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A Love of Hallmark Ornaments

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Happy Holidays Hallmark Photo OrnamentQuite simply put, I love Hallmark Christmas Ornaments. My husband and I drool over their Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments every Christmas. Me being the tightwad that I am have never been able to stomach the price of the Hallmark Holiday Ornaments, however, somehow having children makes the price, not quite as important.

One of the frames we just love, are the large array of Our Family Hallmark Photo Ornamentphoto ornaments. We have two we purchased last year, and two I received from Hallmark PR this year. The ones we have last year, one has a family picture and the other has a photo of the kids together. So this year, we did the same thing with the photo frames we received for review.

The Happy Holidays photo frame with the photo of Zoe and Miles playing on the couch plays the song, “Happy Holidays”. It was fun putting it on the tree because Miles man pushed the button about 10 times. Christmas makes me so happy! I adore everything about Christmas, the music, the food, the family time. I LOVE IT.

Jessie Hallmark OrnamentThis year when we were searching for the special ornaments for the kids (we get ornaments for the kids every year, it’s a tradition, it’s been a tradition for my husband and I since we were both kids and we wanted to do it for our own children) we waited a tad too long for one of them.

The kids are very much in Love with everything Toy Story. It doesn’t matter which story, 1, 2, or 3 Miles loves them all. Zoe, prefers the episodes with Jessie of course, which is why we Fisher Price Airplane Hallmark Ornamentpurchased the Jessie ornament for her. Which leads me to what we waited too long for. We wanted to get Miles the High-Flyin’ Friends. Apparently Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments are harder to find especially the Toy Story ornaments. We called every Hallmark Store in the area, and my husband decided to pick another ornament for Miles man. He picked out the Play Family Fun Jet. The Family Fun Jet was still a great big hit. Miles Loves it. He loves airplanes, he loves Our Christmas Tree 2010taking me on blogging trips because he knows that means he will get to see another airplane.

So this is our Christmas tree, it’s filled with lots of love, beautiful lights, and plenty of meaningful ornaments.

We received A Hallmark Sample Kit of assorted Hallmark items, including the two photo frames you see in the first pictures. I was in attendance at a party sponsored by Hallmark at Blogher 2010 and connected with their PR firm there. None of this affects the fact that I have and always will love Hallmark. They have excellent products all year round, Precious Moments were always a big tradition growing up, but now, it’s mainly a Christmas store, and of course, I can always find the perfect card in there too. Thank you Hallmark for the samples. Miles and Zoe also love the Recordable Story book Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Be Close to Kids Even When You are Far Away Operation Record a Story

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We recently received two copies of Twas the Night Before Christmas Record a Story from Publications International. Record a Story offers a unique and affordable solution for families to stay connected and “be together” at story time, even when distance keeps them apart.  Record A Story is available in 4 different titles for $19.99 at local Toys R Us, Walmart, Borders and Barnes & Noble nationwide, and at http://record-a-story.com/.  The books also engage kids in reading in a whole new way, and it is highly appealing to kids because they can record their own voices reading the story.  This motivates kids to be enthusiastic about reading and encourages them at an early age to develop a life-long love of books. I know it’s true because Zoe and Miles both want to keep the book and I’m supposed to be giving one of the two books away as a giveaway here on Mom Start.

clip_image001I also thought you might be interested to learn about a new program called Operation Record a Story, which launched on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, 2010.  Publications International {PIL’s} Record a Story books are currently being recorded by servicemen and servicewomen at USO locations in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.  After the book captures the service member’s voice reading the story out loud, it will be sent, together with a video of the parent recording the story, to their kids in time for the holidays.

“We are extremely excited to introduce this creative and affordable product that is a heartwarming gift for young kids who love story time, and can now hear their favorite stories brought to life by parents or other loved ones,” said Mike Sieczkowski, Executive Vice President of Sales at PIL.  “In addition, Record a Story is highly appealing to kids because they can also record their own voices reading the story.  This motivates kids to be enthusiastic about reading and encourages them at an early age to develop a life-long love of books.  In this way, Record a Story is the perfect addition to the PIL family of products.”

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So far, my kids are loving Record a Story. I recorded my own voice as the reader of the book, and Zoe likes to listen to a page and then repeat all of what she just heard. She’s always loved looking at books and now just by opening a page she can listen to mommy read it no matter what I’m doing and then read it aloud to herself. The only problem we’ve been having with these books as that sometimes you have to keep the page very still, and open just right for it to read the entire page. It likes to stop and start as kids squirm with the book in their hands.

 

Record a Story will launch with four titles:
· ’Twas the Night Before Christmas – The classic holiday story;
· Guess How Much I Miss You – An original story with a rhyming narrative about missing a loved one who is far away;
· Sesame Street: Together at Heart – A story from Elmo about special things that make loved ones feel close when they can’t be together; and
· Dora the Explorer – The popular Nickelodeon character and her friends reminisce about some of their favorite adventures.  This title is available exclusively at Toys“R”Us and Toysrus.com

Each Record a Story consists of seven illustrated spreads on sturdy pages, as well as a deluxe padded cover with embossed and foiled details that truly elevate the product to keepsake status.  Perfect for lap-time, each landscape-format book is 10 inches by 8 inches. The storybook’s recording function operates on three AAA batteries (included with purchase) and will not be erased when the batteries are replaced. 

Enter to Win:

Twas the night before Christmas Record a Story.

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Leave me a comment telling me who you would want to be the voice on the book

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You’ll have to hold onto the book until next year because this giveaway ends December 27th. I received the samples mentioned above free to me in exchange for my unbiased opinion. All rules can be found under giveaway rules.