During Thanksgiving, one of my friends told me how his cousin was spending the holiday weekend by taking her young children to an amusement park. The cousin had read that children ages 8 to 10 couldn’t recall what they received for Christmas last year but they remember trips with their parents. The cousin and her husband decided to pare down the number of Christmas presents for the children and take them to the amusement instead. To test this, I asked my own 10-year-old niece what she got for Christmas last year. She only remembered two items out of her entire take last year. She remembered more after nudging from Grandma. Her two teen-age siblings remembered what they got last year.

Between learning about these statistics and thinking about the state of the economy, I remembered back to a particular Christmas in my childhood. My dad had been laid off, and money was tight. Mom and Dad told us that Santa had to cut back that Christmas because of money. The three of us kids nodded and didn’t seem to nonplussed. We didn’t have a Christmas tree that year but used our small aluminum tree that we kids loved because it was shiny and different. On Christmas morning, we had a few presents under the tiny tree, but we kids didn’t feel cheated or shorted by Santa. I remember getting a doll and a couple of other trinkets. To me, it was a great Christmas.

I listened my niece talk about how much she wanted the popular and sold out Zhu Zhu hamsters and this and that. She loves to open presents so I have an idea. I bought some tiny stackable boxes from The Container Store, and I plan to make up a scavenger hunt for her to find her presents. If you make it fun, maybe she won’t notice that there a couple less this year.

Check out www.thescramble.com and www.e-mealz.com. For a low monthly subscription, each of these websites will send a week’s worth of healthy and quick menus to you along with a grocery list. E-mealz.com allows you to choose meals that are low-fat, low-carb or from particular grocery stores.

Another fab website is www.hungry-girl.com. This is a free website featuring recipes, a grocery list, and the latest health and nutritional news.

To get more dinner ideas, pick up Food Network host Ellie Krieger’s newest cookbook So Easy. I was lucky enough to see Ellie in action last week when she did a presentation for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.  I had seen her show Easy Appetite on the Food Network several times, and her recipes always feature fresh, flavorful, and healthy food and seem fairly easy to make. I have one of her other cookbooks, and the recipes I’ve made have been pretty simple. In her newest cookbook, Ellie has recipes that can be made quickly — within 30 minutes or less.

During her presentation, she made three great sandwiches — chicken curry salad, turkey Greek pita, and tuna stuffed in orange peppers. Ellie said she roadtested each sandwich recipe by keeping it in a coolpack cooler for five hours to see if the flavors and taste were the same. So not only can you get help with planning dinner, you can get help with planning lunch.

Hopefully, these resources will make the question about “what’s for dinner?” an easier one to answer. Bon appetite!

While you enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving, it is a good idea to make your gift giving list and get a jump start on holiday shopping. I like to use spiral index cards and put a person’s name on each card. Then I write down any ideas I have. I can drop the index cards into my purse and have it with me while shopping.

Since many of us still feel the sting of the recession, it’s perfectly okay to have a talk wtih family members and close friends about you can or can afford this year. A thoughtfully written card or a coupon offering babysitting services and other kinds of help based on your skills and talent will have more meaning in the long run than just more “stuff.” We’re all so busy that a helping hand would be greatly appreciated — which is really what the holidays are about.

Enjoy the holiday season.

Once I settled in the waiting room, another woman sitting there began talking about the poor customer service she had received from the workers. She pointed to another woman who was so upset about the treatment she received from the workers. We all talked about the importance of having good customer service, particularly in these tough economic times.

The conversations in the waiting room made me think about my recent dealings with customer service with other companies. This summer I changed banks after months of having issues. This was a bank who received bailout money, but then turned around and charged fees and raised rates. I went to the bank and talked to a customer service rep. I explained everything that had happened and asked, “So is there a reason why I should remain a customer at this bank?” The guy shrugged and said, “I guess not.” Well, okay. I left the bank where I had been a customer for nearly 10 years.

Right now, I’m in the process of buying a house. I had a list of three mortgage companies, and I filled out the paperwork to pre-qualify with all three. I wondered how I would choose which company to go with, but the decision was easier to make than I thought. Two of the representatives gave me the pre-qualifying information, and I haven’t heard from them. The third person called and checked on me. Guess who I’m going with?

In these trying times, customer service is about relationships. People are choosy about where they’re going to spend their money, and they’re not going to spend money with someone who treats them poorly. It doesn’t take much of an effort to have good customer service, and most of the time, I can see in stores and companies that poor productivity and inefficiency usually leads to poor customer service.

It’s easy to have good customer service. All it would have taken at the dealership yesterday was for the service rep to walk up and say, “How can I help you this morning?” in a clear voice. There would have been no mumbling, no momentary confusion of realizing who he was actually talking to, and no one in the waiting area dishing the dirt on the service reps. When we’ve received bad treatment, all of us are too happy to tell everyone. We may not pass along all the raves about good customer service, but the bad service is shouted to the rafters.

These days, we should shout good customer service so others know about it. So let me pass along my recent experiences:

• Chase Bank was great. A real person actually answered the phone when I called. Imagine!
• Monica Gonzalez of Cornerstone Mortgage has been super duper nice and has gladly answered all of my questions about mortgages, escrows and financing.
• Karl Opperman of Brick Master quickly and efficiently gave me an estimate on fixing loose bricks and explained the process to me. He talked to me like I was an intelligent person and didn’t do that, “well, little lady…” thing that some sales people do.
• I met Chris Schilling of Zindler Realty on Twitter after I already hired a realtor, but regardless of that, he has been helpful, answered questions, and gave me good advice on the ins and outs of real estate.

Pass the word to friends and colleagues about good customer service!

At one point, I saw a girl, probably about 5-years-old, stop and fall to her knees in sleepy delirium in the middle of an aisle. Her mother picked her up and told her she would carry her for her nap. About an hour or so later, I knew it was time to leave when I felt like that girl – ready to fall over dead tired.

I came home with three bags of goodies, and some of them were actually Christmas gifts. It was a good day.

Now that I’m a veteran and have seen what it’s all about, I can better plan for next year’s Nutcracker Market like a general planning a battle.