January 4, 2016
Dare to Dream with Disney On Ice
Disney On Ice has been a long-standing tradition not only in my home but throughout my childhood. Every holiday break marked our yearly trip downtown to Toronto to watch magic come alive with Disney On Ice. My parents would take us along with their close friends and their children to watch Disney come to life through music, dance and lights.
We would hop on the subway and our poor parents had to ensure we were at the front of the subway line to get the best view for our trip. Nothing beat watching the ride out of the front window and sometimes getting lucky and the conductor allowing you to view the inside of the controls. We all still have fond memories of hopping off and heading to the Sky Dome, which I still call it by this name to my children’s annoyance as they like to remind me that is now called the Rogers Centre!
Disney on Ice was magical from the moment you stepped inside the stadium. The vibe in the air is full of excitement (sometimes we dressed up in our costumes), the smell of popcorn and the areas marked off for souvenirs and programs. To think this is just the prelude to come! I can still remember the magic as the skaters brought the Disney story to life through dance, music and props.
This is what I couldn’t wait for my children to experience when we headed to Toronto for Disney on Ice Dare to Dream. Sharing these moments with my own children to me has been one of the highlights of parenting. I now know why my parents loved taking us year after year! The look on their faces as the stadium dimmed and the first sounds of music started and out came Mickey and Minnie was priceless. As the show evolved, we found ourselves singing and dancing in our seats. My children and husband were quite impressed with my Disney song knowledge (my personal favourite being all of the songs from The Little Mermaid). I won’t even lie our trip ended with us coming home for a Disney movie marathon! We watched the classics (The Sword in the Stone and Beauty and the Beast) and newer classics like Mulan. This made our whole experience memorable beyond compare. My children are already talking about what the next Disney on Ice should be!
What are your favourite childhood Disney memories? Keep up to date with all things Disney Junior, videos, games and more by visiting the Disney Junior website.
Disclosure: I received tickets to attend this event but was not obligated to post, all opinions expressed are my own.
December 29, 2015
The New Midnight on New Years Eve #StreamTeam
I don’t know about you but ever since I had children, I have not made one New Years Eve ball drop countdown! Our family usually falls asleep around nine and my husband tries to wake us up at the midnight mark. Sometimes he is successful and other times we just can’t get up out of bed. The problem? I am just too tired to stay up until midnight even though I would love to celebrate as a family together.
While I thought I may have been one of the few people who fall asleep early, studies have shown that I am not alone. While 97% of families celebrate together, here is how we stack up to other families globally:
- Parents in the US, UK, Canada and Australia agree 9 p.m. is the new midnight. Nearly half of parents in these countries say they’d countdown those famous 10 seconds by 9 p.m. (49%).
- Parents down under can’t wait for bedtime. One-third of Aussie parents (34%) admit they’d hit the sack themselves after kissing the kids goodnight — long before midnight.
- Italian and French parents are getting cozy with their significant others after lights out. Parents in both countries most look forward to spending time with their other half after putting the kids to sleep (51% and 43%, respectively). Now I wouldn’t mind that!
- Parents love a good party in Spain and Mexico. 50% of parents in both countries can’t wait to kick off the parents-only party after tucking in their little ones. I wish I could do this!!!
Netflix is helping parents with the midnight countdown by bumping up midnight to whenever you want to start the countdown. That way your child can experience all of the magic of the New Years countdown and as a family you can enjoy the time with them. Netflix has six on demand specials launching today, including your favourite characters such as:
- Puffin Rock residents Oona and Baba re-live their adventures from the past year and celebrate with the Northern Lights, nature’s very own fireworks.
- Care Bears & Cousins head to Share Bear’s Shake Shack to gear up for a belly badge-tastic countdown in Care-a-Lot.
- Inspector Gadget saves New Year’s Eve from a mischievous M.A.D. agent just in the nick of time for a dazzling firework display.
- King Julien lives up to his party animal persona with a countdown to dance your way into the new year. My personal favourite guy!
- Mr. Peabody and Sherman venture around the world to gather their favorite talk show guests for a star-studded countdown event featuring Hiccup and Toothless, Puss in Boots, the Croods and the entire Dinotrux team.
- Project Mc2 stars McKeyla, Adrienne, Bryden and Camryn team up for NOV8’s most important mission yet: Party!
Check out the Netflix: It’s Almost Midnight Trailer to get a sneak peek.
Enjoy your New Years Eve celebrations!
Disclosure: I am a Netflix StreamTeam Member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 16, 2015
At Love’s Bidding by Regina Jennings
In At Love’s Bidding, she sells priceless antiques. He sells livestock by the pound. Is he really the man to make a bid for her heart?
About At Love’s Bidding
After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she’s accidentally sold a powerful family’s prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the people who could ruin them forever, they track it to the Missouri Ozarks and make an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house and all its holdings before the painting can move again.
Upon crossing the country, however, Miranda and her grandfather discover their new auction house doesn’t deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And it’s frustratingly handsome manager, Wyatt Ballentine, is annoyed to discover his fussy new bosses don’t know a thing about the business he’s single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more heads of cattle than they can count but no mysterious painting Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try to prevent a bad situation from getting worse.
My Thoughts
A historical novel set in a time where a young lady such as Miranda, had very few options for her future. Her interests lie in her family’s auction business but this is not a position that society would see her in. She is not quite wealthy enough to be accepted by ‘polite’ society but too far above the lower class. What sets Miranda above others though is her compassion and kindness, she would do anything for anyone even at the expense of her own pride and happiness.
When she tries to set right an accident that her Grandfather made, she meets the frustrating and mysterious Wyatt, whom we later learn has many more secrets than she would believe. Together they find a partnership and friendship but could it ever be anything more? If society had its way, they would never be together but can they truly break these bonds?
At Love’s Bidding is romantic, sweet, funny and heartbreaking (with the slow decline of Miranda’s Grandfather). It is hard to know whether their story will be one of happiness or of a heartbreak but every minute is worth it!
You can find more reviews on At Love’s Bidding on the Litfuse Blog tour page. You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Regina Jennings is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in English and a history minor. She is the author of A Most Inconvenient Marriage, Sixty Acres and a Bride, and Caught in the Middle, and contributed a novella to A Match Made in Texas. Regina has worked at the Mustang News and First Baptist Church of Mustang, along with time at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and various livestock shows. She now lives outside Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with her husband and four children.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 16, 2015
Bach, Casals & The Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo: Vol1-4
|
|
|
|
|
|
Category: Adult non-fiction, 1189 pages
Genre: Biography / Music
Publisher: iTunes
Release date: June 2015
Tour dates: Nov 30 – Dec 18, 2015
Content Rating: GBook Description:FROM TRAGEDY TO TRANSCENDENCEA Totally Immersive Multimedia Experience.Richly Detailed Text Embedded with More Than 1,000 Illustrations Illuminating Bach’s Masterpiece, from Its Creation to Its Legacy.Bach, Casals and the Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo and 3-CD set Audio Recording of ‘Cello Suites to be Released June 23rd.Exclusively on iTunes and CD Baby.Includes Hancoff’s Complete Recording Of His Acoustic Guitar Transcription of Bach’s ‘Cello Suites.From tragedy to transcendence is the theme that embodies the essence of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. “This man, ‘the miracle of Bach,’ as Pablo Casals once put it, led a life of unfathomable creativity and giftedness on the one hand and neglect and immense tragedy on the other,” says Hancoff.Bach’s life was rife with hardship and tragedy from the start. By the time he was nine years old, he had witnessed the deaths of three siblings and then, within a year, his father and mother also passed away.
For all his education and talent, however, his first job was serving as a lackey for a drunkard duke. Subsequently, he spent the next fifteen years in the employ of Weimar’s harshly ascetic Duke Wilhelm Ernst, who cared little for music. When he was twenty-two, he married the love of his live, his distant cousin, Maria Barbara Bach. During the thirteen years they were married, she bore him seven children, three of whom died at birth.
In 1717, Prince Leopold of Cöthen offered Bach a position as the musical director for Cöthen. Bach jumped at the chance. The officials of Weimar, however, threw him in jail for “the crime” of daring to resign his present position. Still, Bach was on the verge of a career breakthrough.
Three years into his happy and contented tenure in Cothen, Prince Leopold and Bach visited the spa town of Carlsbad for a month of vacationing and music-making. Unfortunately, upon his return Bach learned of the death of his wife and then only when he entered into his home. Imagine the shock, the impact. He never even discovered the cause of death.
Yet this tragic setback in Bach’s life was a major turning point because he came to grips with his personal tragedy by unleashing a flood of masterpieces for which he is and will be forever revered. First came the Six Violin Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo and then the Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo.
In the ‘Cello Suites we hear Bach expressing his own seeking, yearning, love, loss, sorrow, grief and determination and their overtones of surrender, resolution affirmation and transcendence. He aspired to articulate an ultimate personal confession, a revelation, entirely unique, entirely sublime, as an ultimate act of artistic and creative testimony, a heavenly statement about his own life and even of life itself—as a final gift and an enduring, heavenly send-off for his beloved wife.
Bach, Casals and the Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo invites readers and music lovers into a unique experience, contained in an immersive four-volume e-book from Steven Hancoff – a virtuoso musician’s restless, passionate, multimedia exploration of a musical masterpiece that only grows in stature almost three centuries after it was written.
The many fascinating and inspiring aspects of the book include:
• How Bach struggled and overcame adversity and the lessons his example offer us today.
• The ultimate meaning of the Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo.
• How almost all of Bach’s works would have nearly sunk into oblivion were it not for the extraordinary efforts of Sara Levy, the great aunt of Felix Mendelssohn, to rescue them.
• How Felix Mendelssohn singlehandedly created with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion a Bach renaissance and a legacy that continues to be enjoyed to the present day.
• The miraculous discovery of the six ‘Cello Suites by Pablo Casals in a Barcelona thrift shop and why he studied them for twelve years before performing them in public.
• What Pablo Casals meant when he spoke of “the miracle of Bach.” Bach, Casals and the Six Suites for ‘Cello Solo promises to be an adventure for anyone fascinated by the enduring power of music, art and why they matter.
Steve Hancoff began playing guitar when he was 13 years old, captivated by the folk music craze of the 1960s. Within a year he was performing in coffeehouses around Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
For nearly 15 years, he toured the world—about 50 countries—as an official Artistic Ambassador representing the United States of America. His recordings include Steel String Guitar, New Orleans Guitar Solos, Duke Ellington for Solo Guitar, and The Single Petal of A Rose. He is also the author of Acoustic Masters: Duke Ellington for Fingerstyle Guitar and New Orleans Jazz for Fingerstyle Guitar. He is a graduate of St. John’s College, home of the “100 Great Books of the Western World” program and has a Masters degree in clinical social work. He is a psychotherapist, a Rolfer, and a practitioner of Tai Chi. An avid hiker, he is also a member of the Grand Canyon River Guides Associations.
December 14, 2015
The Month of #NetfliXmas:Baking,Family Time and Netflix
It is hard to believe but it is almost time for one of our favourite family holidays – Christmas! The month of December for us is always busy but to make things fun we try to do family activities like baking, hiking and spending time watching movies on Netflix. What better way to get into the Christmas mood with #NetfliXmas theme movies?!
Besides how easy it is to use Netflix (one button on our Smart TV and wham – Netflix is there!), one of the best features of Netflix is the crazy amount of holiday favourites which includes films that I enjoyed from my own childhood!
So while our Elf, lovingly named Captain, terrorizes our home with his silly pranks (I have to admit I prayed that an Elf would never visit our home – I sure am happy to have this one in our home!) and we practice our baking skills with popular recipes such as Amaretti cookies and chocolate dipped snicker doodles, we are getting in the #NetfliXmas mood with some very popular titles that includes Christmas with the Kranks, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Santa Paws.
Looking for more #NetfliXmas spirit makers? Why not check out these titles: Caspers Haunted Christmas, My Little Pony: A Very Minted Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Swan Princess Christmas. There are many titles to help you make the holiday movie night a hit!
To help you and your family get into the #NetfliXmas spirit, Netflix Canada is giving two of my readers a six month free subscription to Netflix! Pretty awesome, right?! My Canadian readers, eighteen years of age and older can enter via the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!
Premiering December 24th is DreamWorks Dawn of the Croods, get a small preview now!
Disclosure: I am a Netflix #StreamTeam member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.