Happy Valentines Day Everyone! I hope all of you are still keeping your New Year's fitness resolutions, even throughout this promotional candy and chocolate-filled day. Most of you find this day to be cliche and full of "cute" gestures, some are truly in love, and others just find this to be another "Hallmark holiday." As for me, I think Valentine's Day is cute; however, the older I get the less I feel the need to buy gifts to show my love. For me, it is more about making fun crafts with my daughter, or suprising her with a small gift. The day is almost over here at Motivators, but we all had a blast!

While shopping for some essentials at the supermarket on monday, my daughter decides she NEEDS to make cup cakes. Ofcrouse, I gave in and we bought all the necessary ingredients. As promised by my 3 year old, she would help make the cupcakes (I should have known better, lol). Vika was excited to first help me, but that faded quickly and she just sat back eating cake batter while I did all the work. The next time around, I should just buy her some promotional cupcake shaped cases with candy fill and call it a day!

With yesterday being Valentines Day many treats were going around the office, and ofcourse many are hesistant on eating that 2nd piece of promotional chocolate, trying to hold onto their New Years resolution.  Well not my daughter! She indulged in Valentines Conversation Sweethearts, , chocolate truffles and cupcakes. What was even better is that she wanted to share these things with her little cousin, ( I believe that was partial to me telling her about the dentist and what happens when you dont take care of your teeth). All in all, we had a great day! We learned to share, try delicous treats, and learned about the dentist.

With today being the day after the Super Bowl, the early morning radio talk shows were all aflutter with talk of the best and worst commercials that played during. I scanned through each preset station to listen to the best and the worst of last night get critiqued and analyzed by those behind the microphone and those who called in.

One radio station had concluded that "...commercials with babies, animals and old people are the best." And while some of the commercials stood true to this (see: slingshot Doritos baby and Etrade baby commercial) there was one that came up in top lists everywhere.

The M&M's commercial.

Since 1995 (at the same time tan M&M's were replaced with blue ones) the lovable red, yellow, green and orange personified M&M's gave us a humorous visual of the unforgettable promotional candy. This Super Bowl introduced another female character - the brown M&M. 

There are certainly a handful of funny commercials. Do you have a favorite? Was there one that just didn't make sense?

As the day of love and romance approaches, I can't help but think of my wonderful Grandfather, Chester Laciak, the Candy Man.  Chester was born in 1915 to Polish immigrants in Chicago Illinois.  He was raised along with his 4 other siblings to be an honest, giving, wise and most of all loving person.  He held odd jobs his entire life, since money was tight...telling me that he started driving at 12!  While he was working at Arthur's Candies he met the love of his life, Edna Birbilis.  Unfortunately, Edna was a Greek girl, and her immigrant parents were not happy to have their daughter fall in love with a Polish boy.  Despite the parental obstacles, their courtship continued and Chester proposed. Edna happily agreed, however she was terrified to tell her parents.  Well she did tell them and they were furious and adamently opposed to the marriage.   As a result, the young couple married quietly with only two witnesses (Chester's father and sister who were not against the marriage!)  After the honeymoon, Edna's parent's missed their only child so much, that they forgave her and eventually MOVED in with the young couple living with them for the rest of their lives.  They lived a long time!!  I knew both my great grandparents!  That is LOVE.

The couple continued to work at Arthur's candies, Chester making candy and Edna packing and selling it.  Chester saved his money and bought a local candy shop and soda fountain business, Universal Candies, he ran this business until he retired at 78 years old.  Edna was often at his side using her creative talents to make his delicious candy look beautiful in displays, and baskets.  Valentines day was their biggest day of the year and the candy flew out of the door.  The couple had 3 children, my Mother Andrea being the oldest.  I could go on and on....but this is about the love story.  So they remained in love and were an inspiration to all who knew them.  They celebrated almost 60 wedding anniversaries in their sweet story.  Chester passed away making sure that Edna was well taken care of.  She joined him about 6 years later.  She was buried on Valentines day.  We all found that ironic and fitting.  So try to trust in love, take care of it, nurture it and take some great advice from Edna "when you feel angry and want to push him away, pull him closer instead".  Happy Valentines day...remember to pull them close.

It is January 16th. You have officially, recovered from your New Year's Eve hangover, worked on or broke your resolution and now if you are lucky, you are off for Martin Luther King Day. Once that is over, it is time to change your focus on two important days. The first is Groundhog Day, and the 2nd, which is probably more important for many of you is Valentine's Day. Unless you happen to be a Groundhog lover or owner it is probably important to get started working on your Valentine's Day gifts now. Especially, if "you" are a company, there is nothing wrong with treating your favorite customers, or those not yet customers, as your Valentine's Day sweethearts.

The cornerstone Valentine's Day is of course promotional candy. It's the perfect way to make anybody, be it your loved one or customer feel wanted. There are many different possibilities. For example you can go the classic traditional route and give out imprinted Valentine's Conversation Hearts Sweetheart Boxes. However, maybe you want to make your message last forever. In that case, you can give out some custom small heart tins filled with your choice of candy. Then when the candy is done, your message is still number one! There are tons of options, so you better get looking now. Before you know it the Groundhog will see his shadow and time will almost be up!

As we enter the end of November, we enter the holiday season, otherwise known as the season of giving. On November 24th for instance, we give thanks, but no more than a month later, we are all giving gifts. This is of course the time of the year where companies do a little of both, they give gifts and they give thanks. Bosses show their employees they are appreciated, and they thank their customers for the business they did with that during that previous year. There are endless varieties of company holiday gifts to choose from, however, there is one category people don't always think of.

                                                      Custom food products.

People don't always realize that promotional products can be food, and vice versa. For example, Motivators has a huge variety of customized food towers. If you are looking for a way to create buzz in your clients' office you won't find a better way.  Everyone gets excited to see what is inside the numerous boxes wrapped in shiny ribbon with your company's name on it. They start as low as "The Cosmopolitan" filled with cookies and chocolate almonds, to the "Maple Ridge Ultimate Tower of Treats" which features all sorts of cookies, candies and nuts.

A great customized food product for employee appreciation is promotional food tins. It is a nice way to say thank you for the work you have done and reward them at the same time. The food tins come in all shapes and sizes and can be filled with anything from cookies or candy to pretzels or popcorn. For less than $10 a person, you can give each employee a customized quart tin of mini chocolate chip cookies.  It will keep them snacking a while, and they can keep the tin when it is done.

As October comes to a end, many people will be planning on shopping for the holiday's. I am particularly looking forward to black friday. Last year I made the mistake of phycially going to the outlets. It was chaotic and even finding parking was a nightmare. This year however, I am strictly going to be a E-Shopper. I find websites to have better deals, and the convenience of doing everything from home simply can't compare. Motivators has a great selection of Custom Embroidered Fleeces and Custom food products which can be a great holiday gift anyone can enjoy. If you're into Technology products, we also carry a wide range of promotional flash drives.

With the holidays coming up, it's time for all of those extra fattening, yet extra yummy promotional food products. With Halloween around the corner, promotional candy is a top seller, along with our promotional stock art Halloween bags for all of those trick-or-treaters.  However, Thanksgiving and Christmas are not that far out, so promotional gift baskets, custom cookies and food gift bags are on high demand as well. However, to wash down all of those sweets and treats, I am also going to need plenty of custom water bottles and promotional mugs. And after the holidays, in place of the promotional food products, I am sure we will be getting an increase in orders for our promotional fitness and exercise products to help burn off all that extra holiday weight. So go ahead and enjoy it while it lasts, because before you know it, the new year will be here and the jolly holidays will be over!