Summer is officially gone now! To all of our American Readers, I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving this month. Your Canadian Neighbours enjoyed a nice one earlier in October. Check out our Recipes for a great Sweet Potato recipe that our family has made a Thanksgiving Tradition.

For those who missed the kick off month, ParentsWorld now has its own bookclub (look out, Oprah!). Have you always thought it would be interesting to join a book club, discuss what you read, and read something outside of your normal books? Check in with our new club, it's easy. You can simply read the book, or join in the discussion, or even pick a book for one month. Be as involved as you want to. Details on our book club and the books we are reading can be found here.

Since our last newsletter we have picked our Christmas Angel Family. Please make sure you read about them further on in this newsletter. People have helped out many ways in the past. We sent a group box out of the Parents World Headquarters or you can send something on your own. People have sent items or cheques with specific requests of items they want us to buy. You will get a picture of your item and pictures of the present wrapping/box stuffing day. Also remember, if you want to adopt your own family, details how to do it are in the story below on our Christmas Angel.

Our online polls continue with no scientific backing at all! Be certain to read this months results on our poll about Halloween. Look also for the new poll in this months "Ramblings" on Seasons.

As usual, I'd like to take this moment to welcome all of our new subscribers and bid a 'welcome back' to our returning ones.

• November's Recipes
  • Caramel Sauce Cake
  • Sweet Potato Casserole
    
• Single Parent's Get Together
  
• Christmas Angel Update
• Ramblings
  • Christmas Trees -- Real or not

Caramel Sauce Cake

• Measure first 6 ingredients into a bowl.
• Mix together with a spoon.
• Turn into a greased 8 inch casserole or pan.
• In same bowl, stir sugar, butter, vanilla, and hot water until sugar dissolves.
• Pour over batter. DO NOT STIR.
• Bake at 350 degrees for abut 30 minutes until sauce is on the bottom and top crust is firm to touch and browned.
• Note: double, triples, quadruples well!. I quadruple the recipe and cook it in a lasagna pan)

• Mix first 5 ingredients and spread in a greased pie plate
• Heat Brown Sugar and Butter over low heat, stirring until butter is BARELY melted
• Spread over potatoes and cover with pecan halves
• Bake at 350degrees until bubbling (about 20 minutes)
• Note: This can be cooked at any temperature to take advantage of other items (such as your turkey) in the oven. Simply cook until bubbling.

RENDEZVOUS EXPRESS - Connecting Urban Professionals in a Fun and Relaxing Way

Check out our upcoming November events, and register on our website

* Single Professionals' Event - Ages 40-52, November 11, Sun.
* Single Professionals' Event - Ages 30-40, November 18, Sun.
** Single Parents' Event- Ages 28-43, December 9, Sun.

We would liket to introduce a new and exciting service to all Single Parents. Our new dating service is offering Single Parents nights in the greater metro Toronto area. It is a fun, relaxing and inexpensive way to meet new people, make new friends and hopefully meet that special someone too.

Are you single? New in town? Want to meet that special someone plus make new friends? Tired of blind dates, the club-scene and overpriced dating services? The answer awaits you at rendezvousexpress.com

RendezVous Express is an exciting new service, offering an inexpensive alternative to meet quality, age-compatible professional singles in the Greater Metro Toronto area. We organize fun and relaxing events, bringing together quality single professionals from the area, who meet face-to-face, and have one-on-one "express" 8 minute conversations.

In order to learn about the details, please take a few minutes and browse our website. We invite you to click on the Registration button and register as a Member - it is free of charge, and this way you will receive your confidential password and unique user id, and will start receiving notifications of upcoming events soon. We would also welcome any suggestions from you, please let us know what kind of events would be of particular interest to you.

See you soon,
RendezVous Express

Visit our website and register to become a Member free of charge, as well as for upcoming events in many areas.

Elyssa and Madyson (10 Months)):

Madyson wishes for:

If you want to help out our family, please email admin@parentsworld.com

See the results from our last year's Angel Family here.

There's no way to avoid it -- Christmas is getting closer. By the time this newsletter goes out there's only going to be about three paycheques left before Christmas.

As stressed out as I get at Christmas (because you know, everything has to be PERFECT!) I do still enjoy it.

Opening the ornament box and looking at the memories will never cease to be fun. From my kids home made things to their Hallmark ornaments their Nana buys them every year. MY Grandmother's old ornaments are more special as she just passed away this month, the ornaments of my childhood...each box is like a walk down memory lane.

Traditions come into our lives, and ones that just don't quite cut it go. One thing that will never change for me is the tree -- it has to be real.

Yes, there are beautiful artificial trees out there, but I can't bring myself to do it. Yes, real trees make a horrid mess, but to me it's worth it. There's nothing to compare to picking out a tree (as a family), the anticipation waiting for the frozen branches to thaw and spread, and that wonderful smell! I can have Christmas without snow (as we sometimes do) and Christmas without dinner (when someone else cooks), but I could never do Christmas without a real tree.

We buy from a reputable lot -- usually the Boy Scouts -- someone who has a replanting program. We send our old trees to the Zoo so they can chip them down for pathways and not simply clog up the land fills with them. I have a 2 smoke alarms that are part of our Christmas things. One goes at the highest point possible at the back of the tree (let's face it -- smoke alarms are ugly!) and one goes under the tree.

Take away everything else -- but you can never take away our real Christmas Tree. As usual, we'll end the ramblings with this being the topic of our poll. Take a minute to submit your answer as to what type of tree you need to have for Christmas!

For those who took part, last months poll ended up as follows:

Well folks, that's it for another month. As usual, if you have any suggestions or contributions let me know! We're always up to suggestions and recipes sent in also have the chance to be included on the website.

Jill Lassaline, editor
Single Parents World