Do you know what the second most celebrated holiday is in the United States?

Well its Halloween and this holiday ranks right up there just behind Christmas.

And if you are looking for the ideal collectible to celebrate Halloween this year, or maybe you are wanting to start a Halloween collectible tradition in your family then you really should take a good look at this beautifully crafted Snow Village Halloween Rickety Railroad Station which celebrates Halloween at its creepiest! 

This is a beautifully detailed piece that has eeire flashing lights and spooky sounds that emanate from within the  cob webbed building. A ghoulish salesman sits on the bench outside.

This piece is has been designed and manufactured exclusively by Department 56 and this is a chilling addition that has been created to celebrate the 10th anniversay of the Snow Village Halloween series. It measures  11-1/2 inches wide by 8 inches deep by 8-1/4 inches high and includes an adapter cord.

So who is Department 56??

Well they are  a company in Eden Prairie, Minnisota who are well known for their hand crafted lighted villages, figurines and extensive range of holiday and home decorative products.

It all began one Christmas evening when a group of friends were heading out to dinner at a small country inn.It was when they turned around the bend in the road that they were greeted with the sight of a small, old-fashioned village decorated for the holidays.  The sparkling lights glowed amid the freshly fallen snow.  The memory was awe inspiring and it was this magical sight that dominated the  discussions over dinner. It was here  that the idea for a lighted Christmas village came into  being.  This idea became a reality  in 1976 when Department 56 introduced a series of six hand-painted, ceramic buildings.

 And How did Department 56 get its name:

Well it began as part of Bachman’s, a premiere retail florist shop in Minneapolis. Each of the departments were assigned a number and the number given to the wholesale gift imports division was 56.

You will find a full range of Department 56 Snow Village Halloween Collectibles adn decorations Amazon. com.

Animal Crossing: City Folk

You Won’t Want to Miss This

Well here it is, one of my favorite Wii games Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Why is this game so special? Well firstly its addictive – of course that goes without saying, and it is suitable for all the family.

We each brough the bundle  that comes complete with the Official Wii Speak Microphone which can also be brought seperately.

So once you create your character you set off to take up residence in a new town. You get to choose the name of your town. When you arrive you have nowhere to live and no job – sounds a bit like real life really.

Well before long you go to work for the local grocer who also sets you up in a house that you have to work to pay for.

Once you have completed the first tasks you are on your own and this is where the real fun starts. You get to meet the locals in you town and they give you bits of advice and sometimes gifts. The local characters all have different personalities and you can also watch them interact with each other. Sometimes the argue and then storm off in different directions with black clouds puffing out of their heads signifying their displeasure. Some are sweet and obliging and some are just plain grumpy.

To make extra money you run errands for them, or go fishing, collect shells, shake the trees and sell the fruit that falls to the ground, catch bugs, butterflies and beetles, all of which can be sold.  You can also dig up fossils to donate to the museum.

This game keeps you fully entertained because the fish and insects change with the seasons, which are in real time. As winter approaches the game changes and snow falls, meaning you can build  snowmen.

You can have up to three other friends live in your city as well. I find this really handy when Ce’Nedra, my grandaughter comes to play. She can play with her character without having any effect on the goals attained by my character.

You can get on a bus and visit the city where you meet more characters, can have your fortune told, go to a show, buy clothing and furniture, and have your shoes shone and go to the auction house to buy or sell goods.

But the biggest plus with Animal Crossing: City Folk is that with the new Wii Speak Accessory you can talk to you online friends while you are playing.  Paula and I find that the microphone is very sensitive and its very clear.  We not only chat about the game of course but use the time to talk about other things  – saves a phone call.

Once you have visited another town you often find that some of your characters will move to the other town and vise versa.  When you talk to them they will say things like  ” I just moved here from (name of other town) do you know Paula ( or whoever your friend is).

There are no levels to reach you simply play the game for as long as you like and do whatever activities you enjoy.

Often there are things to do on special occasions, again it is up to you if you want to participate.  Recently there was a fishing competition and there was a prize for getting the biggest fish. With Halloween coming up it will be time to play trick or treat.

Because I have been away for a while, my town will have lots of weeds growing that I will have to pull out to get the town looking pristine again.

The game has all the familiar characters from the Gamecube and DS editions such as Tom Nook, the grocer; Blathers, the museum curator, K.K.Slider the musician who will give you a piece of music to play in your cd player, he can be heard on Saturday nights in the coffee lounge and of course Mr Resetti who tells you off when you don’t save the game properly.

Many of the other characters that you will have seen in the older versions of the game can now be found in permanent shops in the city.

Now because Paula and I are in the same country, we experience the same weather and seasons in our game, but if you have a friend in another country you can visit them and experience the seasons, weather and holidays that are specific to in their country. Isn’t that just way too cool.

So now you can see why Paula, Cedie and  I love Animal Crossing: City Folk and recommend it to anyone who wants a family friendly, totally interactive and enjoyable gaming experience.

I can’t believe it!  I went looking for posts about the Wii and found that although I have talked about my PS3  and XBox 360, I haven’t talked about the Wii.  How absurd, I mean to say, one of my favorite games is played on the Wii – Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Paula and I brought the Wii quite some time ago when we upgraded from the GameCube Console ( although I haven’t yet manage to part with my gamecube). The main reason being that we love playing Animal Crossing and more so now than ever, because we can visit each others town through our wifi networks.

So we don’t even have to be in the same room, or across the hall as we were in Bangkok, to play this as an interactive game.

Believe me if you are looking for a gaming platform that the whole family can enjoy then you can’t go past the Wii and you if you aren’t into shoot em ups then you really want to try Animal Crossing.

But Firstly the Wii gaming platform:

Here is a compact unit that has 512 MB of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports and a slot for SD memory expansion.

The processing chip was developed with IBM and the graphics chipset is from ATI.  Unlike the other gaming systems that have a tray to hold the discs, the Wii has a single, self loading media slot that lets you play both  the 12-centimeter optical discs that have been designed for use in the new system as well as any of your favorite Nintendo GameCube discs.

I was playing my gamecube Animal Crossing game until the new one with all the added interactive functionality was released.

There is no clunky controller to manage. Even the littlies can hold onto the Wii Remote Controller which is about the size of a tv remote control. Now this remote has the most amazing functionality.  There are acellerometers within the controller that measure your movement in all directions and speeds.  So when you are playing tennis the remote becomes your raquet,  when playing games like Zelda – it becomes your sword and in a first person shooting game it serves as your firearm that you point to shoot the enemy. 

 There is also an additional accessory, the Nunchuck which gives you additional trigger buttons.  Up to four controllers can be linked at the one time and the Wii makes use of standard Bluetooth wireless technology.

The contoller comes with a comfortable non slip sleeve.

 What’s in the Box:

• Nintendo Wii Game Console
• one (1) Wii Remote controller with Wii Remote Jacket
• one (1) Nunchuk controller
• Wii Sports
• sensor bar
• power cord
• standard composite cable
• stand

And the beauty of having Wii Sports included is that you have hours of fun right from the time of opening the box.

If you are looking for a gift for your man then you should consider this TAG Heuer Men’s Formula 1 Chronograph Quartz Watch.

Built with a Swiss precision quartz movement, this stylish looking watch  has all the sporty features that your man will love. These include a stainless steel case and three band bracelet , a scratch resistant titanium carbide coated unidirectional titanium bezel, luminous hands and hour markers, a silver dial and scratch resistant sapphire crystal.

If your man is into water sports then keep in mind that this watch is water resistant to 660 feet.

The  case is made from solid 41-mm brushed stainless-steel case  and the back of the case is decorated with a checker flag design.

Some of the other features are the chronograph functions with 30-minute, 60-second, and 1/10th of a second subdials;  the date is displayed between 3 and 4 o’clock.

You know you are buying quality when you buy TAG Heuer.

And your man will thank you when you present him with this excellent Formula 1 Chronograph watch.

TAG Heuer was started in 1860 by a Edouard Heuer who was a watchmaker in small Swiss village of St-Imier. Heuer had a vision  to create innovative timepieces.  In 1882 he applied for a patent for his chonograph mechanism, and from there  he went on to develop a number of firsts:

•  the first stopwatch accurate to 1/100 of a second,
•  the first dashboard stopwatch for race cars,
• the first miniature electronic timekeeping device accurate to 1/1000th of a second,
• and the first automatic movement with a microrotor

Just some of the sporting events that TAG Heuer provide the official timing services  for are the Olympic Games, the FIS Ski World Cup, and the FIA Formula 1 World Championships.

The TAG Heuer brand has become one of the  most recognized and sought-after watch brands in the world.,

Electric cars are becoming more and more popular with the increase in fuel prices. This is not a cheap gift but a very practical one.

The 120-M.P.H. Electric Car is a pretty cool little car. It can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 4 seconds. Its more like a motorcycle than a car as the passenger sits behind the driver.

The electric car has a top speed of 120mph so you can certainly travel at a respectable speed.

Being priced at over $100,000 means that this isn’t in everyone’s budget but fun if you can afford it.

And then there is there the Electric One-Person Car. This little beauty is a highway-legal, three-wheeled, single passenger vehicle which gives you all the functionality of an electric car  while also giving you the  maneuverability and  of a motorcycle.

You will get  30 miles per charge. The electric one person car gives off zero emissions and it uses less than half the energy of the most efficient hybrid vehicles.

It takes around 6 hours to give the battery a full charge and your battery will last 2-4 years.

This makes the perfect shopping trolly as there is plenty of storage space for the groceries.

I find one of the easiest ways to keep on top of the gift buying for my adult children, their partners and 11 grand children is to have a gift cupboard or gift box. Having a gift cupboard (or box) is a great way of having gifts on hand when needed.

During the year I keep an eye out for bargains that will serve for birthday and Christmas presents.  When I get the item home I wrap it and tag it so I know exactly what I have on hand at any time.

After all how often gave you been  shopping and seen something that you know would be perfect for someone but their birthday is months away and it is at a bargain price?  Well buy it anyway and start your own gift cupboard.

Buy during the after Xmas sales when products are at their lowest prices and store them away until those birthdays or anniversaries come around.  Plus I buy online so I don’t even have to get caught up in the store hype. It really takes the stress out of gift buying.

When my children were little I always made sure I had extras on hand for when they were invited to friends birthday parties.

Just make sure that the kids don’t get to them ahead of time!