Sorry for the interruption but I was out of town for most of the holiday (we left the 26th for Chicago, but thats a whole post on its own!). I did however, want to brag about some of the Christmas Gifts that blessed our house this season though.

Amy’s big gift this year is to have the Master Bath and Bedroom repainted. When we bought the house from her parents, we inherited the DEEP red color of the bath and bed room. Its a dark red (think maroon) that is hard to match colors with. Now we’re going for a lighter, beachier look and are painting them Beachnut (its a lowes color). The master bath is done (Amy found some Votive candle holders at a store in Nashville), next on to the bedroom!

Grace had a very Hannah Montanna Christmas. She got a Hannah Montanna Guitar Game (like Guitar Hero) that plugs in to the tv, a Hannah Costume, and doll. Its pretty cool and she likes pretending to be a rockstar. Maybe someday. I like playing her game (since I haven’t bought Guitar HEro World Tour yet) and she’s getting better at it.

Mose got a Trampoline. One of her favorite things to do is jump. We’d wake on Saturday mornings to the heavy thud of emma jumping up and down in our door way. Now she can do it all she wants and it doesn’t make the house shake. Its pretty cool and Grace and Emma take turns on it. Amy wanted to try it out, but its for people under 80 pounds (and neither of us meet that requirement!

The girls also got some tinkertoys, and some other little odds and ends that they like to play with, but the coolest by far is my Ultimate Wall-E Robot.

We saw the movie in the theaters and we’re big fans (mose loves him). We had seen the Ultimate Wall-e at the Disney Store but we weren’t going to get him because of the price tag. Needless to say, Santa found him on Sale and he was wrapped and under the tree for me on Christmas morning. He has fun dancing, chasing the dogs around and just exploring on his own. If you haven’t seen one yet, I’ll work on some video and see if I can get anything posted. Its pretty cool though and the way he can respond to voice commands or find his own way around the room is fairly smooth.

Was there one gift that you prized more than the others??

So last year I posted a thursday thirteen of the 13 coolest Christmas Gift Ideas I could find. I thought that was a good idea, so I’m going to do it again this year, however, its only going to be a top ten. Don’t you fret, and don’t you frown though, it won’t have diet pills or a flowbee on the list.

• The first one is for the kids. I know some parents are going to have a fit, but my little ones love wearing their Crocs during the spring and summer (emma would sleep in them if we’d let her) and with the multitude of colors and styles they go with almost everything. They are comfy and as long as you watch your little ones feet on the escalators, they’re safe too!
• Anything from ThinkGeek.com. Personally I like the Dr. Who Sonic Screwdriver (however they never seem to have any in stock!), but their array of Digital frames and other oddities are pretty hard to beat. Who knew you needed a giant plush microbe?
• The entire first two seasons of the new Dr. Who. Anyone who’s seen the new Dr. Who knows this is a must have. Anyone who hasn’t needs this so they know what they’ve been missing. I highly suggest picking it up!
• TiVo 80-hour Dual Tuner DVR – Seriously. Who needs VCR’s any more when you can have a DUAL DVR? Record two stations at once AND watch your favorite show at the same time. What could be better? This is something I’ve been meaning to get for the longest time, it would sure make life so much easier!
• Jelly Belly Jelly beans. I could eat these all day long. Jelly Bellies are by far the best and now you can order to your hearts content. I’d take a pound or two myself for christmas. A couple of Christmases ago, I received the dispenser and it is awesome. I can set it to require change or not (that helps off set the cost of refilling!). Plus, they make great stocking stuffers!!
• Satellite prints of your favorite places! Nothing is cooler than having a satellite image of your favorite city, beach, mountain top. Terra Prints does it for you. They can even frame if it you want. The quality is good too. For those of us who are bent on keeping an eye on the weather, they even have a series of Hurrican maps. Pretty cool for the dork in your life
• For the person who is always getting lost… GPS Devices are a hot thing for Christmas this year (and the past couple of years). I’ve looked at getting Amy a GPS unit for her car, but both of our phones are equipped with GPS receivers and can use Google Maps or the Blackberry Maps so it makes it a little useless. But a handheld, no data plan needed receiver could be helpful on the trail
• A Personalized Book This one’s pretty cool and I’ve received a couple of them already from Amy. Its a little late this year to start a project for Christmas, but a personalized photo journal (think scrapbook but much cooler) is a pretty cool gift. Heritage Makers offers a ton of templates, an easy to use interface and it was listed as one of Oprah’s favorite things this Christmas season. How cool is that?
• What do you get a t-shirt junkie for Christmas? How about another shirt? Busted Tees has some of the hands down funniest shirts available that you would still wear in public. Personally I like the “That’s what she said” shirt, though the Binford Tools is a cool shirt as well for any Tool Man fans out there. If you’re shopping for someone thats hard to shop for, you can’t go wrong with a funny T!
• For a person who enjoys to try the local brews when ever they travel (and to be honest, who doesn’t like to drink a fat tire in Colorado, an Abita in New Orleans or a SweetWater 420 in Atlanta) how about bringing the brewing a little closer to home with a Home Brew Kit from Mr. Beer? I’ve thought it would be fun to get in to the business myself. After all, what a better way to find out what makes a good beer then trying it first hand?

These are just some ideas, if you have others, leave a comment, I’d love to know what you want for Christmas!

While the misses and I were out Christmas shopping Friday night, we bought some stuff for ourselves as well (Toys R Us was having some good deals and we had a ton of coupons!). We picked up the fourth wiimote as well as three nunchucks for the wii so that we can make best use of our console. Now two of us can box at the same time. We also picked up a new game, wii Music. You’ve seen the commercials (at least you have if you watch tv for any amount of time) and after a bit of research Amy and I were both excited about the game (you can play both the hand bells and banjo, no not at the same time). Plus, its a game we can play with the girls (Emma and Grace are good at waiving the wiimotes around), family and friends.

I’ve looked at RockBand for the wii, but everything I’ve read says that the wii version does not come anywhere close to that of the xbox 360 one, plus, now that Guitar Hero World Tour is out, I may have to reevaluate. Anyways, back to wii Music.

We picked this game up as a “christmas” present for ourselves and as such we haven’t played it yet (it wouldn’t be right to play it before christmas!) but I’ve done some more research and I’ve come across a bunch of unflattering reviews of the software. It theory and from the commercials, it seems like a really cool game that makes excellent use of the motes, but according to the reviews, its not all that. I guess we’ll have to see for ourselves. Has anyone had the chance to play it yet?

Also, I have marioKart and I’m always looking for more people to race against, if you have Mario Kart as well for the wii, let me know and we can trade “license numbers” so we can race!

By Spending Money! Its sounds silly I know, but really its not. All you’re going to do is the same christmas shopping you would normally do, but you’re going to do it as an affiliate for some of the largest advertising networks on line.

The concept is simple. Sign up with the advertising networks (the more the merrier), apply to programs for the different things you’re going to shop for, use *YOUR* affiliate links when you go to shop, order flowers, purchase stamps, whatever. Shop as your normally do online. Receive the various comission back on the goods you would have bought anyways. Its a win-win situation. You get to do the shopping you need to do and you do it at what amounts to a huge discount! Can’t loose!

“But mcangeli” you ask, “What programs should I sign up for?”

Well, I’ve gone through and picked three with some of the best rates of returns and the most varying assortment of advertisers possible. I’ve listed them here along with links and the reasons I like them.

• PepperJam Network – Besides having some of the hottest account managers around, PJ has some of the coolest features and advertisers. One of the newest additions to their arsenal is the PepperJam Store Builder which actually lets you build a store that you can host on one of your own pages. How cool? Plus they have advertisers like BBC America, BustedTees, CartoonNetworkShop.com and Jelly Belly. Some of the coolest programs around. I highly recommend them!
• NeverBlue Ads – NeverBlue offers a different assortment of ads then PepperJam, but the quality is there if you can find it and they pay out quickly (which is a huge plus!) NeverBlue is better for things like Boca Java, Flowers from You, 4 Seasons Wine and giftcards.com. If you’re looking for unique gifts, check out NeverBlue.
• CommissionJunction – CJ is probably one of the largest programs online. They have thousands and thousands of programs you can join and promote, like Zappos, TiVo HD and ThinkGeek.com. ThinkGeek is one of my favorites and *EVERYONE* online loves Zappos! So I would definitely check them out if you know of any shopping you need to do.

The nice thing about these programs is that not only can you get *ALL* of your shopping done, but then you can add the banners, links or other promotions to your blog or website and make a little christmas cash yourself. If you have any programs you like, hit me up with the referral link and I’ll take a look.

Christmas (and boxing day for you Brits) has come and gone and little is left to tell that it was ever here at all. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the tree is still up, the decorations haven’t been taken down and there’s still a pile of trash to go out on Monday, but there are no left overs, no unopened presents under the tree and certainly no more Christmas music playing (at least not on my radio). Maybe it was the warm weather this year (we had weather in the 70’s two weeks ago) or the fact that we spent Thanksgiving at Disney and didn’t decorate right away, but this holiday season was more of a burden than a blessing.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed watching the girls as they played with their shiny new toys (Emma got a battery powered ATV that she loves and Grace hasn’t taken off the Ariel wig since she unwrapped it), and the dinners with family and friends were nice too. It just seemed there was too much work to be done for the holiday and not enough time to do it in. As far as my take for the holiday went, it was pretty good, I got a couple of books (from an author I have not read yet), 2 DVD’s and Banjo lessons. I’ve only been asking for the lessons since I got the banjo two years ago, and finally I might be able to do more with it than a simple forward roll.

Amy made out pretty good too. I decided to forgo the sexy corsets or naughty nighties this year and instead upgraded her iPod from a pink Shuffle to a 30gb Video iPod (Classic they call it these days). She also got a pretty cool alarm clock (though when you can’t sleep at night the fact that it projects the time on the ceiling makes it even worse) and a new Department 56 town piece. We didn’t go too over board for each other this year and in retrospect, we didn’t go that overboard with the girls either.

I was glad when I climbed in to bed on Tuesday night that Christmas was over for another year and now its on to Amy’s Birthday. Maybe we’ll do something lo-key.

There’s something about being two that turns the vision of santa from fairytale to nightmare as quickly turning on a light switch. We took the girls to see santa last Tuesday night at the mall and the whole time we were in line waiting (an hour and a half) Emma was her usual self. Happy, angry, munchin down on the cookies and crackers. The time went fairly quickly (I took the girls to play in the mall while amy stood in line…) and before you know it it was our turn.

Grace had no problem. She loved it. She likes the idea of being able to tell this guy what she wants for Christmas and poof. Magically on Christmas morning she wakes up and she has the stuff (if only it were truly that easy). Of course, she’s had her turn being afraid of him before, but now she likes him and ANY time we go somewhere where Santa is, she has to go up and see him. I don’t know why, she just likes the guy and trusts him. I guess thats the way it should be with Santa. She told the Big Guy what she wanted for Christmas (no its not weight benches or anything like that, she wants makeup, a stuffed seal from macy’s and an ariel wig), so we’ll see what she gets.

Mose on the other hand, FREAKED out when I carried her up to Mr. C. and sat her on his lap next to Grace. I don’t know what it is, but something about being two just causes children to dislike Santa. Grace was the same way and so were countless other little children at the mall that night. Santa really must have the patient of a saint in order to sit in his big comfy chair and take photo after photo with screaming little kids. I don’t think I could do it. We got a photo of the two of them though, and like it or not, Emms is screaming her head off.

Oh well, maybe next year.

I’m not convinced that Lumiere is not an idiot. The trainer we’ve been working with at Man’s Best Friend in Woodstock told us early on that his stubbornness was a sign of a smart dog. I just don’t know. I’ve shared videos before of Lumi running in circles in the backyard and barking at nothing (which he still does occasionally). Lately though, he’s been barking at Christmas decorations that are higher than him. Snow flakes, a kissing ball, even the Angel on top of the Christmas tree, nothing seems to be safe. I swear, if the dog had a medical id bracelet it would only say IDIOT on it.

As usual with us, we set up our train under the Christmas tree (whats Christmas with out a train under the tree?) and the girls like it. We’ve all taken turns playing conductor and at first, Lumiere seemed to like it. After a little closer inspection though, the dog seems to be threatened by the train. Take a look.

In a time when most candidates are releasing holiday themed ads Romney releases one where he comes to the rescue for a friend of his and Huckabee draws fire for an almost non-issue. As you can see in the image, Mike is cleverly positioned in front of a bookcase and a christmas tree in his new Christmas spot. Some though, are claiming its a subliminal message in the form of a cross behind him.

Maybe I need a new pair of HDMI cables on my setup so I can see it better, but I don’t see the connection or the subliminal message here. Its a simple holiday ad wishing voters a Merry Christmas. From where I sit, this freakin country has gotten to PC for its own good.

Everyone knows that one family member who’s hard to shop for. Maybe its your great aunt Marge (you know, the one who always squeezes your cheeks together when she sees you) on your mother’s side or your uncle Al and Aunt Judy who live in Kalamazoo. Either way, its always a chore to figure out what to get them. For us, it used to be my grandmother. After all, there’s only so many purses a woman in her 70’s needs right? It got to the point where my mother would just order her a nice bouquet of flowers for Christmas and be done.

It was almost the perfect gift (Grandpa was a gardener and could always use vases around the house) and with the flowers delivered directly to them before Christmas, we were almost always guaranteed that they would have their gift in time. We’d send something like the Holiday Tradition bouquet. The colors, the vase all screamed Christmas and would go good in anyones home. I can’t wait until I’m at a point where all I have to do is send my parent’s Flowers for Christmas.