All American Mommy Holiday Gift Guide

COUNTDOWN TO BLACK FRIDAY
THIS WEEK'S TOP PICKS

Must-Have Christmas Book: A Dog Named Christmas, written by Greg Kincaid is a novel that will touch your heart and have you reaching for a tissue! The story begins when Todd, a developmentally disabled young man, learns of a local shelter’s need to provide homes for their dogs during the days leading to Christmas. After tenaciously convincing his parents that this is an idea worth pursuing, Todd chooses the perfect dog – one whose personality wins over the entire family – and names him Christmas.

Todd and his new friend are two charmers and it doesn’t take long before they inspire an entire town to find holiday homes for all the shelter’s dogs. What follows from this small act of kindness with teach Todd’s family – and his community – about peace on earth and goodwill toward men – and animals.

I recommend this book for everyone on your Christmas list! Click here to purchase.

Greg Kincaid, when not writing, is a practicing lawyer. He lives on a farm in eastern Kansas with his wife, three horses, two dogs, and two cats.

O's Big Book of Happiness

The Best of O, The Oprah Magazine
Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews,
and Inspiration

O's Big Book of Happiness is a must for every coffee table in every home! Since it's been on my coffee table, it's been picked up by several visitors including my mother. They've all been drawn in by it! I fear that my mother may try to walk off with it! Don't worry....I'm loaning it to her!

If you're looking for an article to lift your spirit and enlighten just open the cover and you'll soon find just what you need. O's Big Book of Happiness contains more than 100 articles drawn right from the pages of the magazine. This book addresses three major avenues to a fuller life: Your Mind/Your Body focuses on emotional and physical well being. Maintaining health, building confidence, finding a sense of purpose and happiness. Dating, Mating, Relating provides tools and insights needed to forge better connections with partners, families, friends, and co-workers. Dreaming Big offers inspiration and practical advice to aim high and realize aspirations on all aspects of life, from work to money to heeding your inner voice.

Writers, artists, entrepreneurs and political leaders including Barack Obama, Alice Sebold, David Sedaris, and Elizabeth Swados reveal life lessons that have set them on the path to joy and success. Financial columnist, Suze Orman defuses the minefield of money management. Suzy Welch writes about how to win at art - even with dysfunctional colleagues. Life coach Martha Beck discusses how to handle your own worst critic - you. Advice columnist Dr. Phil sheds new light on the push-me-pull-you confusion of intimate relationships. Also included are Oprah Winfrey's interviews with individuals she credits with inspiring her.

Buy one here and you'll be holding happiness in your own hands!

Green Christmas

Green Christmas
How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season

Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander, along with Anne Basye show you how to choose the right tree, have warm and cozy green fires, avoid the holiday catalog crunch, and make gifts that are green and teach green.

I didn't realize just how wasteful we can be during Christmas until I read this book. Did you know that between Thanksgiving and Christmas, American produce and extra 2 billion pounds of garbage per week? There are enough holiday cards sold to fill a ten-story football stadium. If every child under the age of 6 received a wood toy in place of a plastic one, we'd avoid 17 million tons of plastic landfill.

This book is a great guide that provides many tips to having a green Christmas. Tips for recycling Christmas trees to be used as mulch, opting off catalog mailing lists to save paper, having fires using logs made of recycled materials such as coffee grounds. Shower with your love you on Christmas morning (or Christmas Eve after the children finally turn in) . It will do your relationship and the planet some good at the same time. Small gestures really do add up - just cutting a 10 minute shower down to 5 minutes can save 20,000 gallons of water per year. C'est Le Champagne - it's more economical to drink champagne and less glass is used. Wow, tons of helpful fun facts!

Click here to purchase Green Christmas.

Jennifer Basye Sander is the author, co-author or ghostwriter of more than thirty books and has been featured on CNBC, CNNfn, The View and It's a Miracle. She recycles and repurposes constantly, and is raising her children to have a green awareness of the world around them.
Peter Sander is an author, researcher and consultant in the fields of business, location reference and personal finance. To help his wife Jennifer green the household, he splits his own kindling from discarded lumber and grows vegetables in a community garden.
Anne Basye is the author of Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal. Though she spends time and money on good wine, opera, and international travel, she doesn't own a car or microwave and hasn't bought a Christmas tree in three years.

Million Dollar Mom

No Sweepstakes Necessary to be a Stay-at-home Mom

Written by Andrea English and Elaine Shepherd (Tate Publishing), this book is the ultimate "how-to" guide for moms that want to trade in their suits, attache cases, and laptops for play dates, fun, and gratification!

There seems to be a false notion that you cannot afford to stay at home with your children and successfully live off one income. As widespread as this notion may be, it could not be further from the truth. This book is for those of you with hopes and dreams of one day staying at home. Hang on to those dreams as you ponder and cherish the words in this book.

Million Dollar Mom is full of tips, tools, and experiences for those of you who yearn to stay at home and raise your children. ".......Million Dollar Mom inspires mothers to reclaim a true labor of love, and will improve the lives of families - one mother at a time.

Million Dollar Mom is available for $12.95. Click here for more information or to order your copy.

Christmas Sucks by Joanne Kimes

WHAT TO DO WHEN FRUITCAKE, FAMILY, AND FINDING THE PERFECT GIFT MAKE YOU MISERABLE.

Just in time for the chaos of the Christmas season, this book discusses the downside of this hectic holiday in a hilarious manner. You'll find a ton of practical tips to get you through this next holiday! We could all use some humor around this time of the year! Christmas Sucks had me laughing over and over again!

The following chapter titles should give some insight. Shop 'til you drop dead, All I want for Christmas is my retirement account in tact, Here comes Santa Claus: Ho ho ho hold me back, The twelve days of Christmas parties, Gifts: It's the thought that counts (good one, huh?), Deck the halls with tons of crap, I'll Be Home for Christmas....if I can get through the flippin crowds, Family Squabbles: All We Want is a Silent Night, It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas, and The Big Day.

Are there 12 days of Christmas because.....
It takes that long to untangle all those Christmas lights you shoved into a box last year?
You need 12 days of therapy to prepare yourself to see relatives you don't like anyway?
You need 12 days off before you can show your face after drinking too much eggnog at the office Christmas party?

About the author: Joanne Kimes is the author of the bestselling Sucks series. She has written for a number of children's and comedy television shows. Ms. Kimes begrudgingly celebrates Christmas with her husband, Jeff, and their daughter, Emily. Her website is www.sucksandthecity.com.

Get a copy here today and save your sanity!

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kid's Favorite Meals

From the Author of The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on your Man in the Kitchen. This book will teach you how to sneak nutrient rich fruit and vegetable purees into the foods that kids love.

These healthy and delicious recipes couldn't come at a better time: Two new studies, published in New England Journal of Medicine, warn that obesity in children today is likely the result of a significant increase in coronary heart disease among adults in the near future. Fortunately, a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association noted that when kids improve their eating habits (including lowering their intake of saturated fats and increasing their consumption of fruits, berries, vegetables and whole grains), they can lower the risk of hear disease later in life.

Brainy brownies - hidden with spinach and blueberries
Masterful mac-n-cheese - hidden with spinach and cauliflower puree
Magic meatballs - tricked-out with eight hidden vegies
Mystery Mashed Potatoes - smashed with protein-rich white beans
Chocolate Banana Ice Cream - made extra-rich with avacado

About the Author: Missy Chasse Lapine is the former publisher of Eating Well magazine and the founder of a natural baby product line Baby Spa. She is currently on the Culinary Arts faculty of The New School, in New York City and is also a collaborator with The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William . Clinton Foundation, helping schools serve healthier lunches. Missy serves on the Children's Advisory Council of Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian where The Sneaky Chef recipes are served to patients. She and her husband and two daughters live in Westchester County, New York.

Click here for free recipes and more great information.

The Sneaky Chef: How to cheat on your man in the kitchen

Hiding Healthy Foods in Hearty Meals That any Guy Will Love

They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, now you can satisfy his taste buds while he reaps some health benefits at the same time. These recipes are great even for the pickiest of eaters!

The Sneaky Chef has lots of great recipes that are full of hidden ingredients that target men's health issues. Issues like heart disease, cholesterol, and prostate.
Featured Recipes:
Barbell Burger - pumped up burgers that include raw baby spinach and fresh or frozen blueberries.
Fearless Fried Chicken - tricked-out with sweet potatoes and carrots
Doctor's Choice Chilli - raw spinach, broccoli, and sweet grean peas all disappear in this firehouse fave!
Refried Bean Macho Nacho - zucchini and cauliflower are hidden inside this macho dish!

About the Author: Missy Chasse Lapine is the former publisher of Eating Well magazine and the founder of a natural baby product line Baby Spa. She is currently on the Culinary Arts faculty of The New School, in New York City and is also a collaborator with The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William . Clinton Foundation, helping schools serve healthier lunches. Missy serves on the Children's Advisory Council of Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian where The Sneaky Chef recipes are served to patients. She and her husband and two daughters live in Westchester County, New York.

Junie B. Jones Books

Reading is a favorite family activity at our house and we enjoy it even more now with Barbara Parks series of Junie B. Jones books! I have to tell you that each time Haley gets a new one, I think I'm more excited to read it than she is.

Our family favorite is Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. From the back cover - Remember when it was scary to go to school? 'Cause it was your first day and you didn't know anything. Meet Junie B. Jones, kindergartner. She's so scared of the school bus and the meanies on it that when it's time to go home, she doesn't.

Barbara Park is brilliant! These chapter books are great for the beginning reader. If you have ever read one of these books you will totally understand what I mean when I say "wowwie, wow, wow, these are the bestest book ever"!

Check out all 26 Junie B. Jones books @ http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb/letter/letter.html

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

Tell me about your favorite children's book and you could win a Junie B. Jones boxed set! Please be sure to include your email address so I can email you if you are the winner.