Growing up in the days without cable or satellite TV, I always looked forward to special programs on television around the holidays. One of my favorite programs was always “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

As I’ve grown older, this is by far one of my favorite scenes from that program. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

I read this article today written by Chuck Colson and found it very appropriate for the state of our nation today. Mr. Colson certainly writes from experience and is passionate about his beliefs. I appreciate the way he has seized the opportunity to share the love of Christ and the hope he has in Him. When you have a chance, please take a moment to read the article. Thanks!

I’m already tired of it getting dark at 4pm!!!

I love gift cards. I love receiving them. My theory is that a gift card is always a welcomed gift. It’s much better than getting stuff that I don’t need or, to be honest, don’t really want. While that may sound somewhat cocky, it’s true. I don’t need another flannel shirt or a paperclip, coin, and ultimately dustbunny collecting item to put on my desk. So, I am an embracer (hey, I’m making up my own words now) of gift cards.

What is amazing about those silly little plastic things though is that, after a little time, you forget about them. Sure, you use the card shortly after receiving it to purchase something useful or indulgent. But then, you’ve got a card that only has some odd little amount left on it. I have one card that has $1.18 on it for Lowe’s. That won’t buy much. So, what happens to that card? It sits there.

It’s estimated that 10% of the $45 billion gift card industry goes unused each year. That’s $4.5 billion! Let me see here, wait a second…yep, that’s a tad bit more than my annual income, haha.

Well now there’s good news for all of those neglected, unused gift cards! GiftCardGiver.com is a team of people that exists to help you and thousands of other people gather millions of gift cards and give them to people that can truly benefit from them.

As described at www.giftcardgiver.com, “five bucks in a gift card will buy you a pair of socks…but 10 people giving 5 bucks will buy a kid a winter coat or 100 giving $5 from Home Depot will give that same kid a warm bedroom to sleep through the night.” The possibilities of how this can positively impact people’s lives seem to be endless here…

Please go to GiftCardGiver.com and learn more about how their system works! Thanks!

Entrepreneur: One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

Entrepreneurs are special people. Without them, capitalism would simply cease to exist. I enjoy it when I have the opportunity to sit down and talk to an entrepreneur about their business. I find it exciting to hear their story. Every time I sit down with a business owner and discuss their company, I always come away with some nugget of information that I can apply to my own ventures.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with Rhonda Sand and discuss her adventure through life and her business, TMI Tours & Cruises. I hope you enjoy this insight into Rhonda’s thoughts and reflections about her life and her business.

Rhonda Sand was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and has lived here all of her life. After graduating from Coeur d’Alene High School, Rhonda went on to take several courses at North Idaho College (NIC). While she enjoyed the courses, she decided that obtaining a college degree was not a priority for her. She entered the workforce, landing a job with a local company that required her to arrange private and corporate travel quite a bit for them. In her role with this company, she was responsible for making most of the travel arrangements for both commercial and private aircraft – a task that she enjoyed. Due to a lay-off by this employer, Rhonda went to work for a small travel agency in CDA. It was during this time that Rhonda refined her skills as an agent, learned the importance of superior customer service, and really caught a vision for what she truly enjoyed – exploring the world. After working with this company for a couple years a larger company found out about her skills and perseverance and hired her when the smaller company was struggling. She was with this larger company for well over 10 years in sales and management. This agency was sold and the owners wanted to manage the agency themselves. Selling the competition seemed impossible to Rhonda and since the travel industry was small in Coeur d’Alene, Rhonda decided to start her own travel agency in 1994.