MercyMe It's Christmas! CD - A FlyBy Promotions Review & GIVEAWAY

I love the sentiment of Christmas and the entire holiday season.  Despite growing up in a very financially poor home I have very fond memories of the Christmas season.  It's a time to more acutely focus on the things that matter most; the little things.  Maybe at least in part that is why I love the winter so very much.  Yes, I am one of those peculiar individuals that will merrily answer, "Winter!" when asked, "What is your favorite season?"


Seriously.


What is not to like?


There is magic in winter, a simple joy that exists in none of the other seasons, and I have been blessed to call a region home for most all of my life that has four distinct season.  Yes, it IS a blessing!  Without winter there would be no snowmen, hot cocoa, crackling fires, cute hats, snow angels, dogs flinging flakes with their noses, and Christmas just wouldn't quite feel the same.  One of the most beautiful side effects of winter and Christmas time, I believe, is seasonal music.  I have loved Christmas music ever since my mom introduced us to John Denver and The Muppets all those years ago.

My last experience with a Pizza Ranch original CD was so joyous that I couldn't resist the opportunity to review their latest CD, MercyMe, It's Christmas!  This is BY FAR my most favorite Christmas CD ever.


No joke.


I 100% absolutely LOVE this CD!!!


I would gladly share with you my favorite song if I could actually choose one.  It really is that good.  It's crankable!  (I'm a blogger.  I can make up words.) Really!  This is a full of energy, praise, joy, harmony, and power.  It evokes emotion, commands your accompaniment (you cannot help but sing along), and puts your focus on the reason for the season.  Despite this being a Christmas CD I could seriously listen to this year round.  I've got no problem playing the whole album on repeat.  It's THAT good!

In our family we have a tradition.  Christmas morning my husband and I get to go downstairs alone.  We make a pot of coffee and make sure everything is perfect and tend to any breakfast details that may be needed.  It's a quiet, peaceful time just for us.  Once we start hearing activity on the floor above, we wait just a little longer.  Suspense is a beautiful thing sometimes.  Then, when it feels right we turn on the music loud enough for the miniature humans anxiously awaiting the cue upstairs.  So begins our Christmas morning together as a family.

I bet you can guess which CD we'll be cranking to call down the children this Christmas morning.  I almost cannot wait.  Take my word for it.  This is one amazing CD!

About MercyMe It's Christmas CD and its debut with Pizza Ranch:

Mercy Me It's Christmas CD is available in Pizza Ranch locations through December 31st of this year.  It has 4 exclusive songs that can only be found on the CD version being sold by Pizza Ranch.  Each CD will be sold for $5 plus tax.  Pizza Ranch will give away the CD with a $25 gift card purchase as well as sell the full album at each of its 200 locations throughout the Midwest and Great Plains states.  "We are so excited to debu our new Christmas album, MercyMe, It's Christmas. with Pizza Ranch", said Bart Millard with MercyMe.  "Pizza Ranch is a fantastic restaurant with a great mission to glorify God.  It's the perfect gift to give this Christmas season and the perfect CD to get you in the Christmas spirit."


You know what's even better than this CD?  A FREE COPY just for you!  Just leave me a comment below and share with me your most cherished Christmas tradition, and you'll be entered in a random drawing for your very own copy shipped to your door for FREE.  It's that simple!  Trust me.  You WANT this CD.  Deadline to enter is Sunday, November 22nd.  Don't miss out on your chance!

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

S is for Smiling Sunrise - A Book Review

ABCs, ABCs, how many ways can we learn our ABCs?  Learning our ABCs is such a big deal when we are little.  As a parent it can get kind of mundane and boring teaching ABC's, especially when we're raising a lot of children.  I mean...really...how many times CAN we sing the ABC song?  How many picture books can we read with the typical A, apple, and B, ball, and C, cat, and D, dog, and on and on it goes?  WordsBright, a small, independent publisher, has published a book that is anything but the A, apple, and B, ball approach to the ABCs.  In writing S is for Smiling Sunrise Vick Wadhwa (He's on Facebook if you'd like to connect with him.) has most definitely provided parents and children alike with a refreshingly new take on ABCs.



It's quite impressive to me that a children's ABC book can be tied into our homeschool in a variety of ways with a variety of teaching opportunities.  Character and Virtues has been a concentrated area of focus in our homeschool this year.  S is for Smiling Sunrise effectively teaches and reinforces areas of virtue that we have been actively learning and practicing as part of our normal routine.  The vocabulary is excellent.  I love the words that were chosen to represent each letter of the alphabet.  They are anything but ordinary; K, kaleidoscope for example.  Then there's the rest of the book content which is rich in literary stimulation including rhyming words and wholesome messages.  The content is rich enough to even elicit conversation from the nine-year-old, not just the two young ones.  We really enjoy reading it as a family, as a bedtime story, and the kids enjoy looking at it on their own.

Bella, age 4, enjoying the book independently.

S is for Smiling Sunrise also comes with a few wonderful resources.  There is a FREE Teacher's Guide available for download.  I love that the teacher guide provides relevant ideas and activities for K-3 age children.  It's not just for toddlers!  In the Teacher Guide there are four areas of focus for each letter; concepts, questions, vocabulary, and activities.  That's 26 different concepts to explore, 26 different questions to discuss, well over 100 vocabulary words to learn, and more than 26 activities to do together.  All of this from a children's ABC book!  Did I mention that we love this book?  You can even download a free word poster to go along with the book via the website as well as an MP3 of the story put to song.

There is so much potential within the pages of S is for Smiling Sunshine.  It's a wonderful teaching tool for not only learning the alphabet, but fully enriching the learning experience of your child.  It would be a wonderful addition to any homeschool curriculum for young children as well as just enriching the learning process for any child in a variety of learning environments.  We are looking forward to expanding on the book with the provided resources as we go throughout the coming year.  Such a fun way to take learning the ABCs to the next level!

What Your Music Taste Says About You

Hmmm...this is curious. Very curious...

Your musical tastes are intense and rebellious. You are intelligent... but in a very unconventional way. You are curious about the world. You love doing something new. In fact, you enjoy taking risks and doing things most people would shy away from. You are very physical. It's likely that you're athletic, but not into team sports. You have the soul of an artist. Beauty and harmony are important to you.

What Does Your Taste in Music Say About You?