Category: Christmas

December 15, 2017

Cross The Family Gift off Your List with Enchanted Forest Observation Puzzle

Every Christmas holiday season, I begin the search for the perfect family gift (which I am sure so many of you do too). Every Friday night we try to have a family game night, it helps us unwind after a busy week and we can re-connect over friendly competition and team work. We get to hear about the kid’s week at school and we can tell them a little bit about our week. For an hour or two there is no thought about work, what needs to be done around the house or worry about driving to extra-curricular activities.

Not all family games are suited for bonding and unwinding. You need an activity that requires team work, encourages talking, has a goal and is not connected to an electronic (sorry for all you gamers!).

The Observation Puzzle Enchanted Forest fits all these must have requirements and more. The Enchanted Forest has 100 puzzle pieces to put together as a family. Once the puzzle has been put together around the edges are images of items that you will need to find inside the puzzle.

We had a lot of fun putting this puzzle together. While it is a 100 pieces, the puzzle pieces are on the medium size so that little hands can put the puzzle together with just enough difficulty to help them with their fine motor skills. The box includes a large poster of what the finished puzzle should look like which helps you fit the pieces together.

Once the puzzle was completed, your family can move onto the second challenge – find all the images on the outside white frame within the puzzle. Some of the images were easier to find while others really made you think. This was a great addition to this puzzle and added extra fun to this activity. You can even through some competition in this one – the person who finds the most items wins something special or gets to choose the family movie.

You can find more information on the Observation Puzzle Enchanted Puzzle on iLo307. The puzzle can be purchased at specialty toy stores and select book stores across Canada. The puzzle sells for $19.99 CDN.

What is your favourite product to purchase for a family gift?

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

December 6, 2016

Creating Magical Christmas Memories with the Portable North Pole Magic Pass

For the last six years, our family has been creating Portable North Pole (PNP) Santa calls for our children. My Dad started this tradition with our eldest son and we have carried it on.

Portable North Pole (PNP) allows parents (or grandparents/aunts/uncles,etc) create a personalized video call for the special child in their life. They can personalize it with their name (which you can choose the right pronunciation of the name), their pictures, an achievement they made this year and what they have been asked to do this year. At the end of the video the child finds out whether they are on Santa’s naughty or nice list (not going to lie, my husband and I made joke ones for each other that the kids think are hilarious as Daddy is always on the naughty list!).

Each year the video calls are different with the most amazing attention to detail. The calls are engaging and Santa is animating and attentive. He really makes you feel part of the video call. Our youngest sits there listening to his video answering ‘yes Santa’, ‘I will try Santa’ and ‘okay Santa’. It is priceless and something we can’t wait for them to experience each year.

With the magic pass, you have access to all of the premium videos for an unlimited amount of video videos, a reaction recorder (this is for the mobile app), unlimited Santa calls, HD downloads of your videos and a story time video with Santa every week during the month of December. Right now you can save 20% on the PNP Magic Pass by visiting their website here.

I highly recommend downloading the app on your phone for the PNP. You can always watch the videos online but the app has so many extras that are perfect for parents and kids. There is a parent section (password protected!), where you can create the videos as well as email them. I used the app to create all my videos this year. There is also a call button on it that I have convinced my youngest and all his friends that it gives me a direct line to Santa when they are being bad. The second section is just for kids where they can playing a matching game, tree shaking game and watch their videos.

Make sure you follow Portable North Pole online to keep up with all things Christmas and Santa, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Happy video calls!

Disclosure: I received a Magic Pass in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 20, 2015

Personalized Holiday Gifts with Acrylic Blocks from Posterjack!

The holiday season is just around the corner and I am sure many of you have either already started shopping or at least planned out some gift ideas!. Many of the items on my list are personalized items (like photographs) so that my family member can cherish that memory just as much as we do. Using your own photographs is one of the best ways to capture special moments for family members and friends, especially for those who do not live nearby.

Acrylic blocks are unique gift ideas that the recipient can display at home or even at work (my acrylic block is proudly displayed on my desk at work and I have patients constantly stopping to have a look at it!). Your photograph is displayed on a clear, one inch piece of premium cast acrylic block. Posterjack prints your image onto the back of the block and the result is an image that appears almost 3D with crystal clear quality. The light catches in the acrylic block in such a unique way that really makes your image the centre of attention.

Ordering acrylic blocks from Posterjack is simple, which is something we all need during the holiday season. All you have to do is visit Posterjack, choose the acrylic block option and upload your photo. Simplicity at it’s finest!

The acrylic blocks fit the home decor and styles of any individual and help keep those special memories alive (your favourite fur baby, a family member or even a new baby!).

Make sure you check out Posterjack online, Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with news, contests and more!

How do you like to gift photographs for family and friends? Do you buy calendars, frames,etc?

November 16, 2015

The Knights Before Christmas

The Knights Before Christmas is not your usual Christmas story but brings with it silly humour and a new kind of Christmas fun.

About The Knights Before Christmas

‘Twas December 24th, and three brave knights were just settling in for the night when out on the drawbridge, there arose such a clatter! The knights try everything to get rid of this unknown invader (Santa Claus!), a red and white knight with a fleet of dragons.

‘But nothing would stop
their white-whiskered foe.
No matter their efforts,
he just would not go!’

My Thoughts

Silly, fun, rhyming humour is what you can find with this trio of Knights as they protect their King from a jolly invader with his fierce dragons (think red suit and his sleigh!). The rhyming follows the much-loved, Twas the Night Before Christmas, which helped as my children could almost guess the next words. We have so much fun whipping this story out, snuggling on the couch and reading it to each other. We have read it almost every night for the last week and it still hasn’t grown old! It definitely puts a new spin on an old family favourite, while adding in humour, excellent illustrations and a theme most young boys and girls can relate to! A fantastic addition to our Christmas book collection.

You can purchase the book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5+

About the Author

Joan Holub is the author and illustrator of more that 130 children’s books, including Zero the Hero, Little Red Writing, and the Goddess Girls series. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About the Illustrator

Scott Magoon is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including Spoon and Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and the author and illustrator of The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot and Breathe. The art director at Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, he lives in the Boston area with his wife and two sons.

Disclosure: I received a copy of The Knights Before Christmas in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 16, 2015

The Spirit of Christmas

The best gift at Christmas? The gift of time, family and love!

About the Spirit of Christmas

Bells jingle, sleds dash through the snow, trees are topped with sparkling stars, and children everywhere dream of candy canes and presents. But the best gift of all-the most magical gift of the season-is when we spend Christmas with those we love.

My Thoughts

What a perfect, heart warming book just in time for the Christmas season!

It is perfectly sized for little ones hands and comes in a board book format giving it sturdiness for little hands. The images are adorable and bring you back to your own childhood. The book is written in rhymes that allows you to read aloud quite easily to your child with natural pauses.

It is the actual story that brought tears to my eyes and which makes this the perfect gift from a parent (or grandparent to a child). It is love and the birth of a child that is celebrated at Christmas. All the other things may be toppings we enjoy but it is love and family that means the most especially at this time of the year. It is a fantastic book to remind not only yourself and child about the true meaning of Christmas but also how much we love our children. This will be one of the best books you could buy a special child in your life this Christmas season!

You can purchase a copy of The Spirit of Christmas on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5+

About the Author

Nancy Tillman is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture book On the Night You Were Born ; its companion journal, The Wonder of You: A Book for Celebrating Baby’s First Year ; The Spirit of Christmas ; The Heaven of Animals ; and the New York Times bestsellers, Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You ; The Crown on Your Head ; and I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love. She also created the mischievous cat Tumford in Tumford the Terrible and Tumford’s Rude Noises, and illustrated It’s Time to Sleep, My Love by Eric Metaxas.

Nancy’s mission in creating her books is to convey to children everywhere that “You are loved.” She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Disclosure: I received a copy of The Spirit of Christmas in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.