Monday Mentions is an easy way to share any and all of the fun things you’ve discovered recently, online or otherwise. For more information read this post by the mastermind behind this whole thing, Jen @ Daily Mish Mash. Here’s what I’ve discovered this week…

The first thing I’d like to mention is that today is my dad’s birthday! I wish I could be back home celebrating the day with him, but hopefully we’ll be able to do a video chat today at some point. Happy Birthday Dad! We miss you!

So, here’s the latest and greatest straight from my google reader RSS feed…

Recipes Worth Drooling Over…

• Cappucino Fudge Cheesecake @ Smitten Kitchen
• French Apple Pie @ The Wooden Spoon

Some Miscellaneous Good Stuff

• New Book I Am Coveting… Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde: “From the bestselling author of “Thursday Next” comes a brilliant new novel–part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller–about a world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colors one can see.”
• Have you heard that the Twilight series might get a TV spin off? What do you think of this? Would you watch it? Do you think it would be good?
• Saw this on Kottke.org – this might be the future of magazines…

• The CIA are pretty clever. If you ever dream about being one of those slick secret agents you might like this article at Boston.com that features snippets from The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace.
• Google is hosting a Model Your Town Competition for Google Earth. “You’re invited to use our free tools — SketchUp and Building Maker — to make sure your community is represented on the world’s biggest 3D stage. Every town that participates has the chance to be included in Google Earth’s 3D Buildings layer where millions of people can see it. The winning town (as decided by a popular vote) will win money for its schools, a Google-sponsored party for its modelers and plenty more.”

Have yourself a merry little Christmas…

• How many people can your home host for a holiday party? Clinton Kelley from TLC’s What Not To Wear gives a pretty straightforward approach to finding out the exact number. Check out this article on Lifehacker for the details.
• With less than four weeks to go now, Simple Mom suggests you decorate your home for the holidays now if you haven’t yet. Personally, I’ve been pretty giddy for the holidays this year and did most of our decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. We spent this past weekend making paper decorations. I made a cute paper bag gingerbread man garland with my son (which worked out perfectly since last week was G Week around our house. We also baked some gingerbread cake) and some classic paper chain garland with old scrapbook paper.
• Looking for more simple homemade ornament ideas? Check out these great articles at Write From Karen and Let’s Explore.
• I love this idea on Lifehacker to make your own reusable grocery bags using old t-shirts. You might even be able to give these as presents (or put the presents in them?)
• This week at my review blog we’re going to highlight gift ideas for your Yankee Swap parties. I wrote up a list of gift ideas for $10 or less today and we’ll be featuring gift ideas for $25 and $50 later in the week.
• Have you ever seen a house with Christmas lights that dance in time to a song? My husband loves these homes and I bet he’ll be excited because Lifehacker tells you how you can do this fun hack yourself!
• If you are looking for an easy way to simplify your Christmas budget, Blissfully Domestic has a pretty clever idea based off an old Victorian adage. I think their method is great and I might try it next year. Even after declaring early on that Christmas this year would be very low key, like one present per family member, yeah… that didn’t so much happen as the weeks wore on and I kept finding more things I wanted to buy, mostly for my three year old. We still kept things lighter than usual but I love the idea of getting truly organized about it.
• DealNews has all the holiday deadlines for getting your online purchases delivered in time for Christmas.
• Don’t just get them a Giftcard – get them a remote control giftcard from Target! How cute is this??
• Holiday parties often lead to messy situations like carpet stains. I saw this quick tip at Lifehacker: use shaving cream to rescue your carpets from permanent stains.
• Last holiday find – a fun Pomplamoose video! Here they are singing O Come All Yee Faithful: