Kids Off The Couch December Radar Screen - LA Phil Presents Denève Conducts Debussy Ticket Giveaway

DIY Gifts and Timeless Classics

We survived Black Friday and Cyber Monday but are pretty sure that a home made gift trumps all. Avoid the mall crush and get off the computer -- just put on some holiday music and muck up the kitchen table with crafts. What's better for putting everyone in a festive mood? (You'll be saving up for some of these splurge-worthy shows and exhibits around town).

LA Phil Presents Denève Conducts Debussy -- a Matinee Ticket Giveaway: Over the past month, the LA Phil has helped us send Kids Off the Couch subscribers to several classical concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall. This week, we're excited to have two sets of two tickets to a matinee performance of LA Phil Presents Denève Conducts Debussy (Saturday, December 4 at 2:00 PM). Concert-goers will be treated not only to Debussy, but also a Beethoven piano concerto performed by a brilliant pianist, as well as the West Coast premiere of a contemporary work composed for the conductor. Click here for more details, including a link to hear some of the music and to purchase tickets for this weekend's series, which is also being performed on Friday night at 8:00 PM and Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM. Click here if you are free for this weekend's performance and please remember to leave us a telephone number; we'll notify the winner by Friday morning.

Get Scrooged This Weekend! Scrooge is one of the most adapted characters in all of cinema, so don't let Jim Carreybe your family's only vision of Dicken's cranky old man. Get the family downtown for Albert Finney's rendition this Sunday (12/5) at a screening of A Christmas Carol with the Los Angeles Conservancy at the glorious Million Dollar Theater. Tickets are $10 for adults, and $5 for kids under 12. If you can't get there, at least read the book to the kids this holiday. The Dickens story has timeless wisdom, and is always fun to revisit, especially with this cool pop-up story book.

DIY Ideas: Remember hand-loomed pot holders? These days, there are so many better options for handmade gifts in the craft section of any toy store. Check out a new generation of Shrinky Dinks (our faves). Little kids can create beautiful beaded bracelets and necklaces, or string cranberry and popcorn garlands for the tree. Tweens and teens can mix their favorite song onto CDs for cousins and parents, and love being dropped at one of the many craft houses around town: throw pots at the Clayhouse, stop in for a class at The Urban Craft Center or pick up a manageable first project at Artesia Needlepoint shop or one of the many cool knit shops around town. And, ultimately there is nothing better than baked goods for teachers or neighbors. Martha Stewart can help you with a single sugar cookie recipe that can be adapted to tens of other treats.

Get to the Getty: We love the villa's new Tea by the Sea service (Thursdays at 1:00 PM) which is an especially nice treat for visiting grandparents. While the weather is spectacular, why not spend Sunday (12/5) at a Getty Villa Family Festival Celebrating the Art of Greek Theater. From 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM. It's FREE, but click here for entry ticket. Children and adults can fashion their own Greek theater masks, costume themselves as ancient actors, and applaud or join in pint-sized versions of classical Greek comedies onstage.

Family Flicks at the Hammer: This Sunday (12/5) the UCLA Film and Television Archive presents Family Flicks: Azur and Asmar, an unusual digital animation project about two rival princes. Screening is FREE and starts at 11:00. Enjoy free admission to the Hammer through December 18 as part of their 20th Anniversary celebration.

Kick Up Your Heels: From Radio City Music Hall, those famous legs travel across the nation and will be in Los Angeles for nine shows between December 9-12. Click here for tickets. These are pricey seats but doesn't everyone have to see this show once in their lifetime? Speaking of kicking up your heels the plastic starter ice rink at the W Hotel in Westwood is a fun and festive way for kids under ten to get their legs under them. Everyone else will love ICE at Santa Monica, open through February.

Yum Yum: The Westside just got even more delicious with Sweet Lady Jane opening a shop on Montana at 17th, and Thomas Keller's pastry chef opening his FarmShop at the Brentwood Country Mart.

Shop if you Must: Click here for the Cool Mom Picks Holiday Gift Guide (including these cool Advent calendars). It's easy to purchase handmade gifts this year - start at a holiday bazaar at the Craft and Folk Art Museum this weekend (their Holiday Bazaar is on Saturday 12/4), and check out the Los Angeles Times' wonderful BUY LOCAL neighborhood guide to handmade things.

Sounds of the Season: We love classic Christmas songs sung by a full chorus, and also throw on the Special Olympics compilation albums (Sting singing "I Saw Three Ships" is pretty great). We aren't susceptible to every pop star that puts out a holiday album, but are tickled by Pink Martini's latest.

Giving Back: Most charities have a wish list, so let the kids check out these lists and give a gift to a child their age. We always get Target gift cards and send them to foster kids through United Friends of the Children. Here is their Holiday Wish List. Our favorite charity for kids to learn about during the holidays is Heifer International. Choose how much you want your kids to give away and then let them choose whether they want to give a pig, a cow or some honeybees!

Our wishes for a happy holiday season.

Kids Off The Couch

Kids Off The Couch LA Weekend Tip: Family Fun Fest at Westfield Century City December 3rd - 5th

New Kids Play Area and Debut of Giggles N Hugs Restaurant

Family Four Pack to AMC Theaters with $200 purchase

Does holiday shopping stress you out? Get ready to cross a few items off your gift list when Westfield Century City hosts a weekend-long celebration for kids and families for the launch of the new Play Zone. The kids play area is sponsored by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and is surrounded by an animal themed mural. Inside is a Climbing Sculpture custom designed by Luckey Climbers. The weekend also marks the debut of a Giggles N Hugs Children's Restaurant so consider grabbing dinner before an outdoor screening of Happy Feet on Saturday evening.

Family Fun Fest: This weekend, from Friday December 3 to Sunday, December 5. Come for the Play Zone and stick around for raffles and games, special offers and afree screening. Take note of special offers like this one: you'll be eligible for a free family four-pack of AMC movie tickets when you spend $200 at participating stores each day. Click here for more details.

Friday, December 3

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Fun and games with Radio Disney

10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Family Free Day at Giggles N Hugs Restaurant

Saturday, December 4

12:00PM - 6:00 PM Arts & crafts, face-painting and balloon twister

12:00 PM Jeff's Comedy Magic Show

1:00 PM Playtime activity with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

2:00 PM The Funny Eddie Juggling Show

3:00 PM Playtime activity with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

4:00 PM Rock music lesson with The School of Rock

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Outdoor movie Happy Feet

Sunday, December 5

12:00 PM - 6:00 PM Arts & crafts with face-painting and balloon twister

12:00 PM Scott's Puppet Show

1:00 PM Playtime activity with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

2:00 PM The Fantastick Patrick Show

3:00 PM Playtime activity with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

4:00 PM Rock music lesson with The School of Rock

Kids Off The Couch Ticket Giveaway for November 27 at Walt Disney Concert Hall

LA Presents Salonen Conducts Hindemith and Wagner

We're lucky to be working with the LA Phil this holiday season. We have two pairs of two tickets to see Salonen Conducts Hindemith and Wagner for Saturday night of this Thanksgiving weekend to giveaway. The former LA Phil musical director returns to Walt Disney Hall to conduct the second program in his homecoming concert series, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weberand selected scenes from Wagner, with the remarkable singer Bryn Terfel. If your relatives are still in town, why not ask them to babysit so you can grab a night downtown?

Enter to Win: Please send us a note if you're able to attend Saturday night's 8:00 PM performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall (11/27). Winner will be notified first thing Wednesday morning (11/24) so please give us your phone number so we can call you if you are the winner.

Buy Your Own Tickets: This concert will be performed on Friday night and Sunday afternoon as well (2:00 PM) andtickets are still available. Esa-Pekka Salonen signs CDs at the LA Phil store following Saturday's performance!

More on Esa-Pekka: We got a kick of learning what the conductor has been doing since leaving LA. Turns out he keeps a house here and travels back and forth to London, where he is currently working. Learn more in a recent LA Times article.

Holiday Programming: While you're on the LA Phil's website, check out their varied Deck the Hall - Holiday Concerts programming, including a Holiday Sing-A-Long andNew Year's Eve with Kristin Chenoweth.

Being Thankful + Art, Family, Giving Back, Remembering and Teachers = Kids Off The Couch

We All Can Make a Difference

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday and we are looking forward to pausing our busy lives and appreciating friends and family. As we count our blessings, we also want to thank you for reading our newsletters (did you know they're all archived on our blog??) We hope they keep you amused.

Art: We've seen two knock-out shows in the past week and suggest that once the eating is over and the dishes are done, you take your gang on an art outing. The two shows, at the Skirball Cultural Center and the Annenberg Space for Photography, present very different ways that artists interpret the world. Kids can certainly relate to both and we will be writing a more complete review of each exhibit in December. But, we figure that most of you have time to visit them this week, so wanted to give you a head's up.

On view until mid-February at the Skirball is the first retrospective from a quintessential New Yorker. Maira Kallman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) provides us with an intimate and meticulous diarist's view of the world. Maira, whose illustrations are often featured on New Yorker covers, also has a fabulous new book "And the Pursuit of Happiness" which is a great holiday gift for anyone (but especially a teen); it's filled with illustrations and thoughts from a trip the artist took around the US exploring our democratic roots and realities. Don't forget to stop into the gift store for unique holiday gifts - a puzzle made of Kallman's famous New Yorker cover New Yorkistan, great notecards and, of course, Kallman's books.

On the other end of the spectrum is Extreme Exposures, a show at the Annenberg Space for Photography that showcases four photographers whose work pushes the envelope of convention and safety. We loved the portraits of polar bears and narwhals by Paul Nicklin, and were touched by the story of Clyde Butcher who gave up color work after his son died and creates magnificent large-format landscape portraits of the Southern bayou. Visiting the Annenberg is an easy family excursion. It's cozy to plop down on soft couches in the inner sanctum gallery to watch a not-to-be-missed video show about the photographers whose work is on view. Drop in to relax your mind before or after you hit the Century City mall or just snag one of these recycled messenger bags for the hipster on your list that the Annenberg makes from old street banners.

Giving: We can't sit down at our annual feast without being conscious that many families in our city are struggling to put food on the table. Click here for how you can participate in a Virtual Food Drive through the LA Regional Food Bank. Right before Thanksgiving we clean out our closets and give gently used clothing to those who need it most - we drop clothing at our local shelter, but Goodwill takes donations of all kinds, too. Whether you take pie to a shelter, work a food line, or just send a check, it's important to show kids that even a simple effort makes a difference. And, it's even easier to explain how a single act changes a life when you watch this utterly compelling video from Nike's charity project, The Girl Effect. It delivers a powerful message about the effectiveness of helping girls in developing countries. Gather your kids around the computer to watch this together - you won't soon forget it. (Not appropriate for children under 10).

Remember This: Our friend Marilu Henner is a great mom, a renowned actress and a book author (her topic is health). As if that weren't enough, we recently learned that she has an incredible, and unusual, memory called an autobiographical memory. Name a date in her lifetime and she can tell you where she was that day and what she was doing. 60 Minutes has produced a story about her (and the handful of other folks that have this type of memory); it will air sometime in the next few weeks, possibly the Sunday after Thanksgiving (depending on the news cycle). Set your Tivo's and check the 60 Minutes website so you can share this cool trait with the family. We think it's amusing to compare Marilu's gift with what most of us suffer from - a lot of forgetfulness! And leave it to Nora Ephron to nail this common characteristic in her new book (and excellent holiday gift) titled "I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections."

Teachers: We loved last week's Los Angeles Times article about a local teacher being surprised to win a $25,000 no-strings-attached grant from the Milken foundation which led us to think about our children's teachers and how grateful we are for all they do. Instead of holiday gifts, we got inspired to give them Thanksgiving thank-you gifts instead. Nothing too big, but enough to let them know they are making a key difference in our childrens' lives. (And, it's one more way to take the stress of December!).

The First Thanksgiving + Honoring Native American Heritage = Kids Off The Couch

Screening of Iroquois Rising this afternoon at the Museum of Tolerance

Growing up in Massachusetts, we frequented the Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of the first English settlement where costumed actors play the roles of Pilgrim and Wampanoagnatives from the 17th Century. We once spent a chillyThanksgiving, dressed up as Pilgrims, sharing a celebratory meal with museum actors who stayed in their roles, and conversed with historically accurate speech patterns and accents. We loved trying to trick them into acknowledging that it was actually three hundred years later, to no avail! As we ramp up for Thanksgiving, it's nice to remember the diverse traditions involved with this distinctly American holiday. Here are a few ways to do that in the next week, including a just-announced screening this afternoon about a Native American lacrosse team.

Screening this Afternoon, Thursday 11/17: If you love lacrosse -- the fastest growing sport in the US -- dash over to a just-announced premiere of Iroquois Rising at the inaugural Museum Of Tolerance International Film Festival. The 53 minute documentary starts at 3:00 PM, and tells the story of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team, who play as a sovereign nation in the World Lacrosse Championships. Last summer, the Iroquois were barred from traveling to the 2010World Games because the British would not recognize their passports as valid travel documents. One or more members of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team and/or Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) will be on hand for the event. Click here for more details.

Witness a Native American dance performance this weekend: Come to the W.M. Keck Children's Amphitheatre at Walt Disney Hall for a FREE performance by Red Thunder. With authentic regalia, consisting of vibrant feathers, intricate beadwork, handmade jewelry and headdresses, Red Thunder celebrates the unique heritage of the Plains Indians. The program will highlight music, song, and traditional dance while re-telling the stories that have been passed through generations. Saturday (11/20) at 11:00 AM & 12:30 PM. Performance tickets are FREE and are distributed on a first-come basis one hour before the show at Grand Avenue at 2nd Street. Click here for further details.

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month at a Family Sunday at the Museum of Tolerance: Come see performances by Sherman Indian High School White RoseSingers, Harrison Lowe and Mylo IronBear designed for a family audience on Sunday (11/21) from 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM. Click here for more details. Other activiites for Native American Heritage month include a special screening of the documentary Reel Injun at the Museum of Tolerance on Saturday (11/20); the film examines how Hollywood has contributed to the myth of the "injun." For more information call 323-549-6644.

Watch a Movie Together: See for yourself how Hollywood has portrayed Native Americans in these holiday classics. Everyone will love the music and spectacular animation in Disney's Pocahantas (1995, G), and those who've had some history at school may appreciate The New World by acclaimed director Terrance Malick (2005, PG-13). Romantics can take in Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner's Academy Award winning directing and acting tour de force (1990, PG-13).

And finally, we heartily recommend visiting Plimouth Plantation the next time you are in Massachusetts, where historically accurate characters populate the replica Pilgrim village and interact with visitors. Check out this video field trip about The First Thanksgiving, that allows kids to be history detectives.

Gobble, gobble!

Ticket Giveaway for November 13th Matinee at Walt Disney Concert Hall

LA Phil Presents Mälkki conducts Mozart and Strauss

Just when we think it's pretty cool that our kids can trill scales on the piano or strum away on their electric guitar, we are reminded of the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Did you know he had composed five violin concertos by the time he was 19? Instead of firing the music teacher, get inspired by listening to Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 1 performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. We have two sets of two tickets for Kids Off the Couch subscribers for a matinee performance this Saturday, November 13.

What: LA Phil Presents Mälkki conducts Mozart and Strauss. Finnish conductor (and former cellist)Susanna Mälkki and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Principal Concertmaster perform two upbeat, intriguing pieces of music with violinist Martin Chalifour. The first, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 1 was written when the composer was 17. The second piece, Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, is known as a 'tone poem' and was used in the opening strains of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Enter to Win: Please send us a note if you're able to attend a matinee (2:00 PM) this Saturday, November 13 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Winner will be notified by Friday morning at 9:00 AM so please check your email if you want to attend.

Buy Your Own Tickets: This show will also be shown on Friday night and Sunday afternoon - tickets are still available. While you're on the LA Phil's website, check out their varied Deck the Hall - Holiday Concerts programming, including a Holiday Sing-A-Long and New Year's Eve with Kristin Chenoweth.

While You're Downtown: Have you tried the crispy tofu balls at Starry Kitchen? For more straightforward fare, drop by Lemonade at MOCA for a yummy cupcake and truly delicious lemonade. We always stop into their gift shop for items not found anywhere else. We love their online catalog -check out the street banners that once swung along city streets or a Louise Bourgeois tea towel.

Want to Know more about Mozart's Violin Concertos? Click here to buy the record from Amazon.

info@kidsoffthecouch.com

Kids Off The Couch - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I + Whimsic Alley

When we read the final installment of J.K. Rowling's phenomenal Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we genuinely feared for Harry’s life! Though we may know the end of the story now, we’ll still be first in line for the movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I when it opens on November 19. Our family has read every word of all seven Harry Potter books out loud together, and is excitedly awaiting the moment when we can catch up with Harry, Ron and Hermione in the trio's penultimate adventure. (The final tale will be brought to the screen in two parts, so fans can draw out the excitement for another nine months -- Part II won't be released until July 15, 2011). But all we really want to do is go to Hogwarts. We got a taste of our favorite School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by visiting Whimsic Alley, a store on Wilshire Boulevard that is custom-made for all Harry Potter fans. You can choose your own broomstick, try to get any of the beautiful hand-crafted wands to cast a spell, buy all sorts of Harry Potter games and gadgets, and even try on Hogwarts School robes. Stay to have tea at your own house table in Whimsic Alley’s Great Hall, complete with candles floating overhead and hosts who know their Harry trivia inside and out! One afternoon at Whimsic Alley is the next best thing to crashing through the wall at Platform 9 3/4 and hopping on the Hogwarts Express! (Click here for details on Special Events at Whimsic Alley planned in conjunction with next week's film premiere).