Disneyland Resort celebrates the holidays in Latin-style with “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!”. The grand finale is a commemoration of the Three Kings Day/Día de Reyes from Jan. 3-6, 2014.

As we shared with you when the  ¡Viva Navidad! celebrations started last month, we’ve been extremely excited by the way our culture is being interpreted for our kids to immerse themselves in it. From the fabulous Street Party with Mojiganga puppets, mariachi and samba music, folkloric dancers and the Three Caballeros and Mickey and Minnie in festive attire, to the Latin-inspried food, shows and crafts for kids.

For Día de Reyes, Paradise Pier at Disney’s California Adventure Park invites guest to come and celebrate this special celebration observed mainly by Catholics, but that has become a traditional celebration across Latin America and carried on by Latinos around the world.

Kids will find booths for face painting, arts, crafts and to take special pictures con Melchor, Gaspar y Baltazar.

The Three Caballeros go all out to celebrate Disney ¡Viva Navidad! and kids can have fun decorating these special crowns.

The menu for the celebration takes on some of the favorite Latin dishes. We all raved about the pozole and you can check out how to make it in this video.

We interview Susana Tubert, one of the Disney creatives behind the whole ¡Viva Navidad! concept, to tell us more about how families can celebrate el Día de Reyes Magos at Disneyland Resort.

We also got to chat with Cristian León, Disneyland Resort spokesperson, with Micky, Minnie, a giant mojiganga and folkloric dancers adding the fiesta to our video.

For more videos, pictures and information on Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! celebration, check out Disneyland.com/Holidays and  our full coverage below:

Disneyland’s Pozole Recipe for Día de Reyes Magos

Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party Celebrates Latino Culture and Language

Sneek Peek at Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! Street Fiesta

La Navidad is Coming to Disneyland Resort: Disney ¡Viva Navidad! 

Disneyland’s Latino-Style ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party: 5 Reasons Why It’s a Must-See

Disneyland Resort has been celebrating la Navidad a lo grande with “Disney ¡Viva Navidad!” throughout the holiday season with beautiful shows, music, activities and food that celebrates nuestra cultura. The grand finale is an observance of Día de Reyes from Friday, Jan. 3 to Monday, Jan. 6.

We were there for a media event to capture some of this Three Kings Day magic, happening at Paradise Pier Gardens in Disney’s California Adventure Park, and got the chance to meet with Chef José Ruiz and learn how they prepare the delicious pozole that has been a guest favorite during ¡Viva Navidad!, among the delicious menu of Latin fare that includes mole, tortas al pastor, sopes, street style tacos, conchas and much more.

If you get a chance to visit Disney’s California Adventure Park, make sure you stop by the Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta in Paradise Pier to grab your bowl of some very delicious and authentic pozole!

For more videos, pictures and information on Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! celebration, check out Disneyland.com/Holidays and  our full coverage below:

How to Celebrate Three Kings Day/Día de Reyes at Disneyland Resort

Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party Celebrates Latino Culture and Language

Sneek Peek at Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! Street Fiesta

La Navidad is Coming to Disneyland Resort: Disney ¡Viva Navidad! 

Disneyland’s Latino-Style ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party: 5 Reasons Why It’s a Must-See

La Plaza Olvera is where the heart of Mexican culture in Los Angeles beats. This is where all the tourists go to in downtown to get a feel of a traditional plaza with its mercadito, churros, tamales and obligatory knick knacks to buy. But Olvera Street is more than a tourist spot, it’s a historical landmark known as “the birthplace of Los Angeles,” or Nuestra Ciudad de Los Angeles.

So imagine how thrilled we were when Camila’s Spanish music teacher at school — which so happens to be Sara of Music with Sara! — told us the school’s Spanish immersion students had been invited to sing at the Plaza Olvera’s tree lighting ceremony! Of course we signed her up and she was super excited.

They sang a slew of traditional villancicos, as well as adored songs like “Cómo la Flor” and “Tómbola.” The kids were just amazing and our hearts melted every time Sara would get up to let the audience know that these kids are learning in two languages and most of them don’t even have the luxury of speaking Spanish at home. Yet there they were, singing their hearts out en español y en la Plaza Olvera.

Below are a few Instagram videos I made, but I also share more pictures of this beautiful moment, as well as of the other three music and ballet performances my daughter had the last few weeks, over in this post on my Babble column. She’s sure kept us busy y muy orgullosos!!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Huggies. As always, all opinions are my own.

Nothing can really prepare you for that magical day when your baby arrives home for the very first time and all of a sudden you’ve truly become a family. You’ve spent months dreaming about this day and making sure every single detail is in order. The nesting stage seems to have put you in overdrive when it comes to making sure that everything your baby will need to feel welcomed, safe and loved is all set.

While there are many essentials our bebesitos need as soon as they are born, the reality is that all they truly desire is to be nurtured and cared by you and papá. To be able to fully be there and present for your little one at all times during those critical first weeks of birth, mamá needs to take care of herself and make sure that once you arrive home you have what you need to be comfortable and rested so you can focus on bonding with your child.

Aside from making sure the nursery is fully equipped to welcome baby, make sure you also prepare your home to meet your immediate needs in this new stage of life. Prepare yourself for a few weeks of new emotions, feelings, sensations and a different pace in your life from what you’ve been used to.

Taking some time beforehand to have a few things around the house taken care of prior to baby’s arrival and checking out other details on Huggies Latino’s Respuestas para Mamá, will make the transition smoother for you. Here are six ideas you might not have considered yet, but that can be very useful:

1. Batch cook a few meals to keep in the freezer and heat up to serve a meal at anytime. It’s essential you’re feeding yourself well, especially if you’re nursing your baby.

2. Have plenty of water at hand. Invest in a filter or make sure to have a refillable water bottle to just keep at your side at all times. Hydration is key as you recover from labor and get back into a sleeping routine.

3. Get a notebook and pen, or a good app on your smartphone, to keep a diary of your baby’s feedings, bowel movements and sleep. This is all essential information that your pediatrician will ask you during your visits and the more detailed information you have, the more useful it is.

4. Keep a digital camera or smartphone close to you at all times because these precious first moments only happen once.

5. In advance of baby’s arrival, find an online site that delivers the baby essentials you will need to replenish on a constant basis, such as Huggies Little Snugglers Diapers, Huggies Natural Care Wipes and formula, if needed. Create an account so that you can quickly access it to have your basics shipped to you immediately. Most don’t charge shipping costs and arrive quickly to your doorstep.

6. Create a playlist of your favorite nursery rhymes and soothing white noise to help baby calm down and ease into sleep.

These first days and weeks are the most intense, yet the most memorable and important for your baby’s development. You will definitely be focused on him, but don’t forget to take care of yourself so you can truly enjoy these moments.

Photo credit: Gabi Menashe on Flickr

We love celebrating Latino and bicultural families every single day, so we’re thrilled to partner with Johnson & Johnson and Univision in their quest to find “La Familia de Hoy” — a modern, authentic and active family that represents a los hispanos and shares our passions.

The three familias that are in the voting stage to become “La Familia de Hoy” and spokes family for Johnson & Johnson in 2014 are:

Los Olivera

Los Jiménez

Los López

To learn more about these bellas familias and to cast your own vote, head on over now to Univision.com and just select one. It will literally take you seconds because you don’t need to register your email or any other steps. Once you vote, you also receive a selection of coupons for discounts on Johnson & Johnson Healthy Essentials products. Go here to vote now. The winning family will be revealed Dec. 21 on Sábado Gigante.

Bilingual Twitter Party!

We’ve joined a fabulous group of Latina bloggers and Latina Bloggers Connect (disclosure: I own this company) to celebrate “La Familia de Hoy” with a bilingual Twitter party and we really hope you can join us! If you’ve never attended a Twitter party, this is a perfect chance to dive into one!

Date: Thursday, December 5th

Time: 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET

Where: On Twitter with the hashtag #LaFamiliaDeHoy. You can use this link  for easy access starting now: http://twubs.com/LaFamiliadeHoy

Co-Hosts:

@eileenccampos  @elianatardio @mcontemporanea @sassymamainla

@smashbravoteam  @spanglishbaby

Moderators: @lbconnect @laflowers (me!!)

Sponsor: Johnson & Johnson

Prizes:

100 gift card for FIVE winners!

To be eligible to win, you must join the party and participate during the hour with an original tweet (RT’s not eligible) using the #LaFamiliaDeHoy hashtag. Five winners will be selected at random from all eligible tweets and announced throughout the hour. For full Terms and Conditions click here.

Pre-Party Prizes! RSVP and help us spread the word and WIN!

We want this fiesta to start right now, so we have a $25 gift card for four winners. To enter the #LaFamiliadeHoy pre-party giveaway all you have to do is RSVP with your Twitter handle via the Rafflecopter widget below and send out a tweet inviting your friends to join us.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! isn’t the only thing that got us completely in the Holidays mood at Disneyland Resorts. It’s definitely our favorite because of the special meaning it holds for us, but both Disneyland and California Adventure have been transformed into magical wonderlands for the holidays.

One of the many seasonal shows we were excited about experiencing was the transformation of World of Color, the fabulous after-dark spectacle in Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Bay, into “Winter Dreams.” It took a team of Imagineers over three months to program the new show that features seven sequences full of new and favorite characters and even Disney fans from around the country.

According to Disneyland News, the voices of more than 500 singers representing all 50 United States appear in the pre-show carol, “Glow.” Participants signed up on a “World of Color” Honor Choir website and performed “virtually,” in front of their computer webcams. Disneyland Resort teamed with Grammy®-winning composer Eric Whitacre, who has joined hundreds of voices online in similar “virtual choirs.

Our guide through ”World of Color — Winter Dreams” is Olaf, the snowman from “Frozen” who loves summer, and he sets the tone for a fun, whimsical and all-around beautiful show.

I got a chance to interview Eddy Collins, spokesperson for Disneyland Resorts, to chat a bit more about “World of Color — Winter Dreams.” Eddy is from Guatemala and we had a blast recording a Spanglish interview in full code-switching mode!

Photo credit: Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland Resort

Disclosure: I was invited with my family to attend to the media event for Disney Holidays. No compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

Of course, I quickly started clicking on all of these because I confess to adore Gwyneth for all the reasons so many people envy and resent her. I was anxious to read a juicy story that would show that her and I have so much in common — like the obsession over making sure our kids speak Spanish fluently.

I was oh-so disappointed to see just another link bait after the paparazzi and gossip obsession over Gwyneth’s parenting skills. Her “forcing” her kids to speak Spanish was witnessed by who-knows-who that was present at the same wedding (Cameron Diaz’s assistant) she was at. The grand story is that, supposedly, when Gwyneth’s kids, Moses and Apple, spoke to her in English, she would ask them to say it in Spanish instead.

To read the full story, click HERE.

It’s been almost a month since we celebrated Día de Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, but my husband finally got around to editing this video and I wanted to share it with all of you!

My girl and I got dressed up and had some fun taking pictures from inside our Toyota Prius V while my husband drove us to the famed Mexican-style celebration of Day of the Dead in Los Angeles.

The video really does show you how colorful, traditional and beautiful the celebration is represented here, and what a perfect time it is to immerse our kids in culture. Hope you enjoy it!

My family and I are lucky to be able to go to Disneyland quite frequently, but I can attest that never have we felt so thrilled and felt so at home as we did last week when we were invited to the media event for Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad! at California Adventure.

I already shared with you a sneak peek with a few Instagram videos I took, but I promised you more and here it is!

I got the chance to interview Susana Tubert, one of the Disney creatives behind the whole ¡Viva Navidad! concept. Susana, a bilingual Argentinean, had the fun task of bringing alive the spirit of the Latin American celebrations of la navidad in a uniquely Disney way. Susana, who is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, Inc. came on board only a few months ago and I’ve gotta say that what she and Disney delivered is a pure fiesta con mucho corazón y alma latina.

Just check it out y comienza a vivir la navidad!

Want more of Disney’s ¡Viva Navidad!? Check out five reasons why  it’s a must-see.

We all know that once we committed to raising bilingual kids, we embarked in a journey that is not always as black and white as it may seem. You may have chosen the best method of raising children in two or more languages that works for your family, or maybe you found an excellent dual immersion program that can provide much of the necessary input. In any case, there are a few things to keep in mind across the board that will help you remain consistent and motivated throughout the first essential years of raising a bilingual child.

Click here to go to my Babble Voices post where I share a simple, yet precise list of 7 do’s and don’ts to keep in mind for parents raising kids in two or more languages.