Holiday Wishes

Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Kwanzaa, and Chanukkah – all are celebrated during the winter holiday season. No matter what holiday you observe, signing a holiday greeting card is a must if you truly care about your family, friends, and coworkers. Here are some general suggestions for holiday verses:

Have a 

          healthy 

          happy

          prosperous

          joyous

          fun-filled

          safe

          successful

          peaceful

          restful

          productive

New Year!

I wish you            

          health 

          happiness

          success

          wealth

          prosperity

          harmony

          personal and professional fulfillment

          all the very best

          love

          wonderful times with your friends and family 

for the holidays and throught the coming year! 

May    peace 

hope

love

joy

laughter

goodwill

good fortune

smiling of friends and family

be/stay/remain with you this holiday and always!

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Cookie exchange (or cookie swap) during the holiday season is a long-standing North American tradition.

 
Baking a lot of different cookies for the holidays is very time-consuming. The cookie exchange party helps to solve that problem. Each participant brings a few dozen home-made cookies and then the attendees exchange the cookies. Everyone ends up having a big assortment of cookies without working too hard!

Try participating in a cookie exchange party in your neighborhood… or hosting a party by yourself: give out the invitations, set the rules (no ‘no-bake’ treats, for example) and ask a friend to help you prepare a few munchies. Invite your neighbors, friends, relatives or coworkers. 

This is a great way to mingle with the native speakers of English, find new friends and acquaintances; and of course, take home a variety of delicious home-made treats!

Computer Phrasal Verbs

Whether you’re emailing or using word processor, surfing the net or just chatting with your friend about the new computer you’ve just bought, you’re sure to come across the verbs listed below.

These are phrasal verbs, two-word combinations (consisting of a verb and particle) that make sense only if looked at together as one single unit. Following are some most commonly used phrasal verbs, their definitions in simple English and sample sentences:

pop up – appear suddenly

Every time I open this site, a new window pops up saying that I won a free prize.

scroll down – move (a page) down

There was a long list of names on the webpage and I had to scroll down to view all of them.

dial up – dial a number that connects a computer with an Internet service provider

Sometimes it takes my computer for ever to dial up to my Internet service provider.

plug in – insert a plug into an electric outlet

She forgot to plug in her printer and was wondering why it didn’t work.

log in – enter a computer by providing username and password

I log in to my bank account every week to check my balance.

set up – establish

I asked my friend help me set up my email account.

Practice computer-related phrasal verbs in this exercise.

Please pay attention that the same expressions can be used as nouns as well. In these cases they’ll usually be hyphenated: a pop-up (window), a scroll-down (bar), a dial-up (connection), a plug-in (device), log-in or login information, a set-up (procedure).