SQUEE! I came upon a Hello Kitty Yankumi strap for cellular phones. It is awesome! Who is Yankumi, you ask? For shame! Yankumi is the main character in the Gokusen series, played by the beautiful Nakama Yukie. Granted, the strap is a tie-in with the recent Gokusen movie, but that is quite all right with me. I need to make some time to watch the movie anyway. Now if only I had a Hello Kitty Yankumi to do it with me!
Koziar's Christmas Village
I completely forgot to talk about this. If you live within driving distance of Berks County and have children, you might enjoy checking out Koziar's Christmas Village. My husband and I took our 7-year old daughter over the weekend and she had a pretty good time. Basically, Koziar's is a large plot of land with various buildings entirely decorated with Christmas lights. When you walk in, there's an area to the right that has three trains running on a track around a little village. On the pond, there's a lit-up pirate ship. Nearby, there's a lit train with a couple of cars. As you walk through the village, there are buildings dressed up with themes like "Christmas Around The World." There's also an old-fashioned post office and fire station. And, of course, the kids can have their pictures taken with Santa Claus.
For the adults, there are a couple of gift stores where you can buy ornaments or nutcrackers or little things for the kids. My in-laws bought my daughter light-up reindeer antlers and a light-up Rudolph nose. There were also a variety of really cute hats, including a pig with wings and a blue elephant. If you get cold or hungry, there's plenty of hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and cookies.
Just make sure you get there early! Otherwise the line is huge!
Riverdance
Last night, we all went to see Riverdance at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia. My daughter takes tap and ballet lessons. She's also really into dance overall. So we thought it would be a good idea for her to see something a little different than what she is used to.
Overall, the show was amazing. It's unbelievable how fast the dancers can move their feet. In addition, all of the musicians were awesome. I enjoyed the fiddler and the percussionist the most. Hopefully we get the chance to take my daughter to see some other forms of dance as well.
American Cancer Society's Relay For Life
The Relay for Life is a 24-hour walk-a-thon relay that takes place once a year. While people can participate as individuals, most are in teams. Each team needs to have at least one member walking on the track during the 24 hours. Last year was my first year participating. Despite some major thunderstorms, it was a nice time. I am participating again this year. This is the American Cancer Society's signature event. You can find more information about sponsoring me on my Relay For Life webpage. If you know of a company or organization looking for a charity to donate to this year, please feel free to let them know about the Relay.
Thank you!
Lunar Eclipse
There was a lunar eclipse last night. The next one won't occur until 2010, which sounds like it's really far away but that's only two years from now. (Actually, the eclipse is supposed to take place in December so it's closer to three years.) My husband and I took our daughter outside a couple of times so she could see it. Despite the crappy weather that the Philadelphia area has had for the past couple of weeks, the clouds parted and it was miraculously clear during the eclipse. While we didn't stay to watch the entire event, we did see the beginning and full eclipse. It was definitely something interesting to watch.