I do some­times, but rarely keep ‘em. I guess I’m nor­mal that way. Have you ever made one you actu­ally kept? –Paul

Join us for Com­mer­cial Free Classy Christ­mas Music the night of Christ­mas Eve through the morn­ing of Christ­mas day. (Sounds Of Sun­day starts at a spe­cial time – 9a.) We hope this adds to your enjoy­ment of the holidays.

This Holly Hob­bie oven was Liza’s favorite child­hood Christ­mas present.  Her mom says “As soon as you opened it, Christ­mas stopped.  All you wanted to do was bake tiny cakes all day.”

What was your favorite Christ­mas toy?  Post a pic­ture of it and tell us why you loved it.

Merry Christ­mas & Ho Ho Ho

Mike & Liza

You’ll love to track Santa’s Christ­mas Eve Trav­els with NORAD (North Amer­i­can Aero­space Defense Com­mand) and this year you can “Like” them on Face­book, fol­low them on Twit­ter, and down­load the APP for your smartphone.

Merry Christ­mas and safe trav­els Santa.

Mike & Liza

Gen­tle­men, just because you CAN wear pajama jeans, doesn’t mean you SHOULD wear pajama jeans.

Ladies, what do you think?  Do you want to see your man in these?  (remem­ber, your man doesn’t look like this guy)

You can make these beau­ti­ful freezer jam recipes in just min­utes.  Put them in a pretty jar with a rib­bon and you have gifts for the whole neigh­bor­hood, the office, peo­ple who drop by unexpectedly…you’re cov­ered.  Merry Christmas.

Cran­berry Pineap­ple Jam

• 1– ½ C. sugar
• 5 tbs Ball® Real­Fruit^tm Instant Pectin
• 2 C. fresh or frozen cran­ber­ries, chopped
• 1 (8oz) can crushed pineap­ple with juice
• 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbs grated orange zest
• 4 Plas­tic Ball° (8 oz) freezer jars

Stir sugar and instant pectin in a bowl until well blended. Add cran­ber­ries, pineap­ple and juice, lemon juice, and orange zest. Stir 3 min­utes. Ladle jam into clean jars to fill line. Twist on lids. Let stand until thick­ened, about 30 min­utes. Refrig­er­ate up to three weeks or freeze up to one year.

Pineap­ple Upside Down Cake Freezer Jam

• 1 C. gran­u­lated sugar
• ½ C. brown sugar
• 5 tbs Ball® Real­Fruit^tm Instant Pectin
• 2 (20oz) cans of crushed pineap­ple in juice, drained
• ¼ C. maraschino cher­ries, finely chopped
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 Plas­tic Ball° (8 oz) freezer jars

Stir sugar, brown sugar, and pectin in a bowl until it is well blended. Add pineap­ple, cher­ries, and vanilla extract. Stir 3 min­utes. Ladle jam into clean jars to the fill line. Twist on lids. Let stand until thick­ened, about 30 min­utes. Serve imme­di­ately, refrig­er­ate for up to three weeks or freeze up to one year.

Thanks to the Uni­ver­sity of Idaho Exten­sion Office for the great recipes.  –Liza

Wow, never would have pre­dicted that [CNN Link]. Oh well, enjoy this pop ditty again.

Santa Claus is com­ing to town.  And appar­ently, he’s get­ting direc­tions from Siri.

What do you want for Christ­mas? Kids from 1 to 92 can write a let­ter to Santa right here.  Mike & Liza will read some of your let­ters on the air Mon­day morn­ing.  Whether you’re hop­ing for an Xbox 360, or a KitchenAid Mixer — we’ll make sure Santa hears about it.

Look­ing for­ward to 2012, there is cau­tious opti­mism that the econ­omy — and the job mar­ket — will con­tinue to improve.   If you’re think­ing of chang­ing careers in the new year?  Here are the jobs that will be hot and in demand.

1. Bio­med­ical engi­neer
Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, bio­med­ical engi­neers apply knowl­edge of engi­neer­ing, biol­ogy, and bio­me­chan­i­cal prin­ci­ples to the design, devel­op­ment and eval­u­a­tion of bio­log­i­cal and health sys­tems and prod­ucts. This is one of the fastest-growing occu­pa­tions, with an expected 72 per­cent increase in employ­ment from 2008–2018.
Aver­age salary: $82,421*

2. Com­puter soft­ware engi­neer 
The com­puter sys­tems design and related ser­vices indus­try has seen con­tin­ued growth through­out the sec­ond half of 2011, accord­ing to the BLS. In addi­tion, the NACE Job Out­look 2012 sur­vey found com­puter sci­ences to be one of the top bachelor’s degrees in demand by employ­ers.
Aver­age salary: $97,581

3. Cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tive
This occu­pa­tion is expected to expe­ri­ence faster than aver­age growth, one rea­son being the high turnover rate in the field. This is also a good indus­try to con­sider if you are flu­ent in mul­ti­ple lan­guages, as oppor­tu­ni­ties for bilin­gual rep­re­sen­ta­tives are fruit­ful.
Aver­age salary: $29,314

4. Home health aide 
Home health aides pro­vide in-home care, a ser­vice that will con­tinue to be impor­tant as the elderly pop­u­la­tion con­tin­ues to grow. Accord­ing to the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices, the num­ber of Amer­i­cans 65 and older is pro­jected to be 88.5 mil­lion by 2050, more than dou­ble its esti­mated 2010 pop­u­la­tion.
Aver­age salary: $28,173

5. Man­age­ment ana­lyst
Man­age­ment ana­lyst is an occu­pa­tion in the man­age­ment and tech­ni­cal con­sult­ing ser­vices field, a field that grew by 3.8 per­cent from Sep­tem­ber to Octo­ber 2011 and has seen steady growth through­out the sec­ond half of the year. Accord­ing to the BLS, man­age­ment ana­lysts study and ana­lyze business-related issues and rec­om­mend solu­tions.
Aver­age salary: $72,197

6. Med­ical assis­tant
The BLS pre­dicts that the med­ical assis­tant field will grow by 33.9 per­cent from 2008–2018. Med­ical assis­tants often work at physi­cians’ offices and per­form admin­is­tra­tive and clin­i­cal duties. Proper train­ing and skills can be acquired by attend­ing a one– to two-year pro­gram at a voca­tional school.
Aver­age salary: $37,571

7. Net­work sys­tems and data com­mu­ni­ca­tions ana­lyst
The BLS notes that this occu­pa­tional cat­e­gory, with siz­able employ­ment growth pro­jec­tions through 2018, includes net­work archi­tects and engi­neers, as well as Web admin­is­tra­tors and devel­op­ers. Accord­ing to the Labor Depart­ment, the type of degree required depends on the posi­tion level.
Aver­age salary: $48,316

8. Reg­is­tered nurse
The reg­is­tered nurse pro­fes­sion is the largest health-care occu­pa­tion and is expected to grow by 22.2 per­cent from 2008–2018, accord­ing to the BLS. While RNs can be employed by physi­cians’ offices, most work in hos­pi­tals.
Aver­age salary: $71,692

9. Retail sales­per­son
The record-busting Black Fri­day and Cyber Mon­day retail sales show that con­sumers are start­ing to feel a lit­tle more con­fi­dent about the econ­omy. In fact, the retail trade has over­all trended up since June 2011, with a slight dip from July to August. Due to this occupation’s high turnover rate, employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties are expected to be good.
Aver­age salary: $25,557

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