Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?  I have a little bit more left to get done.  I have been really sick this week so I haven’t been able to finish it up yet.  I hate waiting until the last minute because the stores are so crowded.  And I really hate going the weekend before Christmas because I think that is the busy shopping time of all.  Not to mention we have had bad weather and the bad weather will be returning in a few days, so everyone will be out this weekend.  But, I have to finish up a few things, so we are heading out this morning to finish up some shopping.  I am hoping to be done today. 

There are lots of last minute gifts from Kmart that we could stop and get.  There are all sorts of toys that I could pick up for Hailey- although she is all done.  There are lots of Wii games and accessories that I can look at for Brooke and Rich, but both of them are all done too.  I do still need to buy some toys and treats for my furry family members (dogs and cats) and they have those at Kmart too. 

One thing I like about Kmart is the large selection of gifts for under $25- 25,000 of them in fact.  That’s quite a bit!  So if you need to finish up your shopping make sure you stop by Kmart to find some great last minute gifts.

*****THIS GIVEAWAY IS TAKING PLACE AT LIVIN’ WITH ME BUT I WANTED TO GET WORD OUT HERE TOO- SO THIS IS JUST A COPY OF THAT POST.  GO HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY.*****

Do your kids still believe in Santa Claus or are they getting to that age where they start to question how it all works and whether or not he is real? Hailey is only 2 so she believes in Santa Claus and the sparkle I see in her eyes every time she sees him or talks about him is just magical. I love seeing how excited she gets and I want her to believe in Santa for as long as possible.

I found a fantastic site yesterday that helps to keep your kids believing in Santa. So, I immediately contacted them to see if I could do a review and giveaway- because I want to share this with all of you. And I want one of you to be able to win this before Christmas. And they agreed! Woo Hoo!! So- what is the fantastic site?

It’s called Capture the Magic and it’s very, very simple. All you have to do is take a picture of the room your Christmas tree is in, the way it will look on Christmas Eve. Then you upload your picture to Capture the Magic and then you can pick from over 200 Santa Claus images (they have it set up to make is extremely easy, it will only take a few minutes). Once you pick your Santa Claus you place him in your picture. Now it will look like you caught Santa in your house and took a picture of him.

Read this short press release for more information:

“An enterprising team of Santa’s elves has launched a clever Web site for the Holiday Season that will bring smiles of joy and wonder to millions of children, and help parents make this coming Christmas morning unforgettable. With a simple, three-step process, www.CaptureTheMagic.com allows parents to upload a photo of their living room decorated for Christmas, drag and drop in a stunningly perfect image of Santa (over 200 poses to chose from) to share with children on Christmas morning.

‘Kids will go crazy with excitement when they see proof that Santa was in their home kneeling next to the Christmas tree,’ said James Hallihan, a real life elf who created the innovative site after recognizing the curiosity and fascination about Santa with his own children, Brooke, age 6 and her brother Chip, age 2. His first prototype of the new technology was created last year and his daughter loved it so much that he turned the idea into a company.

Over the past year, Hallihan and his fellow elves have conducted extensive research about the magical beliefs of children. ‘Three out of four children under age 7 still believe in Santa Claus, and one percent never stop believing’ he says. ‘We’re on a mission for Santa to make more believers,” he adds with a grin.”

And now, so you can see how it works- check out my before and after pictures.

Before

After

See- I told you it was fantastic!! Plus, this was super easy to do. I am not a techie person at all- Rich always has to help me with anything technical. BUT, I was able to do this in minutes, all by myself. The thing that took me the longest was actually cleaning my living room to take the picture!

Now that you’ve seen how easy it works- I’m sure you want to be able to have a picture to show your child Christmas morning so you can say, “Yes, ……….., there is a Santa Claus!” So you’ll be happy to know that Capture the Magic has kindly agreed to let one you of you win your own.

What do you need to do for a chance to win?

• Go on over and visit Capture the Magic and then tell me something you saw while visiting their site. It can be anything at all.  ENTER HERE

Want some extra chances to win? Leave me an ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH of the following things letting me know what you did:

• Blog about this giveaway and then leave me a comment with the direct URL to your post.
• Stumble either this post or my blog.
• Subscribe to my RSS. If you are already a subscriber leave me a comment to let me know.

This giveaway will end on December 23rd at 10:59 pm EST. The winner will be randomly chosen as soon as the giveaway ends and notified by email. PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR EMAIL TO SEE IF YOU WON SO THAT YOU HAVE TIME TO MAKE YOUR PICTURE!!! Please see all of my giveaway rules here.

ENTER HERE

Anyone else having this problem?  It seems to start around Thanksgiving and go until after New Years.

Before you go take a minute or two to check out my current giveaways:
I’m Turning Green Giveaway (ends 12/23)
Excite Books Giveaway (ends 12/21)
Lollitops Giveaway (ends 12/18)
$50 Gift Certificate to Photofiddle (ends 12/17)

I enjoy watching birds and find them fascinating.  Hailey also likes to see the birds.  So I was really excited when we recently received a fun new bird feeder.  We have a Birdscapes Garden Sip and Seed bird feeder from birdfeeders.com.  I love the design of the bird feeder- it has two different chambers- one you can put seed in and one you can put water in.  It’s too cold right now to put water in ours, but once it warms up we will add water.  For now we just have food in both sides. 

I took a video of us setting it up so you can see how easy it was to do.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get any birds on video yet.  I think they are a little camera shy.  Anyhoo- check out my video!

If you are looking for some fabulous Bird Feeders be sure to check out birdfeeders.com.