Part of our family’s holiday tradition every year includes a visit to Knott’s Berry Farm during Knott’s Merry Farm.It’s such a fun place to visit and a true Southern California holiday tradition. If you’ve never been before, you’ll want to get there this year before it ends on January 8.
All throughout the Park, there are wonderful, festive decorations, special shows, tasty treats, and the usual thrilling attractions for guests to enjoy. As you stroll through Calico Ghost Town, you’ll literally feel like you’ve stepped back in time and right into the town’s old-fashioned Christmas celebration, “Christmas in Calico“.
For the first time ever, the bustling streets of Calico are overflowing with seasonal joy as its gleeful citizens, from this summer’s Ghost Town Alive!, help guests celebrate the holidays with Christmas in Calico. 
New this year, Calico’s Town Hall offers plenty of holiday activities for all to enjoy.New this year, Calico’s Town Hall offers plenty of holiday activities for all to enjoy. Little ones can pen Christmas letters to jolly ol’ Santa Claus or gather round for a special reading of the holiday classic the Night before Christmas by the Calico citizens. 
Everyone can also lend a hand around town by delivering gifts to some of the folks in Calico. Just outside Town Hall, cheerful Calico Carolers roam the festive streets sharing the sounds of the season though songs and hand bell chimes. 
Also in Ghost Town, be sure to save time to watch a performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”and O. Henry’s “A Gift of the Magi” brought-to-life at the Birdcage Theatre.
You can also find the toe tappin’, hand clappin’, comedy and bluegrass of Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies in the Birdcage Theatre. They’re always a lot of fun to watch!
During Knott’s Merry Farm, the Wilderness Dance Hall in Ghost Town is transformed into Santa’s Christmas Cabin for the holiday season. This is where you’ll find the jolly fellow himself.
Santa is sure to delight the young and young at heart. Send your season greetings to family and loved ones with special picture of the occasion, pictures can be purchased onsite.
You’ll also want to indulge in one-of-kind seasonal treats like Santa’s freshly-baked cookies, mouthwatering pastries, exquisite chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, seasonal craft beers, gourmet hot chocolate with marshmallows and hot spiced holiday wine, plus much more.
Knott’s world-famous holiday treats can also be found all throughout Ghost Town, including fresh poured-to-order maple lollipops at the Gold Trails Hotel, delectable homemade holiday churros from the Churro Factory and extra creamy Santa’s Milk and Cookie shakes from Coasters.
Returning this year, the PEANUTS® gang, and a cast of world class ice skaters perform in the breathtaking ice show, “Merry Christmas, Snoopy!” in the 2,100 seat Charles M. Schulz Theatre. 
In this whimsical show, Snoopy enjoys all of the best parts of the season, including trimming the Christmas tree, awaiting Santa’s arrival, and attending the Christmas Ball! This ice show is a must-see and is my absolute favorite thing to go watch at Knott’s Merry Farm every year! 
The annual Christmas Crafts village includes artistic craft holiday shops featuring power chainsaw sculpting and elegant glass blowing demonstrations. Entrance to the Knott’s Christmas Crafts Village is free Monday through Thursday, November 21 –December 8, and is included with theme park admission every day.
You’ll also want to make sure to check out what’s new for this year at Knott’s Merry Farm:
- The all-new It’s The Merriest Christmas Show Ever, Charlie Brown at the Calico Mine Stage where the Peanuts gang put on the greatest Christmas pageant ever with Charlie Brown directing!
- The all-new Calico Tree Lighting Ceremony featuring the Calico Citizens and Bell Choir followed by thousands of sparkling, dancing lights and delightful snowfall in Ghost Town set to beloved holiday tunes.
- The all-new show A Peanuts Guide to Christmas at the Camp Snoopy Theatre has the Peanuts gang providing an entertaining primer designed to help everyone survive the holidays.
A visit to Knott’s Merry Farm is a true Southern California holiday tradition for so many families. Stop by between now and January 8 to join in on all of the fun!
Connect with Knott’s Berry Farm on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For information about Knott’s Season Passes, go here.
Starting November 26 and running through January 1, Great Wolf Lodge will have a limited number of Snowland Suites available, so book yours 
Spectacular decorations throughout the lodge
North Pole University activities
As you can see, there’s a lot going on over at Great Wolf Lodge during Snowland. It’s the chance to create some new holiday memories with your family and you won’t want to miss out!
Open select dates through January 8, 2017 CHILL is Southern California’s coolest holiday adventure complete with ice-skating, ice tubing, swingin’ sleigh rides, visits with Santa, gingerbread decorating and the all-new interactive attraction, Alice in Winterland.
This year I got a head start on making some 
As Fall neared this year, I also decided to add some new vitamins and supplements into my daily regimen because it’s impossible get your entire daily requirement just from food. Nature Made® has a variety of vitamins, minerals and supplements (VMS) to help support nutritional gaps with your health goals in mind ranging from Digestive Support, Heart Health & Function, Energy Metabolism, Women’s Health and much more!†Nature Made® is the #1 Pharmacist Recommended brand for many key dietary supplement categories* I feel confident choosing Nature Made® brand for myself and my family. I also love that I can run over to Walmart to stock up on them because they’re always offered at such affordable prices, even without being on sale! 
Nature Made® vitamins and supplements: An easy, convenient way to help your body get the nutritional support it needs every day, whether it be to support bone health, immune health or energy metabolism (helping convert food into energy).†For more information on Nature Made® vitamins and supplements available at Walmart and to enter to win one of 60 Walmart gift cards (each worth $50) by taking part in the sweepstakes on the site, visit 
Ever since An American Girl Story — Melody 1963: Love Has to Win, a live-action adaptation of Melody’s series created for Amazon Prime Video premiered back in October, my niece has been enamored by Melody! American Girl’s newest BeForever character, Melody, brings a message of love and hope to girls this season through her inspirational story of growing up in Detroit during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Melody’s story comes to life through the 18-inch Melody doll, historically authentic 1960s doll outfits and accessories, and Melody-inspired clothing for girls ages 8 and up (Prices range from $9.99 to $250)
Holiday time is also about spreading goodwill to others, and American Girl’s new WellieWishers line is designed to help teach younger girls ages 5 to 7 the skills of kindness, empathy and being a good friend.
The WellieWishers line features five character dolls, early chapter books, garden-themed accessories, and clothing for girls (Prices range from $5.00 to $250)
Young girls will also delight in seeing the WellieWishers world come to life via American Girl’s first-ever animated series available through Amazon Prime Video.
Last but not least, girls and their guests can enjoy a memorable day at American Girl’s retail stores nationwide. Holiday-related events and experiences are available throughout the season. For more information or to find an American Girl retail store nearest you, visit 
The Shops at Mission Viejo will offer the following special Festive Hours: 
While you’re there, don’t forget to stop by to see Santa! He’s waiting for you in the Lower Level near Nordstrom! Catch a visit with him before he leaves back to The North Pole on December 24! 
Connect with The Shops at Mission Viejo on 
How adorable are these custom #CHEERLIFE keychains I had her make for my girls? I’m in love with them! You can pretty much customize these with anything you’d like them to say.
I wanted to attach some kind of encouraging, positive tag to the gifts as well, so I whipped up this little printable that says “The KEY to an amazing cheer season is TEAMWORK!” 
I also made a generic version so you can print it out 
If you have time, you can even laminate them. I punched a hole in each one and stuck it on the actual keychain.
I grabbed theater-size boxes of Skittles and tied each keychain onto a box, using sparkly white tulle! Simple. Cute. Unique. Exactly what I wanted! 
Kaiser Permanente strives to promote wellness and preventative care to its members and its employees. I have seen 100% buy-in to this program from the doctors, nurses, and staff who have been there to assist me on my visits to
Here’s an overview video of the Get Fit Festival: 
Open enrollment for Kaiser Permanente kicked off November 1. If you’re looking for a new provider, explore plans with Kaiser Permanente Orange County and you’ll have the ability to select from many services for you and your family including primary and urgent care, emergency facilities, labor and delivery, pharmacy, and lab all housed under one roof. Find out more today at: 
Connect with Kaiser Permanente Orange County on 
I absolutely adore my 31 first graders this year! They are the cutest bunch of kids and are so sweet and eager to learn every single day. They also like to give me tons of hugs and even share their snacks with me
.It’s a sweet gesture when one of them hands me a snack and I’d never want to crush their spirit so I kindly thank them…and dispose of it properly when they walk away. 
It’s extra important to be on top of your health when you’re a teacher because if you’re sick and have to be out of the classroom, it affects everything. (We all know what can happen when there’s a sub.) I’m very fortunate to be a “seasoned” teacher because a brand new teacher is likely to get sick more often, suffering from up to 2 colds per month. I remember those days!
With cold and flu season upon us, I set up an appointment with Kaiser Permanente Orange County Physician Dr. Eric Troyan to chat and get his his best advice for keeping healthy in the classroom. He had some great tips and advice for me, which could be valuable information for anyone who has prolonged contact with children on a daily basis and works in a school or daycare like me. 
Here are some of the great illness prevention tips we talked about:
Keep Your Immune System Optimized
He really stressed the importance of this one for people like me who are around children. He also explained that the flu vaccine this year will be more effective than the one last year and told me that it’s considered a “killed version” vaccine as opposed to a live one, which you would hear about people actually getting sick after receiving it. The best time to get a flu vaccine is before Halloween but if you don’t do it by then, you’ll definitely want to get yours before Thanksgiving! Flu season tends to peak after the New Year in California, so why not go into it well prepared to fight it off?
Teacher wellness is essential when it comes to a successful school year. Do you or someone close to you work with children? What kinds of things do you do to help fight off illness during the school year?