Take the Ho-Hum out of the cold winter months with a little help from Panasonic (giveaway ends 1/4/15)
My husband’s car BURIED under a lot of snow and my son getting ready to help dig it out (taken a few years ago).
It’s officially the start of winter. Thankfully we’ve only had one snow storm thus far (and in a perfect world that will be the only one for the season). Already some places have been bombarded with so much snow that it was near impossible to leave your home (people in Buffalo, New York know that all too well).
Some people relish in the cold, winter months. Take my boss for example, she’s super excited about going skiing and snowboarding. My family and I don’t participate in any kind of a winter sport (unless shoveling snow and sliding around the icy covered roads are considered winter sports – ha ha). During the winter months we tend to stick around at home and keep warm. That sounds all well and good but it can be boring – VERY boring.
To pass the time during the winter months my family likes to engage in several activities such as playing games and hosting a Family Movie Night.
We’ve been having Family Movie Night (usually on Saturday nights) since my kids were very little. They used to argue over what movie they wanted to watch. For some odd reason the older then get the less bickering they do as to what we should watch.
We don’t have a fancy television. It doesn’t have any “bells and whistles” like other televisions.
We used to have surround sound. It kind of worked. My husband set it up the wrong way and we didn’t get as much out of it as we should have. For that reason when we re-did our living room he took the surround sound down and got rid of it. Besides, there were too many wires involved and I didn’t like the unsightly wires that were running along the top of the walls to reach the speakers. I was glad to get rid of it. Still, I miss the sound quality from home theater systems.
I cannot begin to tell you how SUPER excited I was when Panasonic reached out to me and offered to send me and my family some products to help make our winter months less boring. One of the products they sent me was a Panasonic Sound Bar Home Theater System (3.1 Channel Sound Bar Home Theater System).
The Sound Bar Home Theater System features;
- 3.1 channel sound
- Smart networking wireless Bluetooth technology
- Compatible with 3D signal
- Wireless down firing subwoofer
The Sound Bar Home Theater System is PERFECT for my family. We don’t need to string wires across the walls and hook them up to external speakers. All the sound is contained in a “bar” shaped device that rests near your television. We have plenty of space on our television stand to place the sound bar at the base of our television.
The sound bar is HUGE!
My husband’s eyes were as huge as saucers when he first laid eyes on the Panasonic Sound Bar Home Theater System. He was so excited about it that right after dinner he wanted to set it up.
Sadly we have not been able to set it up as of yet. Unknown to us we need a HDMI cable (not included) to set it up with our television. Since it’s the holiday season and every extra penny we have has gone towards gifts for our kids, family and friends we haven’t had the opportunity to pick one up yet. Thankfully my husband gets paid on the 31st of the month. After he pays the bills we hope we have enough left over to set up the Sound Bar Home Theater System. My husband even has several movies picked out that he wants to watch as soon as it’s set up. They are the kinds of movies (action movies mostly) were high quality sound will enhance the viewing experience.
I’m also looking forward to setting it up. My hearing is not as good as it used to be and it would be nice to hear what is going on without having to turn up the TV volume too high.
Another PERFECT “gift” Panasonic sent us is a Blu-ray Player. We have one in our living room, but our daughter loves to watch Blu-rays too. My kids only have a regular DVD player and most movies we get these days are Blu-ray movies. In order for my daughter to watch the movies she needs to be in the living room. That is fine but when my husband or I are watching TV she is unable to watch the movie she wants to watch if it’s on Blu-ray. For that reason she’s been begging us for a Blu-ray player. She’s also going off to college in 2015 so a Blu-ray player would be great for her to take with her.
Panasonic sent us a Blu-ray player that not only plays Blu-rays and DVDs, it’s also WIFI enabled and can access things like Netflix. Our daughter watches Netflix all the time. Talk about the perfect gift! Even when she’s off to college she can still access Netflix off the Panasonic Blu-ray player.
My husband joked that we should swap Blu-ray players and we keep the Panasonic and give her our Blu-ray player.
The Panasonic Blu-ray Player (Smart Network WiFi Blu-ray Disc™Player DMP-BD91) has the following features;
- Connect to home WiFi for streaming movies and social media
- Access content on networked devices in any room with DLNA
- Create personalized TV home screens with Multi-User Mode
- Built-in WiFi for smart networking features
This is going to be great for the long winter months when we’re stuck inside. Now my kids can watch all the Blu-ray movies they have been wanting to watch while still being able to enjoy Netflix.
We haven’t set this up yet. My husband took it out of the box to check it out (that is why he mentioned swapping Blu-ray players – he likes what he sees). We put it back together and wrapped it for our daughter to give to her on Christmas morning. She’s going to be thrilled! I’ll update this post with a photo of her opening the package.
Last, but not least, Panasonic sent me a Rugged Camera – the LUMIX DMC-TS5 Wi-Fi Enabled Lifestyle Tough Camera. It’s considered a “tough” and “rugged” camera because it’s waterproof, dust proof, shock proof and freeze proof. Talk about the perfect winter camera! This camera can withstand snow, ice and the freezing cold temperatures (please see product information for specifics).
In addition this camera has WIFI which means you can share your photos via your smart phone or tablet. You don’t have to plug the camera into your computer, upload the photos, then share them on Facebook and such. You can do that from your smartphone or tablet. Simply use WIFI to wirelessly transfer the photos to your smartphone or tablet.
Unlike other cameras the Panasonic LUMIX has built in filters. For those of you who love to use filters on your Instagram and other photos, now you can tweak your photos via the camera and make them “share worthy” as soon as you snap them.
I LOVE this camera. I really, really, REALLY love this camera!
Originally I was going to give it to our son (he wants a new camera) but after playing around with this camera I couldn’t give it up. It’s awesome!
I have a $$$ camera but I refuse to take it to certain places because I worry about it getting dropped, bumped, wet or broken. It’s also a bit of a nuisance have to lug around the camera bag. With the Panasonic LUMIX I can put it in my purse and not have to worry about it. I do plan on buying a small cover for it, but as far as being worried about it being bumped, that is not an issue. This camera is made to be used in adventurous situations. It’s not meant to be treated like a fine piece of china like most super expensive cameras.
Setting this up was easy – even for someone who is “technologically challenged” like me.
As far as pictures are concerned they are amazing! Here are a few examples that I have taken with this camera.
Some photos were altered a bit with filters (such as the picture of Olaf and our cat).
I’m surprised at how well the camera captured the neon “can” light considering the photo was taken in near dark condition. The color in the photo is exactly how the color is in person.
It was even able to capture a crisp and clear picture of our fish who were moving around at the time the photo was snapped.
As a blogger it’s important that I have a quality camera, especially when I’m on the go. This camera is small enough to fit in my purse or pocket. It even has a wrist strap so I can access it immediately.
Now I can take photos for my blog, upload and share them right away – even when I’m not at home near my computer.
I’ll let my son take my spare camera. I’m keeping this one for myself.
I also plan on taking plenty of winter pictures with the Panasonic LUMIX. Now I can capture photos of my kids having a snowball fight without worrying about being hit in the camera by a flying snowball, or capture moments (like the one below) of my daughter blowing a handful of freshly falling snow at me. The photos (below) was taken with another camera years ago.
I can’t wait for the summer. I’ve always wanted to take photos in the pool and at the beach. Now I don’t have to worry about breaking my camera since I have one specifically made for family adventures.
THANK YOU PANASONIC for making our upcoming winter months much more merrier. No more winter doldrums for us.
For more information about these and other Panasonic products visit Panasonic.com. You can also find the brand on social media – Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube.
Panasonic has graciously offered to give a lucky reader a Panasonic Blu-ray Player (Smart Network WiFi Blu-ray Disc™Player DMP-BD91 – the same one we received).
This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and will end on January December 4, 2015 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply or a new winner will be chosen in their place.
To enter please comment on this post and tell me why you would like to win the Panasonic Blu-ray Player?
For extra entries you can use the Rafflecopter widget (below) but you must complete the initial entry requirement or the additional entries wont’ qualify (I do check). Extra entries are optional.
Kimberly
*I received free product samples in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
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