MoseleyWorld

Christmas season is upon us. Exactly two weeks until Christmas Day! Are you ready?

Got your holiday card done? Check out Tiny Prints for holiday cards, invitations, custom address labels, and more.

And how long has it been since you’ve had professional portraits made? Look, these don’t have to be stiff, Olin Mills style portraits. Fun, hip. Natural.

Portraits of you you, your little ones, pets, or the whole family make great Christmas presents and we know a great photographer (shameless plug for Chris Moseley Photography) who still has some open portrait session slots and provides super fast turnaround!

Contact Chris to schedule a time to make your holiday portrait at your home (think: in front of the Christmas tree, maybe?), on location or in the studio. We’re offering a 2009 Recession Buster special (starting at $95 for mini portrait creation sessions with free digital image files with minimum portrait purchase) - Email us for details. Check out the Chris Moseley Photography blog to see some family and kids portraits.

For the Parents or Parents to Be: Shop the MoseleyWorld Amazon Store .
Rockabye Baby CD’s - the music of the Beatles, Guns N Roses, the Eagles, No Doubt, Bob Marley, Radiohead, U2…lullaby style. Using glockenspiels, vibraphones, and mellotrons the rockabye baby crew covers your favorite songs. Believe it or not, you’ll love listening to Sunday Bloody Sunday with your tot.

Top Holiday Deals & Frustration-Free Packaging in Toys : You know those toys you get that are sealed inside industructable plastic and then wired in so tightly you need tin snips to open them - all the while your kid is saying “gimme, gimme.” Check out Amazon’s Frustration-Free packaging and their top holiday deals. all in the new easy-to-open Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging.

Electronics, Computers & Home Entertainment

Canon PowerShot S90IS The best point and shoot camera for serious shutterbugs. No, I’m not kidding. Don’t believe me? OK, well these guys think so.  “World’s best pocket camera” “It’ll never leave my pocket” and “the best compact camera I’ve ever used.” No, I’m sorry ladies, I am a Canon guy and don’t know anything about those cameras Ashton Kutcher gets paid to hawk.

Klipsch IMAGE S4 In-Ear Enhanced Bass Noise-Isolating Headphone treat your favorite iPod user to an upgrade, a serious upgrade. Well worth the $79.95 price tag! Lots better than the OEM Apple earbuds and even better than some higher priced competitors.

iPods and Accessories Enough said?

Kindle Wireless Reading Device: $259.95 Amazon’s most wished for, most gifted and #1 bestselling product. Want to read the NY Times? Well, you can get it and thousands of other books and publications delivered wirelessly to your hand-held reading device, the Kindle. If you don’t know what it’s all about, visit Amazon’s website to see what you’re missing.

Windows 7 Netbooks Under Starting $350 : Find the biggest selection of netbooks with Windows 7 Starter in the Amazon.com netbooks store.

Magazine Subscriptions as low as $5 : Magazines make great gifts, and during December some are as low as $5 after instant discounts including House Beautiful, Smart Money, Cosmo,Marie Claire, Popular Mechanics,Esquire,Town and Country, Veranda,Seventeen, Country Living and more. That’s $0.42 per issue.

Give a Subscription to your local newspaper. Help keep ‘em in business.

Need more ideas? Check out the links below.

Somehow, we I inadvertently neglected to post photographs from Saxon’s birthday party. So here they are, in the category of “better late than never.”

Samantha and Yadi awaiting the guests’ arrival.
build your own princess hats. Spellbound. Captivated. Cinderella tells a story.

i’m sure the little princesses’ parents were thrilled with the pink icing.

Saxon was elated to have Cinderella come to her house for her birthday party.

Lately, I’ve been puzzled with a bunch of things.

What’s up with yard guys who blow leaves into the middle of the street? Where do they think they will end up? And what’s up with those ear-splitting, gas-powered blowers? Doesn’t anyone use a rake any more?

What’s up with leaving just one? Why do people eat or drink all but the last bit? For example, drinking almost all the orange juice and leaving 1/2 ounce or eat almost all the crackers to leave just 2 or 3 crackers in the box baffles me. What’s the thought process here? Wouldn’t it be better to finish it off, toss the box and put the item on the grocery list?

What’s up with those black bars on the TV? When we switched to a widescreen HDTV , I thought I would be done seeing the horizontal black bars (aka letterbox) at the top and bottom of the screen. We were late in the game of switching to a widescreen HDTV. Well, I still see those bars. I thought the widescreen format would match the format of new movies. But it doesn’t always. Brand new DVD movie takes up only 60-70% of the screen, with the rest black. What’s up with that?

What’s up with Vince Young? Last year, former national championship QB Vince Young got injured and benched. This year, the Titans gave him another shot, after losing their first six games. Vince has led Tennessee to five wins in a row. Imagine if he had anyone on his team that could catch the ball. Go Vince Go.

What’s up with that funny noise? There’s a strange static noise that comes from the tiny OnStar speaker in the ceiling of my GMC Yukon. The strange thing is that the ONLY time I ever hear the noise is when the temperature drops below 50. What’s up with that?

Where are all the religious Christmas decorations ? I know, I know. It’s not Christmas. It’s "the holiday." Why are there not many options for outdoor Christmas decorations that depict the reason for the season. Are stores scared of being too Christian, thinking they will offend people by selling angels, nativity scenes or Christmas stars? Or has Christmas become all about inflatable Santas and peppermint sticks? I’m all for Santa Claus, elves and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I just want to throw some old-school decorations into the mix. Got any sources? Post ‘em in the comments, por favor.

I walked in the house the other day and Saxon met me at the door wearing her back pack. When I asked where she was going, she quickly replied, I’m going to see God. Do you want to come? I’m going to see God.

I said I certainly wanted to see God, but wondered if we could wait until after dinner. Saxon continued to politely ask me if I was ready to go see God. By this time, Carey is a bit freaked out, thinking Saxon has received a divine message letting her know her number was up.

When I asked Saxon if she knew where God was, she replied, up in the sky with Jesus. I told Saxon she was right - that God was in heaven. Without missing a beat, Saxon said, Oh great! We can see Ranger too (our dearly departed dog)!

We’re glad to have found a church home and even more glad that Saxon loves learning about God. The children’s department at Watermark Community Church (mainly a huge group of volunteers) is amazing.

Economically speaking, 2009 has been a tough year for many. I’ve experienced first-hand the struggles of running a business in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and have often felt pretty helpless to control the incoming (or lack thereof) revenues. But sometimes all it takes is someone who can put it all in perspective.

If I think things are tough, what if I had been born without arms and legs, like Aussie Nick Vujicic? Uh…yeah. Holy cow. How much more difficult would day to day life be? On Sunday, December 6 , Nick Vujicic of Life without Limbs , is going to be the guest speaker at Watermark Community Church at 9am, 11am and 5:30pm. Nick will speak about how God has given him the strength to surmount what others would call impossible. We’ll be there at 11. Come meet us. Be inspired. Put it all in perspective.

This was take two. I asked Saxon to sing a little louder…You can hear her saying, “OK, I’ll tell it a louder” at the start of the video. Samantha chimes in providing both backing vocals and some percussion. Oh, and Saxon was apparently playing the role of a mouse at her pre-school drama class.