A Thanksgiving at Home

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. This Thanksgiving was a little more memorable for me though. For the first time in 10 years, we did not travel to our very snowy hometowns, attempt to travel and have to turn around due to weather in our very snowy hometowns, or clean up for company to come to the house for a Thanksgiving feast. The Night Light Stories household had Thanksgiving, just the four of us. We Skyped with our families who are as far away as Spain. I was thankful for the technology to be able to share this holiday with our family and friends.

We started off the day going out to our favorite breakfast spot!

We cheered and danced as the enormous floats of our favorite characters appeared on the TV screen.

We practiced setting the table and taught our friends about table manners.

Some of us peeled the apples and some of us taste tested the apples for our pie.

We cleaned out, washed, seasoned, and dressed the turkey.

We drove our virtual race car while we waited for the turkey to cook.

We sat together, just the four of us, and gave thanks for all our blessings!We would love to hear how you spent your Thanksgiving Day. Feel free to share with us on the blog or at nightlightstories@gmail.com.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

During this time of year, a lot of people take time to reflect on the things they are thankful for in their lives. We here at the Night Light Stories household like to reflect on the past year

with all of its challenges and successes.

What are you going to take time to reflect about this holiday season?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Episode 15: Mojo's Cousin Trouble

Click here to listen to: Mojo's Cousin Trouble

Hi All,

It is official. We are in the holiday season. There will be days off of school and work, eating mouth watering foods and desserts, and of course, spending time with those you love. Whether you are traveling by plane, car, or train, we wish you a safe journey. Personally, in the Night Light Stories household, we love to jam to music from Rocknoceros, Laurie Berkner, Imagination Movers and Recess Monkey on our iPods, listen to stories and watch a movie or two. We also love to play games to pass the time like car Bingo or I Spy. Whatever your plans are this holiday weekend, we hope you have a magnificent time.

VORACIOUS VOCABULARY

In our story there are many juicy words that are fun to learn and say. Try to use some of these words in your vocabulary this week at home or in school.

imprint: a mark made by pressure

luscious: highly pleasing to the taste or smell

perch: any place or object, as a sill, fence, branch, or twig, for a bird, animal, or person to alight or rest upon.

rambunctious: difficult to control or handle

JUST ADD IMAGINATION!
Try these activities to keep your imagination glowing after hearing the story.

1. Mojo was angry in the story when the ferrets were destroying his stuff while they were exploring. There are many ways to calm down when you are angry. Try some of the following strategies next time you get angry.

*Count to ten.

*Take a break. Walk away from the situation for a little while until you calm down.

*Use your words to tell the person you are angry with why you feel this way. "That really hurt my feelings that you took my Transformer. Could I have it back please?"

*Take 5 deep breaths in and out.

2. If you are traveling a long distance, see who can find 10 red cars, 10 blue cars and 10 black cars first. If you want to make it a little more challenging, find 20 of each and add in colors like yellow, orange and turquoise. Don't forget to keep score on a piece of paper.

COMPREHENSION CHALLENGE
After listening to the story, can you recall the details to answer these questions?

1. Why did Mojo’s cage get moved out of the bedroom and into the family room downstairs?

2. How did Mojo stop his cousins from destroying more of the house?

3. What kind of pie was Mojo looking forward to eating?

BRIGHT BIRTHDAY WISHES
We want to send out bright birthday wishes to:

Maggie B of West Virginia who turned 2

Kacia G of Massachusetts

Prescott N of West Virginia

Maddie E of Virginia

We hope your day SPARKLED!

If you know someone who has a birthday coming up and you'd like to send them a Night Light Birthday wish, send us an email at nightlightstories@gmail.com.Please send us your loved one's first name and the first initial of their last name only and we'll pass along the birthday wish.

There are no age limits!

As always I look forward to the many stories we can share together.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

We here at the Night Light household were lucky enough to be able to attend an Imagination Movers concert for our daughter's second birthday. We had a blast! We really admire these guys for being such positive role models. Our son and daughter were filled with bliss thinking about seeing them live. We had to collaborate to gather everything we would need for the three hour car trip. We did not try to diguise how ecstatic we were about seeing them. Once the show started we were flabbergasted when all four came on stage. The cheers from the crowd were gigantic. The Movers were hysterical. Our bellies hurt from laughing. We were so happy to be able to indulge in family time and dancing like crazy. The music gave us a jolt of energy that lasted the entire concert. I knew I would have to knead my arm muscles the next day from holding my jumping daughter for an hour and a half. We did linger for a bit after the show and were honored to be able to meet these inspirational guys.




It was a momentous occasion. Thank you Movers. After all this excitement, we went in search of some nourishment. We weighed our options and chose the healthy path. So, we query you, what is your favorite song from the Imagination Movers?

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

What interesting paths have you taken lately? We would love to see your visual definition of path. Feel free to share your creativity with us at nightlightstories@gmail.com. As always, I look forward to the many words we can share together.

LIGHTING THE WAY WITH WORDS

What kind of options have you had lately?
Feel free to share your visual definition

of options with us. We will post them here on the blog for all to enjoy.

As always I look forward to the many words we can share together.

ROCKIN' WITH ROCKNOCEROS

Hi All,

We would like to thank everyone who entered the contest to win Rocknoceros' newest CD, Pink. There were quite a few of you who entered through email, facebook, and on the blog. We loved the diversity of entrants that included moms, grandmothers, teachers, and kids! Thanks again for all your support. As always, we look forward to the many contests, words, pictures, and stories we can share together.

The winner of the contest is:

Miss Traci and her classroom at
Small Scholars Academy

Congratulations! We hope you enjoy your new CD.