Holiday | Table for Five

Gotta Catch Santa Claus

October 23, 2009 By Elizabeth

From Amazon.com: Funky music, holiday magic and a supersonic sleigh are all wrapped up in this CGI-animated family adventure starring William Shatner as the voice of Santa! Trevor is a true believer in the holiday spirit, so his skeptical best friend, Veronica, challenges him to show the world actual proof that Santa is real! Trevor and his friends embark on the adventure of a lifetime to catch Santa in action and reveal the true magic of Christmas. But they’ve got to find Santa before LeFreeze – a dim-witted monster who’s carrying a serious 100-year-old grudge – and his snowman minions put Christmas on ice forever! Join the race to save Christmas in Gotta Catch Santa Claus, the jolly, jammin’, modern-day holiday classic destined to become a family tradition!

Kaitlyn has watched this DVD every day for the last week. She loves it! The movie isn’t rated but I found nothing at all objectionable. The “monster” is much more silly than at all scary. This is a fun Christmas movie for the whole family! Here’s the official trailer from YouTube:

Filed Under: DVD and Blu-Ray reviews Tagged With: Amazon.com, Christmas, dvd, holiday, Kids and Teens, Santa Claus, William Shatner

A Family Visit

January 6, 2009 By Elizabeth

This past Sunday we visited Chris’ sister and her family at their house which is about a two hour drive away. It was our first time visiting them at their new and gorgeous house.Â We had snacks, gave presents to the kids, went to dinner, it was a nice visit!

The kids were thrilled with their gifts- Ryan got the ROFLcopter t-shirt from ThinkGeek and a Nuttin’ But Stringz CD, Nathan got the Star Wars game for his Leapfrog Didj, and Kaitlyn got a cute MegaBlocks piano and a “Come to the Dark Side, We Have Cookies” shirt from ThinkGeek.Â My SIL also made us a wonderful gift basket with homemade Organic Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread, two mugs, a jar of her homemade hot cocoa mix, and two framed photos of her and Chris dancing at her wedding. I forgot to take a picture of it!Â I did take photos of everyone while we were there though:

Nathan, J., and Ryan. J. doesn’t usually look so serious!

boys

SIL, Chris, and MoMo the cat.

chris-and-alisa

My brother-in-law:

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Beautiful Holly the Golden Retriever. She’s a really good dog.

holly

Kaitlyn really likes this MegaBloks piano!

kaitlyn

My super-cute nephew “P”. Kaitlyn barely remembered him but loved playing with him (and all his toys!):

parker

Me and my nephews, who I was going to hug whether they liked it or not:

me-and-boys

Kaitlyn asked me several times today if we could please go back, I told her that her Aunt would love it if the next time we went, Kaitlyn was potty trained. So at the dinner table, Kaitlyn announced that we were going to see Auntie (SIL’sÂ name), but that she had to be potty trained first. Hey, whatever works!

Filed Under: Family, I love the Holidays Tagged With: Aunt, brother in law, Family, holiday, nephew, sister in law

Books from Candlewick Press make Great Gifts!

December 10, 2008 By Elizabeth

Candlewick Press is one of the largest independent publishing companies, not just in the country, but in the world, and it’s 100% employee owned. They are committed to publishing only “those books we believe in, only those books that speak to children, and only those that have both words and art of the highest quality.” And that is exactly what I have found to be true every time I review a Candlewick Press title. Two books I’d like to share with you today are Moon Landing, by author Richard Platt, with design and paper engineering by David Hawcock, and A Present for Santa Claus by author David Wood, with illustrations by Dana Kubick.

In A Present for Santa Claus, young Sam wakes up on Christmas morning to find that Santa has brought him just the present he had asked for. That night, he dreams that Santa is back at the North Pole, sad because no one gave him a present. So Sam decides to save his money and buy something for Santa for the next year. He writes Santa a letter and much to his surprise, Santa shows up on Christmas Day! The book has a fun, colorful pop-up on almost every page, and at the end, a magical house with holes to look through to get a special peek inside Santa’s house! Candlewick Press recommends it for ages 4-8, I think it could be for younger children as long as you supervise to make sure they don’t tear out the pop-ups. And the story tells an important lesson about thinking of others during Christmas!

Moon Landing is an amazing pop-up that celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. With a history of the space program, details about rockets, and bios of the astronauts, this book is part history lesson, and part really fun book for older kids. My 12 year old son gave it two big thumbs up! Acclaimed author Richard Platt focuses on humankind’s dreams of traveling to the moon, the race to conquer space, the technology needed to reach the moon and sustain the astronauts in space, and the moon landing itself. Re-creating the excitement of the expedition are extraordinary pop-ups depicting a rocket, the lunar module, a spaceship, and a spectacular spherical moon, while booklets and flaps offer readers a wealth of intriguing facts. For ages 8 and up.