Taking your kids to meet Santa is a wholesome family tradition. You get to drive to an always-crowded suburban mall, spend 10 minutes circling for a parking spot, wait in a long line to meet Santa, and then take a picture of your kid crying when he comes face to face with the most magical person in their world. It really is pretty special.

And for some parents, especially those who have children with special needs, participating in these routine traditions can be a much tougher hurdle to clear. This is why Autism Speaks is hosting “Santa Cares” events at malls across the country, where kids with special needs can visit with Santa in a less frenetic setting.

On those days, the malls open early to help facilitate a smaller crowd, the music plays a little quieter, and the lights are a little lower. Santa also has training for children with special needs. Often times they’ll stand behind their chairs or lay on the ground to make sure the children are comfortable. All of this combines to create a much more accessible experience for kids who need it.

Autism Speaks partnered with Cherry Hill Programs to produce the events, which include special training for the Santas so they can better interact with special needs children.

“Our goal is to create a more inclusive world for people with autism, and events like this make such a meaningful impact in helping families feel comfortable, understood and accepted,” said a spokesperson at Autism Speaks.

SANTA CARES: This holiday season, malls across America are opening early – so children with autism can visit Santa Claus in a calmer setting ❤️ #sharethelove https://t.co/RQkrVgE2Ib pic.twitter.com/1LJr4X6F9q

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 12, 2019

The Santa Cares event took place last weekend here at Seaway Mall. We welcomed families in a dimmed lighting, music-free atmosphere for their sensory-friendly photos with Santa in partnership with Cherry Hill Programs and @autismspeaksCAN Read More: https://t.co/85VarIKp01 pic.twitter.com/funyMKXVKW

— Seaway Mall (@SeawayMall) December 11, 2019

There are hundreds of events planned around the country, to find a sensory-friendly Santa experience near you, check out the Autism Speaks website.

In times like these, entertainment can seem pretty meaningless. And awards ceremonies featuring rich and famous people patting each other and themselves on the back are about the last thing we need. But sometimes we’re reminded of the impact that some of those larger-than-life performers have, even during tough times.

Chadwick Boseman was one of those larger-than-life performers, having portrayed a variety of heroes on the big screen, from Jackie Robinson and James Brown, two black titans of 20th-century culture, to King T’Challa of Wakanda, one of the most popular superheroes of the 21st century.

At Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, Boseman was honored for his final performance, winning Best Actor, Drama for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. His victory resulted in a moving speech from his bereaved wife, during which the hole the gifted actor and beloved man’s loss has left in his friends and family’s life was made abundantly clear.

But before his category aired, we were treated to a segment in which Phillip Lewis, an editor at Huffington Post, quizzed young kids on their knowledge of the Golden Globes, which, we quickly learned as the segment progressed, wasn’t much.

Before the segment ended, however, we learned that while those kids might not know Minari from Mank, they definitely know who Chadwick Boseman is: Black Panther.

The segment made for a fun, touching tribute to a star who left us far too soon but whose legacy will last generations.

Watch it here:

The real stars of the #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/Il1h18KxIs

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 1, 2021

Last night was the Golden Globes. The Globes are the first major awards show of Hollywood’s awards season, which will last longer than usual this year with the Oscars being pushed to April (thanks Covid) and also the least reputable.

Nobody quite knows who makes up the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, other than the fact that they aren’t black and they are corrupt, but the awards ceremony itself is generally regarded as pretty fun because the stars of movies and television mingle, and many drinks are consumed.

Not this year. This year, it was pretty much all Zoom. (Thanks Covid!) Co-hosted by Tina Fey And Amy Poehler from opposite coasts, nominees accepted awards and made speeches via sometimes faulty video feeds. Which made for an awkward broadcast that left little room for fun. There were few spontaneous moments where a couple of presenters – say, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig – riffed on stage. Instead, it was mostly a bunch of cringe-worthy reaction shots and stilted speeches.

There were a few genuine moments, like when the director of Best Foreign Film winner Minari accepted the award while his daughter hugged him, or when a pre-taped bit featuring clueless children made clear the overwhelming impact of the late Chadwick Boseman. Perhaps the most moving moment of the night was when Boseman won a posthumous award for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

The actor, who died unexpectedly last year after a secret battle with cancer, was not able to accept his award, but his wife was. Through tears, Taylor Simone Ledward did her best to fill-in for her late husband, expressing gratitude for his costars and crew, his family and friends, and the HFPA.

Give it a watch, and have some tissues handy:

Taylor Simone Ledward accepts the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama on behalf of her late husband Chadwick Boseman at The #GoldenGlobes. pic.twitter.com/uz20f1kPHi

— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) March 1, 2021

Konami is well-known for its legacy of great games.  Even going as far back as the NES days with Contra, they’ve given us tons of memorable gaming experiences.  It’s a shame then to say that the relationship with their player base has become a bit rocky over the years.

In 2014, when they canceled the ‘Silent Hills’ project after the terrifying and critically acclaimed P.T. (Playable Teaser and yeah, it was scary good) released on PS4, things started to look grim for the company’s future.  Director Hideo Kojima, who was responsible for P.T. and all the Metal Gear games, would end up having a falling out with Konami after the release of Metal Gear Solid V in 2015.  Kojima would go on to start his own game development company ‘Kojima Productions’ and Konami would announce that they were focusing solely on their pachinko machine business (yay?).  What would happen to all of Konami’s big-name franchises?  Were they even going to be making video games anymore?

Well, if any of these new reports are to be true, we might be able to put a little more faith in Konami and have something to be hyped about.

Recently, a report from VGC claimed that Konami had licensed the Silent Hill IP out to a Japanese studio to work on a new installment in the franchise.  A new Silent Hill game is something that has been rumored to be in the works at Konami for quite some time, but nothing has ever come to fruition.  What adds another layer of mystery to all this as well is Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka claimed that he was working on a second project for Bloober (the team behind Xbox’s ‘The Medium’ horror game), in addition to making music for The Medium.

Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno told GamesIndustry.Biz that they’ve “been working for more than a year on another gaming project, another horror IP, and we’re doing this with a very famous gaming publisher.  I can’t tell you who. I can’t tell you what the project is, but I’m pretty sure when people realize we’re working on it, they will be very excited.”

Would this mean we would have two different Silent Hill games currently in development?  One developed by the Japanese studio and one by Bloober?  That remains to be seen.

What the report also mentions is that Konami isn’t just outsourcing for a Silent Hill revival.  According to VGC, Konami now “has plans to work on Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid games via external companies, but any potential releases are still years away.”

This all sounds wonderful, but the only thing that worries me about all these potential revivals is the Metal Gear one.  The series has Kojima’s DNA flowing through its veins, so the idea of another developer picking up where he left off is kind of scary to think about.  Maybe this next one wouldn’t feature 1700 hours of cutscenes?  Hmm, alright, now it’s not starting to sound so bad now that I think about it.

As with any of these rumors though, you just have to take them as they come.  Still, it’s always exciting to speculate, and if these are in the works, fans (myself included) would jump at the opportunity to play new games from any of these franchises.

Finding your soulmate is something movies use as a plot point far more frequently than it seems to happen in real life. Meeting a person you want to spend your life with doesn’t happen in a split second as your eyes meet across the room – in reality, it takes time and effort to make a relationship grow and intensify. When it happens, it’s nothing short of incredible – which is why the first five seconds of this TikTok had us concerned.

We know what you’re thinking, and yes, we also half-covered our eyes before we realized what this video was actually about. A TikTok user named Emily shared a video that’s nothing like it appears at first glance, and we couldn’t be happier about that.

Emily’s video opens with on-screen text that reads, “watch my soulmate fall in love with another girl.” The first half of the video is filled with clips of Emily and her husband, the pair smiling and laughing and falling deeper in love. Given where we thought this video was going, the videos of the happy couple feel out of place.

@tinytimswifemy heart ##Bossit2021 ##xyzbca ##notaperfectperson ##foryou♬ Home – Edith Whiskers

Before long, a new face appears in Emily’s video, and when we realize exactly who this “other girl” is, we let out a sigh of relief. Emily’s husband is in fact in love with another girl, a girl who he would do absolutely anything for – his daughter.

The video continues, and in the same way we watched the love between Emily and her husband grow, we now see the love between her husband and daughter grow. The video spans several years, with the couple’s baby growing from an infant to a young girl, and in every clip of her with her dad, it’s clear there’s no place either of them would rather be.

Emily most definitely got us with some classic misdirection, but all is forgiven by the end of the touching video. With over 250,000 likes, Emily struck a chord by reminding us that love is infinite. There’s no limit to the amount of love we can give, and there aren’t many things in the world quite as pure as the love between a dad and his daughter.

After losing a loved one, certain dates take on a whole new meaning. Days that were filled with celebration in previous years are now filled with memories and reflection, but those important dates will never go unacknowledged. The Irwin family doesn’t pass up an opportunity to celebrate the life of the world-famous Crocodile Hunter, the father, and husband whose legacy lives on through them.

Each year on Steve Irwin’s birthday, his family finds some way to keep his memory alive – this year would have been Irwin’s 59th birthday, and even 15 years after his death, he remains alive and well in the hearts of his children.

Bindi and Robert, Steve Irwin’s kids, each shared touching photos of their dad for his birthday. Robert shared an adorable photo of himself as a young kid, posing for a goofy picture in the arms of his late dad. “Love you, Dad,” the caption reads.

Love you, Dad 😊❤️ pic.twitter.com/wcWOJcYfip

— Robert Irwin (@RobertIrwin) February 23, 2021

Bindi’s photo features both her dad and grandmother, two people she holds close to her heart. “My dad and grandmother share a birthday,” Bindi wrote on Instagram. “I’m thankful for every moment we got together. Their love will live in my heart forever.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Bindi Irwin (@bindisueirwin)

The Irwin family also used Steve’s birthday to make a very special announcement, one that honors the work the late Crocodile Hunter did throughout his life. To celebrate their dad’s legacy, they’re launching a reimagined YouTube channel for the Australia Zoo, their dad’s second home. The channel will feature new content each week from the Irwin family, as well as archived Crocodile Hunter footage.

Even after his death, the path Steve Irwin paved for conservation in Australia is being both preserved and expanded by his wife and kids. The Irwin legacy lives on, and as someone who deeply valued both nature and family, the Crocodile Hunter would have been proud.

Eddie Murphy is one of the most legendary comedians to tell jokes into a microphone or on a movie screen. He single-handedly kept SNL in existence during his breakout years, he was a major box office draw and had some of the highest-rated stand-up specials of all time. But if you ask him about his legacy, none of that matters.

Because someone did ask him, The Today Show’s Al Roker, during Murphy’s media tour promoting his “Coming to America” sequel. Murphy said when it comes to legacy, it’s not a film.

“My legacy is not my work. My legacy is my children,” he said. “My legacy are these 10 human beings that I brought into this world.”

One of those human beings, his daughter Bella, even auditioned and scored a role in the movie. And she’s playing a natural role, as Murphy’s on-screen daughter (one of them, at least). And that made filming a whole lot more special for Murphy.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦🐁 (@bellamurphy._)

“I can’t even put into words…you know, if you have children, your child could do like a school play, and your heart will burst with pride,” he said. “To look over on the set, seeing her, I had a big giant proud papa moment every day.”

A big part of “Coming to America 2” is Murphy’s role as a dad and his search for his long-lost son in America. But Bella and Murphy as Prince Akeem don’t have to do all the heavy lifting in the star-studded sequel, as the film also features Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, and Shari Headley reprising their roles from the first, and they are joined by Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Wesley Snipes, and Tracy Morgan.

The film hits Amazon Prime on March 5^th.

After a devastating winter storm, Texas residents found themselves struggling to obtain the basic necessities. Power outages and water shortages left Texans in a state of shock, and as with many disasters, people flocked to stores to stock up on emergency supplies. The stores and restaurants that had power stayed open until their inventories were depleted, and with the increasing demand, it didn’t take long for store shelves to empty.

Texas Residents packed into an H-E-B store in Austin Tuesday afternoon, stocking up on supplies to hold them until the winter storm’s effects were mitigated. Shoppers rushed through the aisles, pulling food from the store’s quickly-emptying shelves. In the midst of the chaos, everything suddenly went dark.

“All of the sudden the power goes out, and you hear curse words and people sighing,” Shelby Lasker told Austin 360.

Lasker had been waiting in line for 30 minutes with her cart full of food and other supplies when the power went out, and initially, she anticipated walking out of the store empty-handed. Just as the customers’ frustration and panic began to grow, the store’s staff made a decision.

“You just hear (people at) registers say, ‘Go ahead,’” she says. Cashiers let customers “leave with baskets of groceries, no bags. I think they could tell how upset people were.”

Power went out at heb in Leander….instead of everyone leaving empty handed, they just gave it all away….no store does more then my HEB

— ✨S✨ (@shelbylasker) February 16, 2021

As word of the Texas store’s generosity spread on social media, loyal customers jumped in to express that they were entirely unsurprised by the store’s incredible gesture. H-E-B prioritizes helping its community when times are good, and when times turned desperate, the store stepped up.

Many people don’t realize that HEB provides to its Communities on a year-round Basis. In Austin, HEB provide FREE School Supplies to Low Income Children, Sponsors After School Programs, Supply Area Food Banks, provide Disaster Relief to Texas, Mexico and other States, etc.

— Rebecca Allen (@ausreball) February 21, 2021

The company’s act of kindness went viral, sparking support for the store that showed its customers how much they care. It’s natural to focus on your own situation during times of stress, but this small act of generosity reminds us just how much it means to pay it forward.

The Dad Staff is donating to a collection of food and warming centers throughout Texas to help families in need. Impact Your World allows us to contribute to 14 organizations, including The Red Cross, Mercy Chefs, Austin Pets Alive, as well as local food banks in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. If you are able, please consider donating any amount here.

“When our daughter was born, it took everything out of me.

Labour was close to 24 hours and a difficult delivery caused me to hemorrhage and lose a lot of blood. This took the rest of any energy I had left. It was hard to adjust to parenthood as we had to stay in the hospital for an extra couple of unplanned days.

The second night our daughter, Candice, refused to sleep unless it was on someone’s chest, and walking around. We were both completely zonked. Andy took her and spent hours walking around the room so that both Candice and I could sleep.

It was the first real sleep I had gotten in days. When I finally woke up, he looked so tired and while my heart ached to see him in such an exhausted state, I had to snap a picture as I had never been more in awe with him.

To this day, every time I look at this picture, I am flooded with emotions of gratitude and love for this man.”

– Catherine Capern

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COVID has ushered in an unprecedented era of creativity. We’ve had to adjust seemingly overnight to an entirely new way of living, and for parents, keeping kids entertained without their typical activities has proved to be unexpectedly challenging. Many parents, however, have taken the challenge in stride and jumped feet-first into finding creative solutions. Mike Ross is one such dad, ensuring that not even a pandemic would slow his active family down.

“When the lockdown happened it really felt like we needed to use our own space to its fullest potential in order to keep sane and busy,” Mike told The Dad. “It felt hard to keep the kids active and motivated at times, they were (are) really missing their friends so we wanted to have some options for them.”

Mike and his wife have two sons, a 5.5-year-old and a 2-year-old. Early on in quarantine, Mike took on his first big project to keep his kids entertained at home – a backyard play-set given to him by a friend. Rather than assemble the play-set as it was, Mike decided to turn it into something that any kid would envy.

“We reassembled it and modified it slightly,” Mike said of his formerly run-of-the-mill play-set. “We added a cargo-net climbing wall (truck bed cargo net) and hung a hammock underneath. We added a climbing rope and a trapeze bar. Later we mounted the sprinkler to it… the creative juices started flowing about then.”

After successfully using the warmer months to the fullest, Mike wanted his kids to have a similar level of excitement about something they could use year-round. Prior to quarantine, Mike didn’t have a whole lot of woodworking experience – but like most dads, his kids provided both the inspiration and motivation to use what skills he had and learn the skills he needed.

Mike’s oldest son loves climbing, and his history of scaling anything from banisters to basketball nets sparked the idea for a climbing room. Mike’s wife broke the massive project down into doable chunks, and his brother stepped up to help him complete the challenging project. Though the climbing wall was technically for the kids, it truly became a family affair.

“We had been talking about it since November but had other priorities over the holidays so he (our oldest) knew it was coming and counting down the days but it wasn’t finished until the beginning of January,” Mike recalled. “Our 5yo insisted on being in the room and trying to help and was trying to get on it every chance he got (not annoying at all). As soon as it was secure and he got the go-ahead, he jumped right in and his little brother followed right behind. They were practically squealing with joy and looked like real little monkeys climbing the walls!”

“We have a chin-up bar in the doorway, a basketball net on the back of the door and a laser light bluetooth speaker in there too now. We are always thinking about new ways to play in there, they love(d) it!”