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I am a sucker for Christmas TV specials. I’ve already watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and I can’t wait to see all of my Rankin-Bass favorites like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Year Without a Santa Claus and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. No Christmas would be complete without at least 1 viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Well, this year there are 2 new Disney Christmas specials that I am very excited about Prep & Landing and Phineas and Ferb: Christmas Vacation.

Disney’s Prep & Landing was schedule to air tomorrow but it is now being pre-empted by the Presiden’t speech so it has be re-scheduled for next

Tuesday 12/8/09 at 8:30pm ET on ABC

. Disney’s Prep & Landing tells the story of two inept Elves, Wayne and Lanny, sent by Christmas Eve Command Center coordinator Magee to prepare houses for Santa’s visits. Some of the voice talents involved in this project are Dave Foley, Derek Richardson and Sarah Chalke.

Check out this video from Executive Producer John Lasseter.

The second is Phineas and Ferb: Christmas Vacation. We are huge Phineas and Ferb fans in our house and we can’t wait to see what Phineas and Ferb create to convince Santa that the citizens of Danville are not all naughty. This premieres on Disney XD Sunday, December 6th at 8:00pm ET and will re-air on the Disney Channel on December 11th at 8:30pm and on ABC Family on December 18th time TBA.

Mark your calendar or set your DVR and check out this year’s newest Christmas specials.

Cyber Monday is coming in just a few days on 11/30/09. As you prepare to shop from your favorite seat I wanted to remind you about CyberMonday.com the place to find lots of great deals. I also wanted to tell you to check out Shop NBC Promo Codes
to find great savings at ShopNBC.com!

What are your favorite online shopping portals and stores? Share them with me in the comments. Happy Shopping!

Holiday shopping season is here again and the Global Influence network has some great gift ideas for you, tried and tested by real moms. Click on the links to check out what our team of reviewers had to say about each of these gift ideas, and then take a moment to enter our fun giveaway and take a chance at winning some of these fabulous products.

Featured Reviews

Pouchees -Busy moms need all the help they can get to stay organized and keep life as simple as possible. The Pouchee is the perfect solution to keeping all those little things together, putting everything you need, right at your fingertips.

Duck Hunter -

Duck Hunter turns the excitement of the hunt into an activity the whole family can enjoy. Launch the duck in the air and try to hunt it down with the toy shooter as it flies freely in the air. A fun choice for those who love outdoor sporting.

CardStore cards

-Personalized holiday cards are an important item on everyone’s to-do list and often a hassle to create and print. Cardstore.com has everything from family photo cards to invitations for your big holiday party, simplifying your holiday season.

Great Holiday Gift Ideas

Things Remembered

Custom Couture Jewelry

Just Elfin’ Around

Card Cubby

Harumika By Bandai

Harumika Runway Showstopper

Harumika Style Starter

Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo

Strawberry Shortcake Playset

Kota Monty Rex

Wall to Wall Basketball

Nerf Pocket Vortex

Busy Ball Popper

Talking Chuck Truck

Leapfrog My Pal Scout

Leapfrog Tag Jr

Leapfrog Scribble and Write

Animal Planet Polar Land Playset

Animal Planet Dinosaur Playmat

Onionhead Adult/Teen Feelings Pack

OnionHead Children’s Feelings Pack

Onionhead A-Z Feelings Magnet Set

FotoboxPlus

MeTime Tees

Fun Holiday Giveaway!

For this holiday guide, we want to share the love with the blogosphere! Some of our generous sponsors have donated prizes to be given away to lucky readers! To enter to win one of the following fabulous prizes, simply fill out the form here: http://tinyurl.com/y8t92rw

Prizes include: Things Remembered Custom Couture Jewelry Pouchee Elfing Around Harumika Onionhead Feelings Pack Nerf Wall to Wall Basketball Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo MeTime T-shirt Entries will close on December 6, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST. Winners will be contacted by email after the close of the contest.

Global Influence Member Guides Need more ideas for this holiday season? Check out the guides that some of our Global Influence members have put together on their own sites! Thrifty Jinxy, Happy Healthy Hip , And Twins Make Five , Because Two People Fell In Love, Mommy Musings , Lipstick to Crayons , Bargain Briana , Mommy PR , Shop With Me Mama, Santa Picks, Rave and Review, Connected 2 Christ , 3 Boys and a Dog, The Classy Closet , Contest Corner, Lisa Reviews , A Giveaway Every Day, HulaHoopinMom, Spalibrations, High Impact Mom, From Cribs to Car Keys

All reviews listed in the Global Influence gift guide were product provided. Featured positions were purchased by sponsors. Member gift guides are not affiliated with Global Influence.

Today I saw a brand new Muppet video, it was posted on YouTube yesterday and already has over 1 million views! It was so cute it made me laugh out loud and so on this Thanksgiving Eve I share with you, The Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody. (watch it in full screen) Enjoy!

Yesterday I told you about the pie I made for the church Thanksgiving dinner. I also brought was the Cheese Souffles from Nancy’s Appetizers. Aaron, my 16yo son, actually prepared these for me because I was trying to freshen up between work and the dinner. The Cheese Souffles were easy to bake just remove them from the box, place them on a cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes. They were delicious but very small. I understand that these are appetizers but we all felt they were tiny and with only 12 in a box, they weren’t going to last long.

Since I had taste tested one at home there were only 11 to bring to church and they were all gone before everyone got through the buffet line. The Cheese Souffles were well received and rather tasty. They retail for $3.99 and can be found in the freezer section of many supermarkets.

Maybe I prepare too much food for my parties bu,t I would want there to be enough of each appetizer for each guest to have 2-3. This would mean that I need several boxes of Cheese Souffles, I wish it came in a 36 pack to make buying easier.

If you would like to try a package of any of Nancy’s 12-count appetizers, you can win a coupon for a free package from me. You can choose from: Cheese Souffles, 3 Cheese Spinach Stars, and other appetizers.

Mandatory 1st Entry: Visit Nancy’s.com and check out all of the appetizers they have available. Come back here and leave me a comment letting me know which one you would like to try. Please make sure your e-mail or twitter id is attached to your entry so that I can contact you if you win.

Bonus Entries: May be completed after the mandatory 1st entry. Leave a separate comment for each entry.

• Subscribers to my blog get 1 entry
• Public Followers of my blog get 1 entry
• Tweet this up to 2x a day ” @MomMaven is giving away yummy appetizers! Check them out here http://bit.ly/appetizers “
• Sign up for a gravatar or if you already have one you get 1 entry. I like to see who I am talking with!

The winner will be chosen by Random.org on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 10:00pm.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Nancy’s Appetizers and received 2 coupons to facilitate my review and a $20 thank-you gift certificate.

Tonight our church had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. One of the items I made was Peanut Butter Cup Pie. I found the recipe at Kraftfoods.com. It was very easy to make and everyone who tried it said it was delicious (I didn’t even get a bite).

Since during my last baking adventure, my hand mixer burned up, I got to break in my new Oster hand mixer that I bought at Target. I love it! It is a little heavy but it is powerful and has some awesome attachments too.

When I blogged and tweeted about my S’mores Cupcakes @Whrrl suggested I create a Whrrl story of the recipe. I didn’t get to do it then so I made sure I Whrrled the Peanut Butter Cup Pie. I hope you like it.

Last night about 30 youth and adults from Journey Assembly volunteered at our local Meals on Wheels Plus food bank. We helped unload some of the 51 schoolbuses that were filled with food donations at local schools and Publix supermarkets. We had a lot of fun and the youth enjoyed being able to give back to our community. We were blessed to be able to help unload 46,000 lobs of donated food.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so chances are you are creating your “to do” list for a memorable holiday dinner. Don’t forget that the day after Thanksgiving marks the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. Black Friday falls on November 27 this year, and to help consumers save as much money as they can, Ask Coupon Sherpa has released “18 Tips to Having a Killer Black Friday.”

“With the economy still slow and many Americans on a strict budget, retailers are going to be offering a lot of great deals this holiday season,” said Luke Knowles, co-founder of Coupon Sherpa, a comprehensive resource where consumers can find online coupons, printable coupons and grocery coupons along with a free, downloadable iPhone application that provides access to mobile coupons. Ask Coupon Sherpa is the site’s blog that publishes money-saving tips. “Black Friday is an ideal time to take advantage of deep discounts.”

Among the tips in the Ask Coupon Sherpa article about Black Friday are:

Buy the newspaper: There’s a reason the Thanksgiving Day newspaper is the fattest newspaper of the year. Advertisers annually stuff this paper with coupons and circulars advertising their best sales. You can increase your savings with online coupons. Just make sure they can be used in combination with in-store sales or newspaper coupons.

Do your research: If you have your eye on a particular item, surf the price-comparison Web sites and record the prices for reference while shopping. Don’t forget to add any fees to the price. Some stores allow you to place an order online for in-store pickup the next day. You’ll still want to hit that store pretty early, however, and bring your printed-out receipt as sales clerks may not focus on filling online orders when pressed by throngs of shoppers.

Develop a game-day plan: Draw up your shopping list and establish your priorities before you hit the stores. Decide which stores you want to shop and in what order.

Are all parts included? Is the sale item stripped down or sold with all necessary parts? For example, some stores will low-ball the price on a computer printer but not include a printer cartridge, which can run to a pretty hefty figure. As a matter of fact, you should always check the price of printer cartridges before buying a printer. A $50 printer isn’t a great deal when the cartridges cost $50 each and run out quickly.

Hitch a ride: Parking on Black Friday is a nightmare and can waste precious time. This is one instance, however, when biking or taking the bus doesn’t make sense as your arms will be weighed down with packages at the end of the day. Ask a friend or relative to drop you off and pick you up.

Stick to your list and budget: In the tumult of Black Friday, it’s easy to wander off target, so make sure you stick to your list. And NO personal shopping. Wait for post-Christmas sales to treat yourself.

Coupon Sherpa is a comprehensive resource where consumers can find accurate and up-to-date online coupons, printable coupons and grocery coupons along with a free, downloadable iPhone application that provides access to mobile coupons. With the iPhone application, consumers can present the coupons (on their mobile devices) to the respective store’s cashier and receive the applicable discount. Merchants can post an unlimited amount of coupons on the application for free. For more information, visit www.couponsherpa.com.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

The folks at Dirt Devil have produced an amazing downloadable holiday buying guide filled with 100’s of tips and tricks to get more bang for your buck when shopping online. The guide includes over 300 websites, tricks and clever ways to shop online. I downloaded my guide yesterday and I have learned a lot of new tricks that hopefully will save me money as I do some of my Christmas shopping on line in the weeks to come.

Each page of the guide covers a different topic:

• How to find Red Hot deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
• Saving big with promo codes and how to find them
• Save even more with  free shipping and rebates
• Save every day with Deal-A-Day sites
• Auctions, Outlets and other types of sites for Red Hot Deals
• Hard-to-Find and One-of-a-Kind gift ideas
• New ways to shop- ie. social shopping websites, follow deals on Twitter and iPhone apps
• Holiday travel info
• Online shopping with a Techy Twist
• Advanced shopping tips (browsers, cookies and Google…oh my!)
• Bargain Jargon-a glossary of deal lingo

Click on over to Dirt Devil and download your copy of the holiday buying guide today!

Do you love purses? How about Sondra Roberts purses? If you answered “Yes!” to either of those questions then tonight at 8:00pm you need to be on Twitter (#sondraroberts) or ResourcefulMom’s stickcam for a live online fashion show. Make sure you are following the hosts  @TwoferMom @ShortPumpPreppy and @ResourcefulMom and RSVP so that you are eligible to win one of several Sondra Roberts handbags they’ll be giving away live. I hope to see you at the party!