Christmas is near and you'll probably have to give lots of presents to your relatives.
As everybody like eating, this recipe will save the day for you.
It's easy and not very expensive. Add a beautiful envelope and a card, and make sure that everybody know they are homemade and healthy.
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups M&Ms
Cream sugars, eggs, vanilla, and shortening. Set aside. Mix dry
ingredients. Combine dry ingredients with creamed mixture. Add M &
Ms and stir until evenly distributed. OR you may choose to not add M
& Ms to mixture, but decorate tops of cookies with
them instead. Make happy faces or designs. This is a real "hands on"
event!
Bake at 375 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes.
You probably know the story of the Mayflower ship, but do you know that these were only the beginnings of the celebration.If not, click here.
READ who, where, when and how this celebration became an official tradition
In 1817, New York
became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual
Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however,
and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.
In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha
Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a
national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and
sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other
politicians.
Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War,
in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to
his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or
sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the
nation.”
He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November,
and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression.
Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with
passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a
bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
People have been making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween
for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man
nicknamed "Stingy Jack."
According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the
Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name (stingy:tacaño), Stingy Jack didn't
want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself
into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks.
Once the Devil did
so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a
silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his
original form.
Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that
he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he
would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil
into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in
the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that
the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to
bother him for ten more years.
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such
an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had
played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not
allow Jack into hell.
He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a
burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out
turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began
to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then,
simply "Jack
The irish tradition travelled its way to North America together with the Irish people, once there, pumkins were easier to find on Autumn
If you want to be more historical this year try to carve a turnip instead of a pumpkin
Like all years we are getting close to Halloween time and you know, dear students,
that what I like most is giving historical facts, so....
The history of" halloween" is more than 2,000 years old. The Celts who lived in Ireland,Scotland,Wales and Cornwall,were the first to celebrate the festival.
The Celts worshipped Nature.They worshipped a Sun God and believed that without him, they would not live.
They also worshipped Samhain who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark, winter season.
They believed that on October 31st Samhain would call together all of the dead and these souls would take on the shape of an animal.
They believed that all the creatures walked on earth on that night.This was called the vigil of Samhain.
When the Romans introduced Catholicism to the celts they had a festival to celebrate all the saints which didn't have their own holiday. This was celebrated on November 1st and was called All Saints Day or "All Hallows Day" in Gaelic.
The Roman Catholics thought that this would stop people celebrating the festival of Samhain on October 31st. Unfortunatelly, according to tradition, the devil and his friends came out on October 31st to make fun of all Hallows day. So October 31st became known as All Hallows Eve, and over time it has been reduced to Halloween.
If you want more information take a look at this video
I know that you love singing, same as me, so maybe you'd like singing this song.
You can start trainning the lyrics yourself by listening to the song once and again.
Then, before you get exhausted, try the karaoke.
DON'T forget to look for the words you don't know the meaning of in the word reference dictionary you have in this same page. Remember how important is to know what you are saying.
If not, you can be making troubles.
here you can practise some grammar
on passive voice while you listen to
this beautiful song by Maroon 5
You can also do some more exercises here
or here
Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else
I drove for miles and miles and wound up at your door
I've had you so many times but somehow I want more
I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore
It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along, yeah
My heart is full and my door's always open
You come anytime you want, yeah.
I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
I know where you hide alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls
Yeah
Tap on my window knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain, oh.
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
[in the background:]
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye
Please don't try so hard to say goodbye
Yeah, yeah.
[softly:]
I don't mind spending every day
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
you can print in colour the sheet I showed you in class.
You can bring it in to class next day and paste the parts in your notebook and thus you'll have a pictionary.
try this exercise on prepositions in the kitchen. Remember what Alfonso has taught you in class.
Dear students here you have the very easy and funny story of Ali. Practise the weather vocabulary and do the exercises. Tomorrow I will upload the answers.
Same bed, but it feels just a little bit bigger now
Our song on the radio, but it don't sound the same
When our friends talk about you all that it does is just tear me down
Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name
And it all just sound like uh, uh, uh
Hmmm too young, too dumb to realize
That I should have bought you flowers and held your hand Should have gave you all my hours when I had the chance Take you to every party cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby is dancing, but she's dancing with another man.
My pride, my ego, my needs and my selfish ways
Caused a good strong woman like you to walk out my life
Now I never, never get to clean up the mess I made
And it haunts me every time I close my eyes
It all just sounds like uh, uh, uh, uh
Too young, too dumb to realize That I should have bought you flowers and held your hand Should have gave all my hours when I had the chance Take you to every party cause all you wanted to do was dance Now my baby is dancing, but she's dancing with another man.
Although it hurts I'll be the first to say that I was wrong Oh, I know I'm probably much too late To try and apologize for my mistakes But I just want you to know I hope he buys you flowers, I hope he holds your hand Give you all his hours when he has the chance Take you to every party cause I remember how much you loved to dance Do all the things I should have done when I was your man! Do all the things I should have done when I was your man!
Can you correct the grammatical mistakes in this song?
Now, can you re-write the chorus and last paragraph?
Test yourself by writing down the lyrics using LYRICS TRAINING
Ok, do you dare to sing the song your own way? LET'S KARAOKE!!
Believe it or not, for most of us, our messages remain incomplete
without the use of text message symbols. Many times, the use of these
emoticons is even unnecessary, but we have become so used to them that
we can't do without them. Texting abbreviations and symbols undoubtedly
help us in reducing the number of characters.
A simple SMILEY can
express whether you are happy or sad or even sarcastic about something.
Texting abbreviations help you save space in messages. Besides, who
would type 'Hope to see you soon', in a text message from your cell
phone, when you can simply type HTSUS and get the message conveyed.
click here to read and listen to this text. You will find out different text messages abbreviations in English.
The task for you to do will be to type a text message using abbreviations and emoticons.
