Black Friday Google Spreadsheet

Black Friday is just about here! I am sure most of you have been looking online for some great deals, getting emails from store circulars with sneak previews of the sales too!

Here are a few other websites that will help out with your search:

- Alexander Yoon's Black Friday Guide on Yahoo!
- Forbes list of 15 Black Friday deals
- Black Friday Ads chart
- Kohl's 4 am door busters

I do have another place you can look! There is a Google website out there that has a spreadsheet going of some great Black Friday Deals. This list shows store opening times, the category the items fall in example: toys, wii, computers, and so on. It is even showing the price and manufacturer's mail in rebate code if there is one! This is a great list and it's growing in popularity so if when you click on the link and it says too many people are looking, try again, keep refreshing your screen. You'll get in! It took me about 15 refreshes and I finally was able to get onto the list to see the sales! I also downloaded it so I could sort it by the items I was looking for-it is awesome!!! The team that put this together is really something!

So here it is: the Black Friday Google Spreadsheet! Again, it make take a few refreshes to get on-but it has over 4000 items on it so it's worth the wait!!

Take Care everyone and good luck!

Blogging Idol Contest! Vote for Suzanne Franco!

Blogging Idol Contest is on Vote for Suzanne Franco!
The Blogging Idol Contest is in full swing. I am hoping you take a look at Suzanne Franco's blog and vote for her. There are tons of cool prizes and winnings that you could get just because you voted for her! There are a bunch of ways to enter: 1. subscribe to Suzanne's RSS feed by email, 2. Go vote on the blogger idol website, 3. Place a button promoting her on your website., 4. Blog about the contest. It's that easy! You could win some cool prizes too!

World of Mom $50 Amazon Gift Certificate Drawing

I was reading a post from a fellow blogger and she is giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate! Fabulous!! Who could use that with Christmas coming, right?! The rules are as follow and they are super easy: Just create a post within your blog and link back to World of Mom's Amazon post. Only 1 entry per blog. Next, fill in the form with your name and website url and leave a comment. How easy is that?! The winner will be announced November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving. Good luck everyone! Click Here for the $50 Amazon Giveaway!

Elmo Live--Don't Miss Out!

Elmo Live is one popular characters! In this truly life-like creation, for the first time ever, Elmo seems to actually be speaking as his mouth opens and closes just like the real muppet, Elmo, from Sesame Street. He recognizes when he has fallen over and begs for help, he goes bonkers when you squeeze his nose and he tells stories and jokes while moving in a fashion that's more "lifelike" than ever. If you've owned and liked Tickle Me Elmo, you'll definitely love this Elmo Live! Doll! This guy will please children and adults of all ages. One of the most innovative toys to come along in a long time, this impressive, interactive doll builds on the popularity and innovation of previous Elmos to really knock your socks off! The cute and lovably lifelike fellow sits, stands, talks, sings, dances, and even tells jokes and stories. He's incredible… and a lot of fun! But hurry! This guy will be a sellout before Christmas is here!

Better start on the Holiday Cards! Try Tiny Prints!

Each year we send out holiday cards to our friends and family. Every year there are holiday cards I get that are just beautiful and memorable. And that's what a card should be-memorable. Tiny Prints has some awesome cards you can customize and call your own. Do something different this year! Wish your friends and family a fantastic holiday season with these charming holiday season cards, photo holiday cards from Tiny Prints! There are hundreds of designs to choose from and I am sure you will find a card that shows your true holiday spirit!

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7 Simple Techniques for Keeping Your Child Believing in Santa Claus

Many parents love to see the joy and excitement Santa Claus can bring to their child. For many people, their childhood memories of Santa Claus are the best Christmas memories they have. Keeping your child believing in Santa, however, can be a daunting task. Children are smart these days, and some of the old Santa tricks just don’t get by them anymore. Many children are perpetually plagued with the question, “Is there a Santa Claus?”

Every family may have slightly different Christmas traditions with regards to Santa Claus, but there are some very easy things any person can do to keep the belief in Santa at an all time high. The following 7 techniques will keep your child believing in the magic and wonderment of Santa Claus and you don’t have to be familiar with the history of Santa Claus to apply them.

1) Have your child write a Santa Letter. This can be a simple letter that your child can write to Santa Claus. Children absolutely love to write a letter to Santa, but they occasionally need a little parental guidance to pull it off.

Help your child include a special list of gifts they desire for Christmas into the Santa letter. Many children enjoy getting more creative by drawing or cutting out pictures that represent the gifts they want.

Once the child’s Santa letter is finished, simply mail it to the North Pole. Mail it to the following Santa Claus address: Santa Claus, 1 Candy Cane Lane, North Pole 00001. Don’t bother using a return address, you wouldn’t want it to return as ‘undeliverable’ for any reason.

2) Write a Letter from Santa and have your child receive it in the mail. Create a personalized letter from Santa by directly mentioning your child’s name and certain information about your child in the text. This will make for a much more believable Santa letter. Be sure to make these letters from Santa different for each child in the same household. The child will have no doubt that Santa Claus is coming to town after they receive their personalized letter from Santa!

“I can honestly state as a parent that the personalized letter from Santa has single handedly restored my son’s belief! The look of shock and amazement on his face when he got an ‘authentic letter from Santa’ quickly abolished any doubt he previously had about Santa Claus.”

Print the Santa letter on authentic looking letterhead, as this will help to reinforce the believability. Many different styles of paper can be found at your local office supply store.

You can add to the fun by getting your letter from Santa postmarked at the North Pole. Simply send your Santa letter inside another sealed, stamped envelope to: North Pole Christmas Cancellation, Postmaster, 5400 Mail Trail, Fairbanks, AK 99709-9999. (It needs to arrive by December 15th)

Many parents add a certificate for being on Santa’s “Nice List” along with the Santa Letter for added effect. Another great item to add with the Santa letter is a Santa Claus coloring sheet. Combining the personalized Santa letter, the nice certificate, and the Santa Claus coloring sheet is a sure fire method for keeping your child believing.

3) Have your child leave milk and cookies out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This is simple enough to do with your child. It lets your child know YOU still believe, too. Make it a bonding experience for you and your child by baking the cookies together on Christmas Eve. Don’t underestimate how powerful this can be for creating joyful memories of Santa Claus, for both you and your child. Did you know that Santa’s favorite cookie recipe is Chocolate Chip?

Put the fresh cookies on a plate next to a glass of cold milk. You can even put a short letter to Santa Claus next to the cookies and milk. These tasty treats will give Santa the energy he needs to continue traveling to the millions of other households awaiting his arrival.

Don’t forget to leave some crumbs on the table Christmas morning. Your child will feel honored that Santa Claus ate the whole plate of cookies and drank all of the milk before rushing on his way.

4) On Christmas Eve, have your child sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. Santa Claus gets milk and cookies on Christmas Eve, but what about Rudolph and the rest of the joyful gang? What do they eat? Well, reindeer food, of course!

You can make a batch of environmentally friendly reindeer food with common grocery items such as oats or granola. (Do not use potentially hazardous items, such as glitter in your reindeer food. Although this may make the reindeer food appear to be magical in some way, it can be extremely dangerous if ingested by small children, should they decide to ‘sample’ the reindeer food. It can also be potentially hazardous to the small animals outside such as rabbits, dogs, or cats that may eat the food.)

Once you have the reindeer food mixed up, walk outside with your child on Christmas Eve night and explain the importance of making sure Santa’s sleigh team stays fed. Sprinkle a small amount onto your yard near bushes or trees.

This healthy reindeer snack will give Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer the nourishment they need to continue flying Santa’s heavy sleigh into the night. Your child will be proud for helping Santa Claus on his journey, and is sure to raise the belief in Rudolph and the other reindeer as well.

5) Leave Santa Claus tracks in your house on Christmas Eve. Being sure to not stain your carpet, leave some dirty boot prints by the fireplace (or doorway). Be sure to draw attention to the Santa Claus footprints on Christmas morning. To a child, this is solid evidence that Santa had been to their house.

6) A month or so after Christmas, send your child a postcard from Santa Claus on vacation. This not only keeps your child believing, but reminds your child that Santa is in their hearts all year long. It also answers the common question posed by children after Christmas, “Where is Santa Claus now?”

Be sure to make the postcard from somewhere very warm and sunny. After all, Santa does need a break from all that North Pole snow.

7) Mail your child a birthday greeting from Santa Claus. This technique works in tandem with the personalized Santa Letter you mailed your child previously. Mailing your child a simple birthday card from Santa is an excellent way to keep your child’s belief high throughout the year. Your child will think, “Wow! Santa actually knows my birthday!” The shock on your child’s face will be priceless.

Parents that have extremely intelligent kids or kids that are getting slightly older will genuinely need to utilize all 7 techniques mentioned above to keep their child believing in Santa Claus.

These techniques will assure your child is one of the millions of children that write Santa Letters each and every holiday season… one of the millions of children that believe wholeheartedly in Santa Claus.

A reputable, inexpensive website that offers all of this as a service can be found here: Santa Letters