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.

Are You Really Getting A Deal?

I consider myself a very savvy shopper. I try and use coupons whenever I can, I shop sales and match up coupons with sales. I get a rush when I get a great deal. A lot of stores do ten items for ten dollars sales that you can mix and match or buy ten for ten dollars get the eleventh free. They seem to be popular sales from what I can gather but now a warning. Be careful; make sure the deal is really a deal and not something that they put up to make you think you are saving money when you aren’t. I wanted to share with you these two instances where I was in fact not getting a deal, one of them being that I was essentially paying more.

Back when Noah was still eating baby food, I would buy him the two pack fruits and veggies. A local store always included them in the buy ten for ten dollars get the eleventh free. I must have done it ten times before, until I noticed something. The baby food was 88 cents not on sale. I am not sure why I looked at the actual price; maybe I was looking to see where a certain food was supposed to be using the price tags on the shelves. I started thinking of all the times I had bought baby food during those sales. Was I really paying 12 cents MORE during the sales? Was I really getting one free with my other items? I tracked down an employee who was as dumbfounded as I was. I mean it happened all the time that they were on sale like that. Were they sticking it to the consumers with babies and making an extra 12 cents? Noah doesn’t eat baby food anymore so I am not sure if they are still running that sale. Be sure to check the original price with the sale price to make sure you are really getting the savings it sounds like. If it something I buy all the time and don’t pay attention to the non sale price, how would I know the item was not actually on sale and inflated?

Another time I have noticed things are not on sale are when they try and say it is when it really only costs $1.00 to begin with. For example 4 packs of pudding are $1.00 and they are often included in the 10 for $10 sales. I know you can mix and match but if you are raising a bunch of pudding monsters and buy the 10 for $10 you think you are getting a deal when you aren’t. In this case you aren’t paying more but you aren’t saving either. You are paying the same as you were if it was on sale or not on sale. It makes me wonder if we put too much faith in those sale price tags. I am sure not everyone takes the time to make sure they are getting a deal. I know that some people see the sale signs and decide to stock up. I know I have been known to do that as I am sure you have at some point in time. Most of the time you do get a deal, but occasionally there is no deal in sight. You have to also make sure you are getting a good deal.