Family

PBS Announces Family Holiday Television Specials

December 7, 2015 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

I love this time of year. My husband, our daughters, and I enjoy watching all the holiday specials in December. PBS KIDS’ holiday programming kicks off this week with themed holiday episodes from favorites such as WILD KRATTS, SUPER WHY!, and PEG + CAT. Ring in the holiday season with your family by watching new and classic holiday specials from PBS KIDS.

New episodes this year include:

SUPER WHY! – “Judith’s Happy Chanukah” Premieres 12/7; encore on 12/9
Whyatt is excited to have been invited to Red’s Gramma’s house to celebrate Chanukah, but doesn’t know much about the holiday. To learn more, the Super Readers jump into the book Judith’s Happy Chanukah, where they meet Judith, who loves Chanukah so much that she can’t wait to share it with her new friends.

DINOSAUR TRAIN – “Trains, Submarines and Zeppelins” Premieres 12/7; encores on 12/17, 12/25, 12/27
When Mr. Pteranodon and Larry go out to the Big Pond to find some red platanoids for the Winter Solstice Celebration, they accidentally miss the last train home. Will Larry and Mr. Pteranodon stop bickering long enough to figure out a way home, or will they be stranded in the middle of nowhere and miss the family Winter Solstice Celebration?

PBS KIDS Holiday Program Descriptions & Airdates (check local listings)

WILD KRATTS: A CREATURE CHRISTMAS
December 7, 18, 20, 24 and 25
In this one-hour special, it’s Christmas time and the Wild Kratts are taking a break from creature adventuring to celebrate. But when the Wild Kratts receive an alert that their favorite creatures are suddenly disappearing around the globe, their holiday party quickly turns into a rescue mission. The Wild Kratts must race against time to thwart their greedy archrivals’ most miserly scheme yet! Will they be able to travel to the ends of the earth and return their baby animal friends to their homes in time for the holidays?

DINOSAUR TRAIN – “Trains, Submarines and Zeppelins”
Premieres December 7; encore presentations on 12/17, 12/25, 12/27
When Mr. Pteranodon and Larry go out to the Big Pond to find some red platanoids for the Winter Solstice Celebration, they accidentally miss the last train home. Will Larry and Mr. Pteranodon stop bickering long enough to figure out a way home, or will they be stranded in the middle of nowhere and miss the family Winter Solstice Celebration?

SUPER WHY! – “Judith’s Happy Chanukah”
Premieres December 7; encore presentation on December 9
Whyatt is excited to have been invited to Red’s Gramma’s house to celebrate Chanukah, but doesn’t know much about the holiday. To learn more, the Super Readers jump into the book Judith’s Happy Chanukah, where they meet Judith, who loves Chanukah so much that she can’t wait to share it with her new friends.

ARTHUR’S PERFECT CHRISTMAS
Airs December 7, 12 and 25
Everyone’s favorite aardvark gives kids a new spin on seasonal traditions in this one-hour special, showing children the many ways to celebrate. Plans are underway in Elwood City for the best holiday season ever as Arthur, D.W., their family and friends make preparations for perfect gifts, perfect parties and perfect family traditions for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and even “Baxter Day” (Buster and his mom’s special celebration). However, just as in real life, perfection is hard to attain and Arthur learns that the real joy of the holidays is spending it with his family.

PEG + CAT + HOLIDAYS
Airs December 7 and 24
“The Hanukkah Problem” – When Albert Einstein invites Peg and Cat over for Hanukkah, he shows them how to make a 2D piece of paper into a 3D dreidel. Later, they need to use this process to bring peace to Al’s home and save his Hanukkah.
“The Christmas Problem” – When Santa Claus is in trouble, Peg and Cat have to solve their biggest problem ever: how to make and wrap presents for all the children of the world and then deliver them using 100 sleighs.
“The Penguin Problem” – Peg and Cat coach a team of skiing penguins, who would have a shot at the Olympic gold medal if only they knew “over,” “under,” and “in between.”

CURIOUS GEORGE: A VERY MONKEY CHRISTMAS
Airs December 7, 12, 20, 24 and 25
Join George and The Man with the Yellow Hat as they count down the days until Christmas. There’s only one puzzle: neither of them can figure out what to give the other for a present. The Man is having trouble reading George’s wish list and George doesn’t have a clue about what to get for the Man who has everything. Will they be able to find the answers before Christmas morning?

THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT CHRISTMAS!
Airs December 8, 16 and 24
This adventure finds the Cat in the Hat, Nick and Sally on a journey around the world to help a lost reindeer find his way home to Freezeyourknees Snowland in time for Christmas. On the way, the Thinga-ma-jigger breaks down and they depend on a variety of animals – from African bush elephants to bottlenose dolphins to red crabs – and their remarkable abilities to help them make an amazing journey home.

8 Tips for Holiday Travel With Kids

December 7, 2015 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

Christmas is just around the corner. It is the busiest season for family travel and we all know traveling with kids is no easy task. Parents should get a medal for pulling it off successfully! Here are some of Safety 1^st’s tips for doing just that:

Safety 1st Grow and Go — Grow And Go™ 3-In-1 Car Seat

Prepare beyond packing the suitcase:

1. Prepare your child – Holiday parties can cause sensory overload for young children. It’s good to talk about the upcoming trip days, even weeks, in advance. Show photos of family members or friends your child has not met yet. This way, the new face may not seem so unfamiliar.

2. Prepare the guest room – If your child will be sleeping in a Play Yard during the trip, use it for bed or nap time the entire week before. This will help him or her get used to a new sleep environment.

3. Keep tabs on your explorer – In any home, sharp corners are inevitable. Soften the edges of an unfamiliar house with Foam Edge Protectors or an Expandable Table Edge Bumper. The Lift, Lock & Swing Gate is great for blocking off new staircases that your little one may want to venture down.

Time to hit the road!

4. Before you head out – check in with a local Child Passenger Safety Technician to ensure your child’s seat is installed correctly. You can visit a local police station, fire station, AAA office or Safe Kids Chapter for guidance.

5. On the road – The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises children remain rear facing until the age of two. According to a study in the Journal of Injury Prevention children under the age of two are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in the event of a car crash if they are rear facing. For older children, the AAP recommends they ride in boosters until the age of 12 or are 57 inches tall. Booster seats reduce injury risk by 59% compared to just seat belts alone.

6. In the skies – If you are flying, check to make sure your car seat is FAA certified. If it’s not clearly labeled contact the manufacturer. The Safety 1^st Store ‘n Go Booster can double as a kid survival kit and it’s FAA certified.

Safe travels to all of our readers this holiday season!

Shower Makeover with Zest Fruitboost #ZestFruitboost

November 27, 2015 by Jennifer 9 Comments

I remember from my childhood the Zest commercials where someone would hold the towel on their back while singing “Zestfully Clean”. Isn’t it amazing what commercials stick in our mind? Here is a throw back video of the commercial.

Zest has released a new product that will give your shower experience a fruitful makeover, Zest Fruitboost.

Click to play so you can hear Big Sis and my thoughts on this new shower product:

The clean fruity scent is definitely what I enjoy the most. The new innovative, revitalizing shower gel helps reveal beautiful, glowing skin with rich moisturizers and the antioxidant power of Vitamin C to help nourish your skin. It’s also twice as concentrated as the average shower gel providing double the lather and double the scent, and can be used to up to 40 showers making it a great value. It only takes a dime-sized amount on a shower puff. It will boost your shower experience! The new Shower Gels are only at Walmart. My budget friendly readers and friends will love that it costs less than $3.00. If you use the coupon on the Zest website, you can get it for just $1.98. It is easy to find at Walmart as the gel is with the other Zest products. The three scents are: – Peach Mango, Citrus Splash and Very Berry today! Find Fruitboost at a Walmart near you.

We went ahead and did a total makeover on the bathroom. It’s clean and smells so great which makes for a refreshing shower experience.

Giveaway

One lucky reader will win a full collection set of the new Zest Fruitboost. Please leave a comment below with your favorite scent! All comments should be posted by December 6, 2015, 11:59 p.m. One winner will be picked on December 7th.

We will be Zestfully Clean!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post with Zest. As always, all thoughts and opinions are of my own.

Beautiful Family Cabin Rentals in Gatlinburg, TN #FamilyTravel

November 22, 2015 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

Log cabins have been a love of ours for a long time. You see, a log cabin magazine is how my husband and I were brought together at Lowes Home Improvement. I was flipping through the magazine during one of my shifts, and Scott walked up to tell me about his love of log cabins. The rest is history!

We were thrilled to be able to be able to review a cabin from the CabinsOfTheSmokyMountains.com. As we drove up to the entrance, our eyes fixated on the amazing breathtaking waterfalls.

Cabins of the Smoky Mountains are part of The Gatlinburg Falls Resort. They are operated by Venture Resorts which happens to be the largest cabin rental agency in the Smoky Mountains. The resort started out with cabins in Gatlinburg Falls Parkview Resort (where we stayed), but has now grown to over 500 cabins in resorts around Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Wears Valley.

The editors of Southern Living Magazine named the company the “#1 Family Resort in the Smokies.” The superior service, the cleanliness of the cabins, and the care the staff takes with the guests are just a few reasons why over 36% of the guests come back again. I want to share with you why we will come back. Click the picture to play the short video.

The entire family fell in love with this cabin. The time the staff takes to clean the cabins can be seen once you walk into the cabin. Every little feature was spotless! Cleanliness means so much as it creates an inviting environment for the entire family. The space was over abundance for our family of four. Our particular cabin (Angel’s Window) was a 2-bedroom cabin, but there were also two pull-out sofas that would sleep four more people. Each bedroom has a king-sized bed. As you can tell in the video, the family had plenty of space to spread out and not feel on top of each other.

The girls wanted to go to bed late and get up early to play in the game room. The downstairs housed a pool table, air hockey table, and two arcade machines. We couldn’t even check-out until right at the last minute because the entire family was enthused with playing the games. Laughs could be heard for hours.

Each morning, I would walk onto the balcony and just stare at this amazing view God has created. All worries at that moment were put aside to cherish the moment. Coffee cup in hand and rocking away in the wooden rocking chairs.

I could see the cabins used for a family reunion or even two families vacationing together. As you saw in the video, the cabin has a full kitchen so you could cook all meals at the cabin. At night, we would turn on the gas fireplace and just talk about the day. No technology around us, just the fire and the family. These are memories that will last forever! The girls did not want to leave but our check-out time was upon us. We will be back!

Check out their website and see which cabin would suit your family. It will be a vacation you will never forget!

Top Ten Family Christmas Events in North Carolina

November 10, 2015 by Jennifer Leave a Comment

It’s my favorite time of the year. Christmas in the Carolinas can bring forth great joy for your family. North Carolina is an amazing state as we have the beautiful blue ridge mountains on the western side and the great Atlantic Ocean beaches on the eastern side. In no particular order, here are our top ten Christmas events you will enjoy with your family this holiday season!

1. Christmas at the Billy Graham Library: From December 1, 2015 until December 23, 2015, you and your family can enjoy this event by taking a short drive down Highway 321! Beginning at 5:00 pm each day (except Sunday), you will see the beautiful Billy Graham Library all decorated for Christmas. Your family can enjoy the live nativity scene that offers a glimpse into the first Christmas. Enjoy horse-drawn carriage rides ($7 for adults, $3 for children 12 and under) through beautiful light displays. (Begins at 5 p.m.) Listen to heartwarming sounds of joyful carolers and festive Christmas music and a delightful story time with the kids.

2. The 23rd National Gingerbread House Competition, the largest of its kind in the U.S. and hosted by The Omni Grove Park Inn, is taking place Monday, November 16! To celebrate the annual event, the edible gingerbread masterpieces will be on display at the property from Nov. 18, 2015, through Jan. 3, 2016. This holiday season, The Omni Grove Park Inn will also be dressing up, displaying 80-themed Christmas trees, thousands of twinkling lights and multiple roaring fireplaces throughout the property — with the sweet scent of gingerbread in the air. Since launching the contest in 1992, the competition remains a beloved celebration at the historic Inn, with resort guests and visitors eagerly anticipating the hundreds of intricate and stunning holiday designs on display.

Grove Park Inn Gingerbread Competition — 2014 Grand Prize Winner in Teen Category

3. Speedway Christmas – (November 21 – December 30) Speedway Christmas is returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway and is even bigger and better in its sixth year. Speedway Christmas will have over 3,000,000 lights with a new and greatly improved lights-to-music drive-thru section!

Christmas Village will be open Thursday-Sunday and will include a petting zoo, Bethlehem village, horse-drawn wagon rides, photos with Santa, and more.

Movie nights have been expanded to every village night – Thursday through Sunday! Come see your favorite Christmas movies like Frozen, Elf, and more on a giant 16,000-square-foot high-definition TV!

4. Chetola Resort Festival of Lights – Chetola has a beautiful array of Christmas lights that your family can take a stroll or drive thru for free. They also have Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday Packages that your family can take part in and create wonderful Christmas memories.

5. McAdenville Christmas Town – I have been visiting McAdenville since I was a little girl. This will be the 60th year that this little town has turned into a Christmas Town. There is no charge to go see these lights and your will create new Christmas memories each time you go. The lights are turned on December 1st through December 26th. Monday through Friday the lights are on from 5:30 to 9:30pm and on Saturday and Sunday nights, the lights are lit from 5:30 – 11:00pm.

6. Beary Merry Christmas officially begins with “Light Up the Season,” an annual family event that welcomes Santa and illuminates Bear Plaza with hundreds of lights Nov. 27. During the following days during this festive holiday celebration, you can enjoy a Mistletoe March, sledding, shopping and other activities.

Photo Credit: bearymerrychristmas.com

7. Meadow Lights – Located in Benson, NC. Their website says: “The largest and oldest Christmas attraction in Eastern North Carolina!” Meadow Lights began more than 40 years ago and they keep growing larger with lights every year. Some of the displays include an authentic manger scene, carousel scenes, and much more. The Meadow Lights also offers three trains that travel through a colorful area of lights that children and adults can enjoy.

8. Tanglewood Festival of Lights – Tanglewood is another fun festival of lights that has been a long tradition of my family’s Christmas! My girls enjoy this so much. We ride through with our windows rolled down and just ohhh and ahhh over all the lights. Each year Tanglewood will add more additions so it is fun to see the new traditions. Also, halfway through the lights, you can park and go through a Christmas shop from local crafters. When you finish shopping, you can go go the the fire pit and stand around and roast marshmallows. The Festival of Lights is open nightly from November 21 through January 3, 2016 from 6:00 – 11:00 pm, including holidays. Suggestion: Attend Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday to avoid long lines. Tanglewood festival_of_lights

Rates are the same throughout the week.
– Family: cars, vans and trucks: $15
– Commercial: vans, limos and mini-buses: $35
– Motorcoaches and buses: $100

Save money by coming on a Discount Night:
On the following nights ONLY, receive reduced pricing!
– Monday, November 23rd
– Tuesday, November 24th
– Monday, November 30th
– Tuesday, December 1st

– Family: cars, vans and trucks: $5
– Commercial: vans, limos and mini-buses: $15
– Motorcoaches and buses: $65

9. Lights on the Neuse – Clayton, NC is the place for a fun family Christmas hayride. Their site says: “The hayride whisks you and your loved ones away to a transformed world of Christmas spirit. Pause to reflect on the true reason for the season, celebrate the joy of the birth of Jesus and feel the merriness of Christmas cheer and magic invade you and your family members with an outstanding Christmas Lights Extravaganza at Lights on the Neuse.” Ticket prices are Adults (12 and over) – $10 and Children (3-11) – $7.

10. Christmas at the Barnyard – (Newport, NC) Celebrate the Christmas season Barnyard-style! Enjoy an evening farm tour petting the animals under hundreds of Christmas lights and decorations. Let the kids visit with Santa in his big red sleigh while sipping on hot chocolate. Hang out with your family by our bonfire as you listened to Christmas music and watch the lights on the farm twinkle. All activities are included in the gate fee except hot chocolate. Decorated live Christmas wreaths for sale.

Admission: Gate fee is $6 per person, 2-years-old and older; under 2 is free

Family

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