Happy Holidays! Be safe, have fun and please don’t drink and drive!

Here’s to a fabulous Christmas to all our friends!

Oh and don’t forget if there’s still time to catch Santa in the act:

Thrill Your Kids! Catch Santa Visiting Your House!

Want to provide your lil’ ones with proof that Santa visited your house? Check out ICaughtSanta.com. This site is dedicated to providing parents with proof that lovable characters like Santa, the Easter Bunny and even the Tooth Fairy are popping in to provide goodies.

For just $9.99 you can use one of your own photos to create a picture of Santa visiting your home, but don’t wait too long..they are expecting quite a rush of orders on Christmas Eve so if this appeals to you order yours today.

Get your PROOF! Click here to create a custom photo of Santa in YOUR home.

Happy Holidays!

To find local businesses offering birthday discounts & freebies for adults, kids and pets, visit: Free Birthday Treats.

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Ever wondered what it must be like to celebrate birthdays around the holidays? Often times these birthdays are just blended in with everything else during this busy season. I wondered about it, so I recently started a discussion on Twitter Moms, “How do you celebrate birthdays that come up during the holidays?“. There were quite a few responses from moms willing to share their opinions and traditions. One of these really grabbed my attention. Dawn Sandomeno from Paryblueprints Blog has started a very unique and creative family tradition – the Happy Birthday Tree. I just fell in love with this idea!

Dawn took a few minutes out of her busy schedule just the other day to to answer a few questions that I’d like to share here:

This is such a unique tradition, how did it come about?

Truly out of necessity. I really felt that my son Jake’s birthday was never quite as special as those for our other sons. Everyone was spent (emotionally, physically and financially) after the Holidays and it just seemed that his birthday was “another thing”. One year we were having family over for his birthday party and I was decorating for the celebration. I looked at our Christmas Tree, wishing I had taken it down earlier, when it hit me that it could become a his own Brithday Tree! I stuck balloons and Birthday wishes on it. This year I think I will add streamers too. He loved it, it made him feel special and it turned Christmas decor into a fun Birthday Decoration!

Why do you feel it is important to separate holidays and birthdays?

Because they are two separate life celebrations and each deserves their own tribute. There are ways to combine them, like the Birthday Tree, that don’t lessen the importance of the Birthday. I think it cheats the Birthday boy or girl if you try to pass off a Holiday celebration as a Birthday Party. We each only get one, right?

Dawn also made one final comment, “Making celebrations special, doesn’t require lots of time or money. The simple things seem to touch people most.”

I couldn’t agree with her more!

Dawn should know too, she is a party and lifestyle expert and a partner in Party Bluprints Inc. Dawn and her business partner, Elizabeth Mascali, are co-founders of the first-ever website to provide online electronic party plans – Partybluprints.com.

Find Dawn on twitter as well: DawnSandomeno

Thoughts, ideas or suggestions about this topic? Leave a comment!

To find local businesses offering birthday discounts & freebies for adults, kids and pets, visit: Free Birthday Treats.

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Sure we look at the price tags as we’re shopping, but how often do you make sure the prices match what’s displayed on the cash register? If you’re a mom, you probably have kids in tow, trying to keep them in order, plus digging in your purse for your card to pay, hoping you’ll make it out of the store before someone has a melt-down.

Well I recently visited our local Target looking for a basketball for our daughter. As I was sorting through them with my husband, we noticed the UPC bar code wasn’t on the bottom of the box, but on the basketball itself. We were looking at the price tags and this one was supposed to be$14.99. We decided to use the nearby price scanner just to make sure. The price displayed as $15.19 – an odd price for a basketball. So being the diligent people we are, we checked the product codes and UPC numbers plus scanned three more just to make sure. They all popped up as $15.19 so we grabbed a different basketball priced as $15.99 and the price displayed correctly – $15.99.

I decided to bring it to their attention if the basketball rang up as $15.19 and sure enough it did. I explained to the very nice Target cashier that the price should be $14.99. She proceeded to look through a Target sales ad, but I explained it wasn’t on sale, $14.99 was the normal price. This prompted her to turn on the “help me” light and within seconds a manager comes over. I explain again that the basketball is coming up as $15.19 and she says “yeah?” I went on to tell her according to the price tag and matching product codes it should be $14.99. She looks rather irritatedly over at the cashier and says “Well adjust it then!” and walks off. So much for friendly customer service from Target.

Now I know that $.20 isn’t a big deal and it certainly isn’t going to break me, but I wondered…first – how many people have bought this same basketball and never realized they are paying $.20 more than what they thought. It’s certainly not enough for a visit to customer service to get a credit to your account.  And secondly, why $15.19? The Target employee entering the pricing for the products surely would have thought that was an odd price as well, don’t you think? Is it a coincidence or was it done on purpose?

So as you go about your shopping, keep an eye on the prices ringing up. At the end of the day, it all adds up and it can either be in your favor or theirs.

To find local businesses offering birthday discounts & freebies for adults, kids and pets, visit: Free Birthday Treats.

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Photo Courtesy of Flickr - George Eastman House Collection

Have you heard of Free Shipping Day? No? I hadn’t either until I read Josh Smith’s article over at Wallet Pop: Know when to buy: The latest on holiday shipping deadlines

Apparently December 17, 2009 is Free Shipping Day when participating merchants offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve. FreeShippingDay.com features a huge list of businesses participating in this event. The list can even be sorted by category to save you time.

So for those procrastinators out there, myself included, it’s not too late to get free shipping for your Christmas gifts!

To find local businesses offering birthday discounts & freebies for adults, kids and pets, visit: Free Birthday Treats.

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Start planning and saving now… Lowe’s Home Improvement is sharing a sneak of their 2009 Black Friday Ad.

See anything you’d like? I’ve got my eye on the pre-list Christmas tree!

To find local businesses offering birthday discounts & freebies for adults, kids and pets, visit: Free Birthday Treats.

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