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.

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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.

I am more of a tactile reader. I love the feel of a book in my hands. And I love the smell of a book, whether it be old or new. Hardcovers are always preferred; the covers are removed for safe keeping. I even have a handy dandy case to put my books in while I am reading them. When I do get my hands on a paperback I am real careful, too. My paperbacks look new and unread. Trust me, they have been read, sometimes more than once.

25 Days of Christmas, 25 Deals in 25 Days!

But if you are like my husband and can’t bring yourself to read anything longer than a magazine article, then audiobooks may be more your thing. Simply Audiobooks is offering some great deals just in time for the holidays:

Nov. 24. 2009 — 30% Off Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Nov. 25. 2009 — Free media mail shipping

Nov. 26. 2009 — 25% Off all James Patterson audio books

Nov. 27. 2009 (Black Friday)*— 40% Off all Harry Potter audio books

Nov. 28. 2009 — 10% Off all purchases

Nov. 29. 2009 — Win your purchase free

Nov. 30. 2009 (Cyber Monday)*— 25% Off all purchases

Save even more and make sure you shop through a site that gives back: ShopAtHome (4%), Cashbaq (10%) are all highly recommended.

Don’t want to buy. Why not rent instead?

Think of Simply Audiobooks as Netflix for books [that you listen to instead of read]. For as little as $15 a month you can listen to over 11,000 audio titles. This makes a great gift, too. Sign up for the 15-day free trial and see if Simply Audiobooks is for you. And remember, there are no commitments. Pay by the month or a year in advance. If you decide you are no longer interested just cancel your membership. If you paid in advance, Simply Audiobooks will reimburse you for any unused months.

Why not give the gift of books to someone you love this year. And give them a whole new world to explore.

**Disclosure statement: Affiliate links used for ShopAtHome, Cashbaq, & Simply Audiobooks.  If you sign up through one of my links I benefit according to the affiliate terms of each site.

In an effort to beat the rush Amazon has already started with their Black Friday Deals. I’m going to update my sidebar with their lightning deals so you can easily find them. Here are a few current and upcoming deals to get you started:

Get Disney’s 2-disc Platinum Edition of 101 Dalmations for $9.99 – only 2 hours and 10% left!

Get the Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera for only $99 & FREE Shipping

Check out my sidebar for current Lightning Deals and Deals of the Day.

And don’t forget to get your free $3 in MP3’s.

Disclosure: I use Amazon affiliate links in this post. What does that mean? Well, if you click through any of those links and make a purchase [any purchase] I will earn a small percentage.

Nerdy Shopping & The Games We Play

So, yeah. Today I went shopping with Amanda. I would post her picture, but we have this deal ~ I don’t post pictures of her and she doesn’t post those really unflattering pictures of me ~ no problem. I have been wanting a new Scrabble game because I love Scrabble and my board is some 30 years old and I think it’s missing some pieces. It was off to Target for the $20 Deluxe Edition with the carry case & a free Scrabble card game to boot! I cannot wait for Christmas!

Class of 2009

I started my final college class towards my Bachelors in Accounting. YAY! I need to find out everything that is required of me, but I should be an official college graduate in December. My final class is Government & Institutional Accounting. Next order of business, find a job to help pay off all of those student loans that will come a callin’ in six months.

NaNo Novel Update

I have cracked the 35,000 word barrier and am getting some positive feedback over on my writing blog for those few excerpts I have bravely shared. I have lost a bit of my direction, but am okay with that. I will figure it all out and work on the editing and reworking after November has ended and my college studies have completed.

On another writing front, I will be picking up 3 shoe boxes of love letters and pictures when I visit my parents over Thanksgiving. The letters are correspondence from my grandparents while they were courting [isn't that a phrase that should be revived?] and when my grandfather went off to fight in WWII. I am really excited about this. I really am a romantic old sap at heart.

Which Came First The Chicken Or The Egg?

In March we decided to get some chickens. We started with 24. We had 7 roosters and 17 hens. These were mostly Rhode Island Reds, some Bantams, and four were Leghorns. This summer we lost one of the leghorns when she was hit by a truck. After that we debated what to do with the 7 roosters, which were really worrying the hens with their constant, uh, desires. We decided to cull them down to 2 roosters. Not as bad as you would think, but not something I would want to do again if at all possible. That left us with 2 roosters and 16 hens. Then, this past week we lost 3 more hens ~ 2 of the leghorns & I think a bantam. We think a hawk got them.

Our purpose for the chickens is to get eggs, for us to eat and to sell. Lately we have been getting 8 – 9 eggs a day. Today we got one that had no shell and no yolk. It was also quite small. This is the second egg we’ve found this size, the first with no shell.

In Case You Haven’t Seen It

I originally found this posted over at The Succulent Wife’s Favorite Things. This commercial has had me and my family laughing all weekend:

This meme was started over at MomDot.com as a way to add something to the blogosphere on those quiet Saturdays when most normal bloggers are resting from their busy week of sharing, peddling, learning, and everything else.

Join in the fun and share your own Small Talk Six post. You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

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This week’s topic:

6 things you are most thankful for this year

I cannot help but participate in a post about being thankful. No matter how bad things may be, no matter my lack of employment and dwindling savings, life it pretty damn [that's right, I said it!] good! Damnit!

1. My kids. I have some of the greatest kids in the world. I know everyone says this, but I don’t know what I did to deserve such great kids. I was a rotten child ~ sorry mom & dad.
2. My parents. No matter what I do they are always there. Sure, they let me know when they do not approve, but they love me anyway. I still don’t feel worthy when they tell me how proud they are of me. Me? Proud? I’m trying to listen and believe. My mom is never wrong!
3. Our continued health. My mom is doing quite well with her chemotherapy and we’re hopeful she has many, many more years ahead of her. Megan, Amanda, & I have all caught colds this year, but not H1N1 {knock on wood}, so it could be worse.
4. Graduation! That is right. I am graduating THIS YEAR not next! December 19th is my last day of class and I will be receiving my BA in Accounting. Woo Hoo!
5. My writing. I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year. My book is based on many of the feelings I keep buried inside. Thanks to Heather and her wonderful insights on my recent excerpt I have had a breakthrough even I didn’t realize I was having. Of course this may mean I will need to see a therapist when I am done, but that could be a really good thing for me!
6. Dwayne [DH]. He has taught me so much about myself and family, self-worth and people. I don’t always do what he suggests, but I am learning ~ the hard way, of course.

I have never felt happier than I do right now. I’m not worried because I know something good is waiting just beyond the horizon.

What about you? What are you thankful for this year?