The key Canadian collections include first and only fully indexed Censuses of Canada for 1851, 1891, 1901, 1906 and 1911; the Drouin Collection, which is the complete set of French-Canadian vital records from 1621 to 1947;  and the Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813 and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings from 1895 to 1956.

Ancestry.ca is a member of the Ancestry global network of family history websites and has 400 million searchable names.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering more about these awesome prizes and how you can get involved in this contest.

• To enter, you must be a legal resident of Canada (excluding Quebec) and be at least 13 years old as of February 11, 2009.  You must also be a registered user of contest.ancestry.ca.
• The contest runs February 16th – April 10th.
• You can obtain 1 additional Prize Draw Entry per day by playing the game at contest.ancestry.ca.
• You can obtain up to a maximum of 100 additional Prize Draw Entries by inviting your friends through the ‘Invite Friends’ link or by adding a widget to your Facebook profile.
• There will be 1 Grand Prize of a $1500 West Jet gift certificate.  (This is non-refundable and cannot be redeemed for cash.)
• Also, there will be 8 weekly prizes of $100 Chapters gift cards.

Here’s a look at the game Word Stump that you can play to earn additional entries.  It’s a word scramble game that is fun, challenging, and a bit addictive.     I finally had to cut myself off from it.  You simply highlight letters to make words.  When you make words, then letters will disappear and make the tower of letters shorter.  Then more letters will appear.  It’s kind of like tetris, except with letters and words.

Have fun everyone and good luck!

images from ancestry

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Some of my favorite sale items are:

• calendars (75% off)
• gift bags
• ornaments
• wire edged fabric ribbon
• Christmas seals
• snowflake gift collection

Also, get free US shipping on order of $50 or more.

It’s not too early to start thinking about next Christmas.  It will be here before we know it. 

image from dayspring

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Please vote in the poll and/or leave a comment below.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

According to Consumer Reports, an efficient dishwasher can use less water than washing dishes by hand, no matter how frugal you are at the faucet.

Here are some other tips to lower your bill while using your dishwasher:

1.  Only run your dishwasher when it is full.
2.  Turn it on the energy saver cycle.
3.  Don’t prerinse your load.
4.  Use an enzyme based detergent to get your dishes completely clean.
5.  If your dishwasher has a booster heater, turn it down. Most booster heaters can raise the water temperature 20 F.
6.  Turn off the heated drying option. If you don’t have this option on your dishwasher, then after the cycle finishes, open the door and allow it to air dry. (I try to run my dishwasher at night after the kids are in bed. When the dishes are clean, I sometimes open the door to allow them to air dry.)
7.  Use the shortest cycle that will get your dishes clean.

Do you use your dishwasher?

Post from: Keeping the Castle

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to pay full price for anything.  After Christmas, you can always find me out shopping for a bargain.  I like finding 50, 75, and even 90% off Christmas decor.  These decorations are only going to be displayed for a month or so anyway, I just can’t see paying so much money for them.

The picture above is my tree from last year.  Each year, I enjoy hanging the ornaments on the tree.  Each one has a special memory.  And I can’t help but to feel pleased knowing that I got many of them so inexpensively.  lol  There are even some Hallmark ones on there that I only paid $1 for.

Now is a great time to purchase outdoor lights and figurines, garland, ornaments, and so much more.

Have you hit the clearance sales?

image by Karen

Post from: Keeping the Castle

image from bhg

Post from: Keeping the Castle

If not Gingerbread Men, then what is your all-time favorite Christmas cookie??

Photo Credit: Crate and Barrel

And a little more bits to keep you busy.  

Gingerbread Recipes and Crafts from Canadian Living

Gingerbread People from Kraft… (there’s pudding in the recipe!)

Plantain Gingerbread… yes, your regular kind of recipe but with a little plantain thrown in for good measure.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

It seems that there a lot of people out there who simply can’t get into the Christmas Spirit this year. It could be the fact that we are the ones who are doing all the work, not like it was when we were the kids and did nothing but dream about what we were going to get for Christmas. Now I must tell you about my Mom.  She had everyone’s Christmas spirit… which makes me wonder if that’s why there is so little to go around. For Mom, Christmas officially began the minute we went back to school. Yes, I’m talking September and continued until we went back to school in January. It’s not that we had a lot of money or anything… she simply enjoyed all the simple things that Christmas should be about. What that woman could do with crepe paper was amazing.

So, do you have any Christmas Spirit?? I found you an on-line form to let you know just how well you are doing. It should take you a couple of minutes tops… and it might give you a few things to add to your to-do list which just might put you in the Christmas Spirit!!

Post from: Keeping the Castle