The Republic of Tea - Gift idea #1

It's December and the media is reminding us of the number of shopping days left until Christmas. "Shopping days...." ugh. Considering the economy this year what we should be saying is there are 18 days left to select, or create a thoughtful, moderately priced treasure for the people we care about.
So, I'm on a mission to post a little gift idea each day or so that's around $20. I'm thinking about items I've gotten and loved, or given with great success, or I'm using now and know that someone would love it too.
Here is my the first gift idea. A few months ago I decided to reduce my caffeine consumption. No specific reason really, I thought it would be a healthy choice since I began noticing I couldn't function without a least 3 big cups of coffee; one had to be Starbucks venti, quad, white chocolate mocha, skim with whip. It was becoming expensive, not to mention, fattening.
So, at the suggestion of a sales person in a gourmet food shop, The Fig Tree, who said this was the "Cadillac of Tea", I bought my first Republic of Tea tea bag. (You had to buy it by the bag in this shop.) It was very good.
I went to the Republic of Tea website and discovered they had quite a selection of tea and gift ideas. I bought four cans of 50 bags each. Each can was $10 and each was a different flavor. I bought green tea, orange-cranberry tea, mango tea and passion fruit tea. I like them all. The gift ideas on the site are reasonably priced and most important, the tea is delicious. The Cadillac of Tea indeed!
I plan to order more and give these attractive cans of delicious tea to a few of my co-workers along with a mug I'll buy at Target later this week.
Gift idea #1 ... done!

Brady and Lilly - A Labrador Retriever tale

These are my sister's dogs. I've chosen not to show you their faces, this being a public blog and all. :)

In an earlier post I said she talks to her dogs as if they were human. Well, she does and it works.

Case in point: Last summer she was having her house painted. The painter squatted by his tools to put something back and the chocolate lab, the younger more energetic, the "I never stop moving from one thing to another all day long, nope, nope, nope never stop moving" chocolate lab, came rushing up behind him, grabbed the red bandanna handkerchief from his back pocket and in a flash took off up the hill and into the woods.
My sister screamed, "Lilly, bring that back!" Nothing. She yelled again, "Lilly bring that back!" Nothing. The painter continued painting and about fifteen minutes later Brady, the older, wiser, "I wish that kid would leave things alone and why do I always have to pick up after her" yellow lab, came sauntering down the hill with the red bandanna in his mouth and dropped it at the painter's feet.

Seriously.