It seems every year we see a tech gadget take off and this year is no exception. The digital photo frames are becoming real popular and these are some cool little items.

It has really became popular on the college campuses at the big universities. The college kids like to have these digital photo frames in their dorms, so they can see their old high school friends and family. It’s a good way for them to keep these memories alive; while they’re living away from home. You can pick up a nice 8″ Wifi Digital Photo Frame at Buy.com. They will ship these digital frames for free and they are currently 25% off if you order one soon.

I would imagine most retailers wouldn’t be marking these frames down too much; since they’re a hot item this holiday season. Your not likely to find a sale on one of these digital photo frames, but you would probably get a smile on your son or daughter’s face when they see how these work. You can include a lot of different pictures on each one of these digital photo frames. Then you will see the magic begin to work as these pictures will randomly get displayed on these frames. Adding pictures of friends, family, and even the family pet is a good way your son or daughter can take these precious memories with them, when they do return to their college campuses after the holiday break. It’s one of the best gifts a parent can get for one of their kids that is attending a college that isn’t located in their local hometowns.

These digital photo frames are not a bad gift idea for your parents or grandparents either. If you don’t live under your parent’s roof no more, you could take pictures of you and your spouse and add them to these digital photo frames. If there are any kids or grand kids you would like to include, then you will have plenty of storage space to include as many pictures as you want.

If you do buy one of these digital photo frames, you will want to open them up and put the pictures in first, before you give them out as gifts. At least this is the way I would do it. The person you’re giving it to, can always go back and remove any pictures they don’t like or add in new ones. I think these gifts are best when someone has already took the time to load up some pictures in them, so it becomes an extra part of the surprise. This is one of the latest fads right now and someone had a good idea when they created these digital photo frames.

There are a lot of good Christmas movies and this is one of the things I like best about the holiday season. Some movies are new and some are considered classics and been around for years. As a kid I would always watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman every year. As I got a little older I started to like the movie A Christmas Story. I think this is my all time favorite Christmas movie and I love how TNT or TBS will usually show this movie all day long on Christmas Day. I will watch it more than once usually and this movie never gets old. If you have never seen A Christmas Story this is one Christmas movie you should really sit down and watch this year.

There are a lot more Christmas movies that I like to watch each year. It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the classics and this movie has been around for a long time. It seems it and the Miracle on 34th Street have been around for ages and most of our grandparents were watching these movies when they were younger.

It’s almost like a tradition for some families to see a certain Christmas movie each year. Every family has their own favorite movie to watch each year. Since there are so many good Christmas movies, many families have different ones that they will refer to as their traditional Christmas movie.

There are some new movies that people have started to make new traditions with. I know Home Alone is a good Christmas movie and it has 3 or 4 series you can watch. I’m a big Chevy Chase fan and I love all of the Vacation movies. The one Chevy Chase did that is called Christmas Vacation is really one of the better Christmas movies that is out there today. This movie reminds me a lot of my family and how they use to gather for these big family dinners on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We don’t do it that much anymore and I missed those days of where our extended families got together and would share the Christmas spirit. Christmas Vacation was made in 1989, so this is the 20th anniversary to this great Christmas movie. It’s not been around as long as some Christmas movies, but I think it will hold up over the years and be a traditional Christmas movie for some families. I still consider Christmas Vacation one of the newer movies that is out there.

What are some of the Christmas movies you like to watch with your family each year? Is there a specific program that comes on during the holidays that you like to see? I know the Statler Brothers Christmas Special was always a fun thing to watch. I did see the Statler Brothers last year on RFDTV or Rural TV. I’m not sure if it’s coming on this year or not, but if you have Rural TV; then you can check their program listings. Be sure to let me know your favorite Christmas movies and which ones you liked best as a child.

20″ Wheel – Huffy Green Machine

The perfect gift from Santa this year is green and it won’t cost you a lot of green. The Huffy Green Machine at Buy.comis an affordable gift and it will be the bling under the tree this year for some kids. You still have time to get your online purchases delivered for free and before Santa Clause gets here. Let Santa Clause sneak one of these Huffy Green Machines next to your Christmas tree before your children wake up Christmas morning and it will be the one gift they will want to hop on instantly!

I’m an adult and I think I would like to try this ride out for a spin! The current price is less than $100; while it’s on sale and still in stock at Buy.com. You will have a hard time finding a gift that is this cheap and will draw more attention than the Green Huffy Machine. All eyes will be focused on these bright green colors, as your kids wipe away the morning matter in their eyes on Christmas Day. You need a gift that is an attention grabber and it’s best when it’s the gift Santa has brought from the North Pole. I think that front end tire that is 20″ tall could probably travel through the deep snows at the North Pole. This would be a good gift from Santa Clause this year. The kid’s new big wheel comes with:

*Steel Single Tube Frame

*Steel Side Pull Break Lever

*Orange Safety Flag

*Low Profile Molded Seat

*Extra Wide Back Tires

*CPSC Reflectors Included

*Much, Much, Much More…

This is a gift item for kids that are 6 years old and older. That is what the manufacturer suggests on the ages, but my twin nephews will be turning 5 years old on December 15th and I think they would be big enough to ride this Green Big Wheel. At least they would attempt to hop on this bad boy and try to get the thing rolling. They do good with the pedals on their tricycle, so I think they could get the pedals moving on the Green Huffy too.

Our Big Wheels of Yesterday

Remember a big wheel that was similar to this one? These were the types of big wheels we had to ride when we was kids growing up. Things are upgraded now and changed for the better. You can easily see how the Green Huffy Machine is so much better than the Big Wheel of yesterday. If you want a Christmas morning with the big eyes and the non stop smile, be sure you go with the top of the line in Big Wheels. There is no contest that the Green Huffy Machine is at the top of the Big Wheel food chain!

Where is everyone going to live at in the 21st century? The housing market isn’t improving like it should be and this industry is going to be getting some major work soon. According to Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money, he says America is building new homes for a population of 180 million citizens. However, we currently have a population close to 310 million, so our housing development is losing ground daily. Now with winter here, we are going to see our normal slow downs and who knows what it will be like in the Spring time of the year.

How can this help me in the stock market? That’s a good question and investors might have a play in this current pattern we are in. A home builder like Toll Brothers would be a descent choice for a long term investment. The home supply stores like Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and Lowe’s would all be solid choices too. How about investing in the company that owns the most land in the United States? I think that would be the best play in the stock market and the largest U.S. real estate owner really isn’t in the housing market. Real estate companies may need to purchase some of this company’s land, but I’m not so sure it is for sale. This is actually a good trivia question and ask your family or your smart friends “what company owns the most U.S. property in America?”. I have a feeling most will not get this question right. The answer would be Plum Creek Timber and they own like 7 million acres or something like that. If this company interests you; then you can find them under the stock symbol: PCL

Plum Creek Timber is a $35 stock and they were up .73 cents at the close on Friday’s trading. They offer a nice dividend with their stock and the company has enough cash on hand to pay out a full year’s dividend without making another cent. Shareholders are getting about $1.68 yearly in dividends for each share of PLC they own. If the stock price doesn’t going higher, you will still double your money in 14 years with the dividends alone. I think a $43 price target is within range for the next 3 months and could be a $50 stock in December 2010. This would be a nice investment if this did play out like this and investors would still be getting that huge dividend from Plum Creek Timber too. I like this stock and so does the people at MSN.com. They have a stock rating system there and it goes from 1 to 10. The higher the number, the better they like a stock and currently PLC is listed as a 10 and a moderate buy. I’m not sure why the real estate market is still lagging behind, but a timber company like Plum Creek is one indirect play investors could choose; if they want a stock with potential and huge dividends. Look it up and let me know what you think about Plum Creek Timber.

The holiday season is just half over and we still have good ol jolly St. Nick to celebrate on December 25th. I’m not sure how your Christmas dinners go, but for my family it is like Thanksgiving dinner again. We pretty much have the same food on Christmas Day, as the food we ate on Thanksgiving Day. Our two main things we had for Thanksgiving dinner was the turkey and the ham. We will eat ham and turkey again on Christmas. We also had soup beans, fried okra, green beans, biscuits, and a few desserts to choose from. I assume we will eat these same things again on Christmas too. We did have dressing last week and not sure we will prepare dressing with giblet gravy again. I know my belly is still full from the last big holiday meal and it may take until Christmas Day before I am hungry again. I’m not sure the best weight loss pills or best exercise routines could keep us from gaining weight this time of the year. There is just too much good food around and no one should be on a diet during the holidays. Save your dieting plans for your New Year’s Resolution on January 1st and eat all the good food that is available now. We only live once and everyone should enjoy a couple of big meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Feel free to share your dinner plans on Christmas Day and give me a rough idea of what the menu might look like in your household this year. If you have any special Christmas dishes that you like to prepare; then I would love to get the recipe for it. Leave a reply with recipes, menus, or your dinner plans for Christmas day. I might just have to tweak our family’s dinner this year!

It was a bit surprising to see Flash Forward on ABC end their season and in the fashion they did. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Flash Forward did not come on last Thursday. After taking a week off, they did come back with a new episode. Now most episodes of Flash Forward go off with the audience wanting more. This is a typical pattern for one of the hottest new shows in the Fall line up this season. Their last show on December 3rd was good as usual, but left us with the usual cliff hangers. There was nothing special about Flash Forward when it went off Thursday night. The only shocker was that the show was ending for the season and will be back in March of 2010 with brand new episodes. This caught me off guard and I wasn’t expecting this.

I like Flash Forward and I have watched every show to this point in the series. It is lacking in substance and they give out very little information each week; while only bringing up new questions about what caused the black out. Everyone that watches FlashForward wants to know what caused the black out and this show is taking the long way home. I’m not sure my interest level will be that high; when March comes around in 2010. That is a long ways away and I think Flash Forward is making a huge mistake. They need to keep the show new each week; since they’re leaving so many mysteries on the table and answer very few of them each week. As a devoted fan of the show, I just don’t think I will watch reruns of this great new show that is on ABC. Since I won’t be tuning in for the repeats, I will forget about Flash Forward and I may have a new thing to watch on Thursday nights; when March of 2010 gets here. I could understand if they need a break or more time to create new episodes, but making us wait 3+ months for this is just asking too much (in my opinion).

Have you been keeping up with the Flash Forward series on ABC? Are you curious to see what causes the black outs to occur? Did it shock you to see that the show had ended for the 2009 season and won’t be back until March? If they knew the show on December 3rd was going to be the last one, they should have made more of an effort to leave us on the edge of our chairs. I think we got the usual cliff hanger ending and there wasn’t anything more special about this one; than the previous endings Flash Forward creators decided to use. I’m very disappointed and I’m not likely to tune in next March to see how this show explains the world wide blackout.