Clearly, it’s no secret around here that we LOVE Lands’ End!  And I love giving Lands’ End for Christmas.  One of my very, very, very favorite things to give is a personalized Lands’ End tote.  That’s what I got for Sophie’s teachers and therapists last year.

If you are at a loss for what to give those on your list, you still have TIME and Lands’ End has some great suggestions in their Our Favorite Gifts section.  Lands’ End let me choose a gift from that section to review, and I am giving it to someone special this Christmas who I hope is not reading this post!  It is this amazing Diamond Quilting Wool Down Vest!

This is just so nice, it’s hard to even put into words. Let’s just say I am a SUPER-UNSELFISH person for giving it as a gift!  It’s quilted wool plus the lightweight down fill makes is super-warm as well as super-cute.  And the faux fur hood is adooorrrable.  It’s temperature rated for 5 to 25 degrees so it’s ever-so-functional as well!  I love it!

Here are some other great “favorite gifts” I’d suggest:

Needlepoint iPad case:  you can get this for ME! Because I want it!! Isn’t it cuuute?? And I haven’t gotten a case for mine yet!

Sea Salt Caramels: please put these in my stocking!

Houndstooth CashTouch Scarf: nothing makes me happier than a good scarf, and the softness of CashTouch is to DIE for!  This is a definite sure-to-please!

Lands’ End is pretty much having constant sales these days, and you can have your gifts shipped fast to get here by Christmas!  Hop on over to Lands’ End’s website today and get gifting!

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Lands’ End sent me the Wool QuiltedDiamond Down vest for review. All opinons about it and all the products mentioned are my own.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is my number one favorite Christmas TV special.  That speech by Linus about the TRUE meaning of Christmas gets me EVERY TIME.  And of course the rest of the special is just timeless Peanuts fun.  Since my kids are ga-ga over iPad apps, I was thrilled to find out there is an “A Charlie Brown Christmas” interactive app! And even more thrilled to get to review it.

Let me just say, it was everything I hoped it would be!  It’s basically the entire TV special in an interactive setting.  I mean, it’s a digital book…so you can go through it at your own pace, and take your time with the interactive stuff.  But it’s got all the content of the TV special we know and love.  Joshua and Sophie LOVED it, and it was a great way for me to introduce them to my favorite holiday tale.  We’ve watched and played with it at least five or six times in the past few days. Check out this promotional video and you’re going to want to download it right away!  Check it out on iTunes or the App store.  And enjoy!!!

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Loud Crow interactive provided me with a promo code to download this app for free. All opinions about it are my own.

Recently, much to my delight, Sophie has gotten into My Little Pony.  I say “much to my delight” because I L-O-V-E-D MLP as a child.  As a matter of fact, my favorite pony was named Morning Glory and I would not purchase her for a friend’s birthday party until AFTER I myself owned her, because I was a selfish little twit!  But I digress.  The point is….

Sophie and I are pony hairstylists!

It all started a couple of months ago when I got her the My Little Pony app for my iPad.  I like it because it has a storybook with games and activities.  There is a My Little Pony TV show but we don’t have the channel it’s on, however, the iPad app and some MLP books we’ve bought or received got her excited about the product.  So for her birthday, as soon as she got some birthday money from great-grandma, she bought herself some MLP!  We went to Target and picked out this:

Apple Jack's Sweet Apple Barn

It’s a very cute playset.  Nothing earth-shattering, but very fun for pretend.  Sophie loves putting things in Apple Jack’s cart, conversing with Apple Jack’s farm creature pals, and of course, stylin’ her hair!

She likes to do donuts on my dining room floor

Sophie also got a couple other My Little Pony things for her birthday – Pinkie Pie’s remote control car, which is LOTS of fun, and I think, a great value for the money, and this super-awesome fashion Pinkie Pie that comes with a TON of hair accessories and is really very fun for any little girl who likes to PILE ON the hair barrettes.  It’s been lots of fun!

Fashion Pinkie Pie. Next season on Project Runway!

So those are some things Sophie got for her birthday, and then because she is such a sweet little girl , my friends at Hasbro sent her a couple of other MLP surprises! She is now the proud owner of her very own Princess Celestia:

Step aside, mares. The Princess has arrived.

Princess Celestia, is featured prominently in the My Little Pony app that Sophie loves so well, so she is pretty excited about her!  Plus, she TALKS and her wings move!  She lights up! She is pretty much the IT Pony to have.  The Morning Glory of this generation, if you will!  Now I hear that some freaks called “Bronies” (a.k.a men or “Bros” who are rabid fans of the My Little Pony tv show – yes, I am being serious) have their boxers in a bunch because this Celestia is not the same color as she is on TV. To them I say, “Get a job and move out of your mother’s basement.”  I think the doll Celestia is super-fab just the way she is!

Lastly, Hasbro also sent Sophie another playset, which is great because she loves to pretend with the playsets so much!  It’s the Ponyville Schoolhouse, which is awesome because Cheerliee and her teaching skillz are also prominently featured in the MLP app so Sophie can re-enact scenes from it with this set!

All teachers wear glasses! Even Pony teachers!

So, my little girl and I sure are enjoying My Little Pony. If you’re shopping for a little girl this year, put some of these things on your shopping list! And get her what she really wants, so that unlike me, she won’t still be pining over the MLP stable she never got to house her ponies in 25 years later! Ahem.

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Hasbro sent me two items to review.  My opinions about them and about all the other products mentioned are my own.