As we are getting closer to Christmas, it is getting to be time to send out Christmas cards and Christmas invitations. eInvite.com is your one stop show. If you like photo cards (who doesn’t — especially if you have kids), you can easily upload your family photos to their site. For less than $100, you can easily get 100 cards printed up. Even better, selected cards are now 40% off until December 2nd! The photo cards are made with high quality paper stock too. Having a party? They have over 100 invitations to pick from. They have everything from fun to elegant to classic. You can even get a holiday entertaining pack. This is 100 personalized beverage napkins and are available in either green and red with a stylized tree motif or muted pink and green (these you can use year round). Do you care about the environment? There is a whole selection of cards that are 100% environmentally sound and earth friendly. They are handcrafted in St. Louis and made with recycled cotton fiber. Have a few people you have no idea what to get for Christmas? You could get them “The LittleBox”. This is a box of 500 3”x6” sheets of personalized paper in a matching box. They also have Pen and Stationary sets which include 100 personalized note cards with matching envelopes. After all the holiday fun, what do you need? Thank you cards! eInvite.com has those too! They have a ton of personalized stationery options. There is definitely something for every taste and every budget there.

Make your list, check it twice, and then stop at eInvite.com for all your Christmas needs.

I know this book isn’t 100% family friendly.  However, if you don’t find yourself laughing after reading WTF?: How to Survive 101 of Life’s Worst F*#!-ing Situations, there is something definitely wrong.  This book is about crazy (and some not so crazy situations) you can get yourself into and what their solutions would be.  Now, some of these solutions are inventively therapeutic, sometimes offensive, most of the time not illegal, and usually very funny.  I use WTF quite often (not on here, of course), so I knew I’d like this book right off the bat.  For example, their solution for being in a bathroom without toilet paper range from:

• stare at the holder,
• use a substitute
• shower
• use the sink
• call someone

Now, these suggestions are for a public restroom too!  Each suggestion has about a paragraph telling you how to do the suggestion.  There are so many situations that they address in there.  Some you will encounter at some point in your life and some that you most likely won’t.  However, if you do, you’ll have the solution in this book.  WTF?: How to Survive 101 of Life’s Worst F*#!-ing Situations is seriously hilarious and should be found in quite a few stockings this Christmas.

Until recently, I had never heard of the Cole Family Christmas.  However, this is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation.  Hazel Kendle, 88, told the story to her granddaughter who got it down on paper for all of us to enjoy.  More than 20 family members have had their hand in making this book come alive to us new to the story.

Hazel was one of the nine Cole children in the story.  The tale is based on what really happened that Christmas when they were allowed to pick what they wanted from Santa from the Sears catalog.  Since the Cole family were poor, this was an event that did not happen often.  Unfortunately, a blizzard hit, and they ended up with a snowy Christmas surprise instead.

The back story of this book alone made me want to read this book myself.  It truly shows the importance of getting your family history down on paper, so others can enjoy the stories you know and love.  This book is for 10 – 12 years old.  However, we have been reading it to our kids (who are 4 and 1).  The chapters are short enough that we can read one a night and still keep their interest.  Now, I read it in one sitting and loved it.  My kids like the illustrations too.

This book is about the true spirit of Christmas and is a must read for everyone.

Teddy Bear’s Fun to Learn First 1000 Words is book that is great for all little ones. My 4 year old enjoys it just as much as my 1 year old.  Each page in the book has a theme (like the beach). It lists the theme and a ton of items to go with it (for example, the beach pages show things like sunscreen, water wings, sailboat, beachball, etc). There is also a picture in the center of the page with all the miscellaneous items.  There is also a short poem asking you questions about the theme.  Will (my one year old) just likes to look at everything and go “ohhhh”.  Madison (my 4 year old) enjoys looking at the pictures and telling us what each thing is.  She likes to answer the questions for us too.  My only complaint is that the pages are paper which are a little to easy for Will to rip.

This book is great because your little ones can use it as they grow older.  I would definitely purchase it a birthday, baby shower, and/or Christmas gift.  The little ones who you are getting for will get a lot of use out of it!

365 Days of Baby Einstein is one of the books that is such a great deal that you cannot pass it up. This book teaches your children about art, language, poetry, math, and science. The illustrations and pictures in here are awesome and engage your child. There are read aloud rhymes, interactive questions, and poems that encourage your children and you to have a conversation about what is going on on that page. The pages of this book are paper, so you do have to be careful. There are things in this book that both Madison (my 4 year old) and Will (my 1 year old) can do and be entertained by. Each section of the book is color coded, so if you want to work on certain skill like language development, you can easily find it. They even have pages where you can learn how to say words like dog and cat in other languages.  This is a book that can easily be given as either a baby shower gift or a birthday present, and you won’t break the bank either.