Let them know in this season of giving how much you appreciate them and how important they are to the success of your business by including them in your holiday gifting plans. It will promote good will and strengthen business relationships.

There’s also a bottom line benefit to holiday gifting. Companies with a gifting program are more likely to be contacted by customers than those companies without a gifting program. We’d like to help your phone ring more often. Blessed Baskets can help you have a stress free holiday by finding appropriate gifts to suit your budget and taking care of all the details of gift wrapping, packaging and delivery. Visit BlessedBaskets.com today!