Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas Review

I love movies. I really enjoy Christmas movies too. I don’t really have a favorite Christmas movie because there are so many to choose from. A couple Christmas movies I really like to watch are A Christmas Story and Mixed Nuts. I am sure everyone has seen A Christmas Story at least a thousand times. It is on over and over again on Christmas. I am certain many of you have not seen Mixed Nuts. It is a great movie with a very young Adam Sandler, Steve Martin and Rita Wilson aka Tom Hanks wife. It is about a nonprofit business that runs a suicide hotline, a pregnant woman, a guy in a Santa suit with a gun and the sea side strangler. It is very funny and it keeps you on your toes. I highly recommend both movies.

I am featuring the book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas in my holiday gift guide. This book is written by Film Critic Alonso Duralde and it features all the best and the worst Christmas movies. Some of the movies in the book I didn’t consider as traditional Christmas movies although all the classics are in there. It’s A Wonderful Life, any version of A Christmas Carol you can think of including Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Each listing has a description of the movie and they are all in different categories such as movies that are for kid’s, movies for adults, and more specific chapters with very clever names instead of horror movies for example the chapter is called They'll Be Scary Ghost Stories: Holiday Horror. He refers to the worst Christmas movies as The Worst Christmas Movies Ever: Lumps of Coal in Your Cinema Stocking.

This is a must have gift for the movie lover on your list, I myself am an avid movie watcher and I really enjoy reading Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas. Noah likes to look at the book too. He calls it Mommy’s movie book. I have plenty of new movie suggestions to watch during the holidays some to share with Noah and some for mommy time!

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas sells for $16.99 at all major retail book sellers as well as all major online book stores.

Thank you to Alonso Duralde for providing me with a review copy of Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas to review.

The Swiss Colony Review and Live Giveaway!

We have been receiving The Swiss Colony catalog every year for as long as I can remember. One year I asked for one of the boxes of treats for Christmas. It was one of my favorite gifts that year. It was full of delicious candy including a chocolate Santa. I have the opportunity to include The Swiss Colony in my holiday gift guide this year. I received the Holi-bars set. It has Cheddar Cheese, BEEF LOG ® and Summer Sausages, Smokey Cheddar 'n Pecan Cheese Log, Dobosh and Double Chocolate Tortes. I received the set of 8 so it also had Kreme Kaese Cheese and Swiss & Cheddar/Almond Log. Right now they have a bonus gift with the Holi-Bars which is 24 mini petit fours. Noah actually opened the refrigerator and got in to the mini petit fours. I caught him before he ate the whole box, which he would have done if he had the chance. He really likes the petit fours. I have to agree with him there. My favorite were the meats. We made a great platter of meats and the cheese. We also had crackers for the cheese logs. Then for dessert we had tortes. You could make a meal out of the goodies in this box or a beautiful snack tray for your holiday guests. It would also be a wonderful gift for those that live far away especially if The Swiss Colony is a family tradition like it is for my family.

For more information please visit The Swiss Colony.

Thank you to The Swiss Colony for sending my family a sample box of the Holi-Bars for my family to enjoy and providing the giveaway prize.

I have a LIVE giveaway for you.

One (1) lucky winner will win an item from the Swiss Colony of their choice under $30.

Mandatory Entry: Please visit The Swiss Colony website and tell me what you would like to win.

You may comment as many times as you want after that about whatever you want. The comments have to be at least a full sentence to count. No copy and pasting the same comment over and over again. That is not fair to those who actually take the time to comment honestly.

This giveaway will end at 11:59 pm ET December 16, 2010. I will use random.org to pick a random winner.

This giveaway is open to US Residents only.

Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pets Reveiw and Giveaway!

It’s a pillow, it’s a pet, and it’s an addiction. I am talking about My Pillow Pets. The first time we saw the My Pillow Pets commercial, Noah just had to have one or ten if he had his way. Ten is the ultimate number to him so; naturally he would want ten of them. They are snuggly, cuddly and really soft. We have FIVE My Pillow Pets. I am sure our My Pillow Pet family will grow again in the future. Let me explain why I feel that it is important to have more than one My Pillow Pet, we went on vacation to St. Louis. Noah got sick the last night and the poor turtle ended up getting the brunt of the sickness. Thankfully, I was able to give him another My Pillow Pet to sleep with. Noah loves all his (and my) My Pillow Pets but, he loves the turtle just a little more. It’s his favorite, if something happened to his turtle I am not sure what he would do. He would be heartbroken. I love that My Pillow Pets are machine washable. I have washed ours a few times. I would have hated to throw his beloved Turtle away because of sickness.

Let me introduce you to our newest member of our My Pillow Pet family. We now have the Magical Unicorn. It’s a mommy My Pillow Pet. I decided to make the rule that we all share the My Pillow Pets minus Noah’s Turtle. The Magical Unicorn is so soft with chenille fur and it’s just the right size to cuddle and love. You can fasten the belt and have a pet or a 18 inch pillow. My Pillow Pets are awesome for plane rides too. They are so comfortable you forget you are on a plane. Definitely beats those little airline pillows that everyone uses, the person on the flight before yours could have lice or pink eye.



My Pillow Pets are not just for kids. I recommend that everyone has a My Pillow Pet or two for traveling, for sleeping or just hanging out. You know that My Pillow Pets are an iconic thing when an adult is walking around carrying one and there are at least 5 different kids saying something like Mommy look My Pillow Pets. I want one really bad. I think that My Pillow Pets should hire people to walk around carrying them so kids will ask their parents for one. I thought it was a good marketing scheme personally. I was actually surprised that so many kids commented. Seriously though, my family highly recommends My Pillow Pets for everyone. It makes a wonderful holiday gift that will not be lost in the shuffle of your children’s toys.

For more information visit My Pillow Pets website.

You can also check out the My Pillow Pets Blog!

Thank you to My Pillow Pets for sending my family the Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet and providing one to give away!

I have a giveaway for you! Yes! You can score your own My Pillow Pet!

One (1) lucky reader will win their very own Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet!

Mandatory Entry: Tell me another My Pillow Pet you would love to own and who you will give the Magical Unicorn My Pillow Pet to if you win.

Extra Entries:

Subscribe to my blog via email must be verified

Follow my blog on GFC

Follow @Sheilacakes7 on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to this post. This can be done once a day.

This giveaway will end on December `16, 2010 11:59 pm ET.
This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY!

Mickey Mote Review

I wanted to share with you guys about a fun and interactive way to watch DVD’s. My son like most children answers the TV when they ask him a question. I think that the Mickey Mote is a great way to be involved in the DVD. Noah loves to play little games so, he loves the Mickey Mote. The Mickey Mote is a child’s sized remote that you can use to play along with specially marked Disney DVD’s. This would be a great gift for your preschooler. You get the same game system feel without the expense. I had bought him one of those baby game systems when he was younger and he never really played it, so I am leery to spend a lot on another game system for him.



I think that the Mickey Mote is perfect for the price and the enjoyment that your child will get from playing this. I wish they had something like this when I was younger. You know that almost all kids love playing with the remote. I had bought Noah his own little toy remote, but this Mickey Mote actually does something. It is really easy to program with your own DVD remote. You just press the buttons in a certain order and you are good to go. I had to program it on my DVD player up in my room because I didn’t know where the DVD remote was downstairs. I found it the other day and I am excited to program it to that DVD player so Noah can play with it downstairs.
How It Works:

The Mickey Mote works with any Disney Preschool DVD that includes Discovery Mode(tm), the interactive "Watch & Play" feature on the DVD! All parents have to do is program the remote control - there's an easy and quick set-up guide in each DVD- and select the Discovery Mode feature on the menu screen. Within minutes, kids will be easily responding to questions, throughout the story, about scenes they just watched (such as "What color is Goofy's hat?") by pressing one of four color-coded buttons on the device -- a yellow star, green circle, orange triangle or blue square - to click in their responses. Discovery Mode features include two levels of play, which provides more challenging questions as the child grows.

Why Parents Will Love It:
Once families have purchased a Disney Preschool DVD that comes packaged with the Mickey Mote, they can continue to build their Disney Preschool libraries as the Mickey Mote works in compatibility with any Discovery Mode enhanced DVD. For example, kids can immediately use the remote with any of the following titles:


* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Choo Choo
* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie's Bow-Tique
* Handy Manny: Manny's Motorcycle Adventure
* Handy Manny: Manny's Big Race
* Little Einsteins: Fire Truck Blast Off
* My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths
* My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Bedtime With Pooh

Discovery Mode can also be played with any DVD remote as well.



Noah received the Mickey Clubhouse and The Handy Manny DVD’s. He likes to play along and also just watch the DVD’s when he just wants to relax. I think that they help with memory and helps preschoolers recall something they saw, which is great for cognitive skills. His favorite is definitely Handy Manny. Noah loves to fix things like Handy Manny. We even have a Handy Manny toy or two. Noah likes the Mickey’s Clubhouse though too. I played for a while at first to figure it out and I had a lot of fun. I had to make sure I knew how it worked so if he had questions I could show him how. He was able to figure it out quickly and he was very interested in what was going on. I am definitely going to buy some more of the DVD’s for the Mickey Mote as they become available. If you have more than one child you could easily purchase two sets with remotes if that is an issue but I like good old fashion sharing and taking turns.

You can find the Mickey Mote at most retail stores. You can find it in the Electronics department with the kids DVD’s. The sets with the remote are $29.99 with a bunch of DVD’s you can purchase for endless hours of play. Recommended Ages are 2-5 years old.

Thank you to Walt Disney Entertainment for providing my family with a complimentary Mickey Mote for us to try out. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Winter Survival Basket Made With Cold Stone Cocoa!!

Cold Stone Creamery now makes delicious and creamy cocoa. As a fan of their ice cream I had to buy it! With the holidays coming and the cold weather that is now here, hot cocoa is a staple in my house. I headed to Wal-mart to shop for things to put in a winter survival kit. My family always does a lot of baking during the holidays and I thought that would be something to base my basket around. Unfortunately, it gets very cold here in the winter and we spend a lot of time indoors. I decided to make a winter survival gift basket for my family to use. You can make gift baskets for gifts but who says you can’t make one for your family to enjoy too?

I went to a very crowded Wal-mart to shop for the items I wanted to put in it. I love shopping at Wal-mart and Noah love to get the stickers from the greeter. He gets so excited, on this particular trip the greeter asked him how many he wanted. Noah said ten and they gave him ten. I got 2 boxes of Cold Stone Creamery Milk Chocolate with marshmallows cocoa for us to enjoy this winter. I don’t know about you but extra mini marshmallows are a must. If for some reason I only have big ones, I cut them in fourths. I still make cocoa the way my grandma used to make it. It is the only way to make it. I know some people use just water or just milk but I use a very scientific formula for my cocoa. It is one of those secret family recipes.

I also picked up some easy things to make as treats, some mugs, a game and some other goodies to help this family brave the cold and snowy winter. I had a lot of fun shopping for this basket, I hope you have just as much fun seeing my Whrrl Post and I hope it inspires you to make one of your own. Look for Cold Stone Cocoa at your local Walmart! You can check out my Whrrl Post below.

More check-ins at Walmart Supercenter #923

Powered by Whrrl

Be sure to check out all the awesome posts and tweets using the hashtag #coldstonecocoa on Twitter.

Kodak Gallery Review

Two things I love about the holidays are the food and family. I also love to take pictures of my loved ones, especially my adorable son, Noah. I wanted to share with you a promotion on the Kodak Gallery website where you can take your pictures and put them in books. No bulky albums and pictures falling out after it stops sticking. My Grandma liked to write on the backs of her pictures, so pictures were taken out of albums over and over again to see who is in the picture or when it was taken. Her albums were in poor shape by the time everyone looked through them so many times. They even have something called SmartFit Technology that helps you create the best photo book possible. It makes it easier to arrange your photos in order, and add extra touches that make your photos just pop.

You can also make a recipe book on the Kodak Gallery Website of all your favorite Thanksgiving or Holiday foods. I know when I look at cookbooks, I love looking at the delicious photos of the food. Also if you are giving this as a gift, it will help the recipient with presentation and if it is a dip with assembly. I think that this is an easy and affordable gift. I remember when I was in first grade, my class made cookbooks for our moms for Mother’s day. My mom still has the cookbook my class made her, granted none of the recipes are actually makeable, it was more for the cute factor. It would have been nicer if it was made from Kodak Gallery and not just stapled printed pages.

I think it would be a smart gift for grandmothers to give their daughters and granddaughters with their special recipes. You can order as many copies as you want so, you can sit down once and mark off many people off your list at once. Every Grandma, Grandmother, Nana, Gram, Grammy and G-ma whatever you call yours has their own recipes. Then those books can be passed through the years to their children someday.

For more information please visit Kodak Gallery

They also have free shipping on orders of $30 or more by using the coupon code SHIP30

I received a gift card from Kodak to check out the website and create my own book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Santas are at the mall and its only November 9th after all

When I was growing up it was the norm to see that stores had Christmas stuff out the week of Thanksgiving. Santa arrived at the malls that week too usually the day after Thanksgiving. Santa would make his grand and glorious appearance during the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. I have always thought even then was too early. I like to start thinking about Christmas during December. I start my Christmas shopping then. I understand if a company or store is doing a huge display of lights and that takes time but really…. its not even double digits of November yet.

I am doing some reviews for holiday gift ideas. That is completely understandable. I mean I know a lot of people start Christmas shopping in September or October and a few that are probably already done. You all want to know about cool gift ideas and I want to help you all out. So I wonder what is going on? Why does Christmas and Winter Holiday things get pushed up so much? What is the rush? I know time is flying by but seriously can’t we get more in to November already?

So far I have observed these things…

1.Holiday items in stores- Ok this one isn’t too surprising because it seems that it has been like this for a while.

2. Massive amounts of holiday ads on TV. There were always a few but it is like I am being bombarded by commercials about Christmas.

3. They are advertising a Christmas special to premiere November 17th or something. Why not make more Thanksgiving shows.

4. Santa is already at my local mall. Hello? It is November 9th. Santa’s break gets shorter and shorter every year. Poor Santa!

5. Tonight I noticed that my lovely neighbors have their Christmas tree not only in their home but decorated and lit. That is just plain silly in my opinion but whatever works for them.

6. I must confess I love Christmas Tree cakes so I happily bought a box yesterday.

Time really is flying by it is still November right? I didn’t wake up in the Twilight Zone or anything did I? I don’t remember becoming Sheila Van Winkle. I love Christmas don’t get me wrong I guess outside of reviewing products I don’t understand why Santa is out and trees are lit and decorated.

I still have my Halloween decorations up! We love pumpkins here. I just don’t get eating some week old Halloween candy then following it up with a candy cane while you decorate your tree. I hope I don't sound like Scrooge.

I am very happy to receive any opportunities of products to review and giveaway for the Holiday Season. It is not too early when it comes to the review process.