Christmas Gifts

This year, Woodberry Kitchen is selling a select group of "Preservation Society" items, spices, sauces and preserves that are prepared for the restaurant. The selection includes hot sauce, Cybee's honey and fish pepper and espelette sauces as well as Counter Culture coffee and Woodberry Kitchen T-shirts. The goods are available for sale at Woodberry Kitchen on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. So are attractively designed Woodberry Kitchen gift certificates, which you can also purchase by calling the restaurant 410-464-8000 or online at woodberrykitchen.com .  

What a pleasure it was to get the first team from Fox for the telecast of a Ravens game rather than the second or third crew from CBS as we usually do. OK, maybe seeing the Ravens bounce back so decisively against the New York Giants, 33-14, has a little something to do with all the holiday cheer I'm feeling. But I really believe it has a lot more to do with the authoritative play-by-play from Joe Buck and on-the-money analysis from Troy Aikman -- without a second of gas-bag, hot-air talk from either of them all day. And the guys in the booth were only part of the happy, holiday, TV package Fox Sports sent our way Sunday.

Chef Nancy Longo was a culinary instructor at Pierpoint before she opened Pierpoint in Fells Point in 1989, and since 2001, she's been holding  cooking classes for both children and adults on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Pierpoint, teaching everything from basic knife skills Thai cooking and international barbecue. The 2012 schedule of classes has been posted on Pierpoint's website, along with information about how to order gift certificates. Pierpoint cooking classes fill early, so you might consider making this one an early gift.

I recently read about the people who paid for others' Christmas gifts on layaway ("Donating thousands, 'layaway angels' land in Maryland," Dec. 22). It made my heart glad knowing we still have people who show their love and compassion for others instead of thinking only of themselves. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could show others love and compassion not just at Christmas, but throughout the entire year? Love conquers all. Let's show others the true meaning of love each and every day. Timothy Modlin

Well, Epiphany has passed and so has New Year's Day and by any calendar, religious or secular, it is about time you put all that Christmas stuff away. Unless of course, you want somebody to see your Christmas tree through your living room window and report you to social services because if you can't get it together to get your tree down by now, you are probably letting a lot of other really important things slide, too, like homework and baths and dinners that don't come out of a microwave.

Maybe there is a TV Santa Claus. CBS Sports televised the Baltimore Ravens against the Cleveland Browns on Christmas Eve, and the network didn't force local viewers to endure Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf in the booth. Happy holidays to you, too, Sean McManus, former Baltimore resident and current president of CBS Sports. Thanks for having a little mercy on us. I'm not saying the broadcast team CBS gave us, Spero Dedes and Rich Gannon, was great guns. But it was better than we have been getting lately on the home of “Hawaii Five-O” and the 10,000 other prime-time shows I saw endless promos for on Saturday afternoon.

At Sykesville's Merry Main Street holiday celebration early in December, Burke Holbrook and his buddy Benjamin Skalka seemed like just two of the many kids that night enjoying the sights and sounds of the holiday season. The two 5-year-olds attended the festivities with their parents, walked along the decorated Main Street, enjoyed the town's Christmas tree and visited Santa Claus as part of their preparations for Christmas. But Christmas 2011 has a special meaning for these two, who started their lives a world away, literally, in an orphanage in Nepal.

These are not "Maryland-style" crab cakes! That's what the online seafood store The Crab Place says about its crab cakes. "Maryland-style uses foreign crab meat to replicate an authentic Maryland crab cake. Maryland-style is found in franchise restaurants across the country. CrabPlace.com crab cakes are 100% real Maryland crab cakes. We are one of the few companies still producing them this way. " It took us a long time to find an online seafood company that handles Maryland-caught blue crabs.

This year, Woodberry Kitchen is selling a select group of "Preservation Society" items, spices, sauces and preserves that are prepared for the restaurant. The selection includes hot sauce, Cybee's honey and fish pepper and espelette sauces as well as Counter Culture coffee and Woodberry Kitchen T-shirts. The goods are available for sale at Woodberry Kitchen on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. So are attractively designed Woodberry Kitchen gift certificates, which you can also purchase by calling the restaurant 410-464-8000 or online at woodberrykitchen.com .  

Buy a $50 gift certificate from Amiccis in Little Italy and you'll get a free Pane Rotundo. That's right, Amiccis will throw in its signature appetizer, aka "that shrimp and bread thing," for every purchase of a $50 gift certificate. There's more information here , along with a few catering deals that Amiccis is running for the holidays. The Baltimore Diner restaurant gift card round up will post next Tuesday. We're looking for gift cards that a shopper will feel good about ordering as a gift.