Mattress Vancouver

We have just over a month to go till Christmas. Are you ready?

The Starbucks cups were out on the 1st, St. Paul’s Lights of Hope turns on next Thursday and the Christmas Train starts up on December 2nd, Each unique event reminds us of how close we are coming to the family holiday.

And there’s so much to do…

The cleaning is what stresses us out. Vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, polishing – it all must be done before the family arrives.

Then there are the lights to be hung, the tree to buy and the sweets to be baked.

Finding time to rest over the holidays can be a chore in itself. To improve your horizontal hours, purchase a Simmons Beautyrest mattress from Vancouver’s mattress store. It will be a gift that you can enjoy every day of the year. You can’t say that about the Rudolph-themed slippers you received from Uncle Rob.

So treat yourself to a new bed and counteract the Christmas sleep withdrawal.

Asleep At The Switch

Christmas crafts sales are a one-stop shopping centre for all those people on your list that need something simple but festive. From ornaments, to wreathes, to salt and sweet treats, you’ll find everything under the broad blanket of Christmas crafts.

This weekend hosts a number of Christmas craft fairs around the city. Simmons Mattress Gallery suggests the following sales:

Friday, November 25th

-9th Annual Chilliwack Christmas Craft Crawl

Various times and locations in Chilliwack

-North Delta Potter’s Guild Christmas Pottery Sale

Artspace Studio (11425 84th Avenue)

-Richmond Potter’s Club Christmas Sale

Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Place)

Saturday, November 26th

-Dunbar Community Centre’s Annual Craft Fair

10am – 5pm (4747 Dunbar Street)

-Renfrew Community Centre’s Craft Fair

10am – 3pm (Eastt 22nd and Renfrew)

-Strathcona Community Centre’s Winter Craft Fair

601 Keefer Street, Vancouver

-Urban Artists’ Craft Fair

10am – 5pm Roundhouse Community Centre

-Woodside Gallery Christmas Arts and Craft Show

10am – 5pm (2226 Lougheed Highway)

Homemade Christmas Gifts

It helps to have connected friends, especially friends who speak your language. Anthea Poon, Vancouver’s Top Multi-Lingual Realtor, is a valued friend of Simmons Mattress Gallery. We recommend her work for any potential buyer or seller actively looking for a Vancouver realtor – especially if they speak Mandarin or Cantonese.

Anthea’s main focus of work is Vancouver’s West End, but she also services the Greater Vancouver area. She has built her own West End database for potential buyers. This is a invaluable resource for potential condo owners.

You may recognize her face from her prominent bus advertisements that have been circling the city. With a B.A. in marketing, Anthea knows how to get your listing in front of the eyes of potential buyers.

Selling or buying a home can be the most important decision you make. Let Anthea aid the process.

To enlist the service of her real estate team, call or email her company. She will gladly reply in English, Mandarin, Cantonese or French. That’s the benefit of talented friends.

You wouldn’t think the airport would be a weekend destination spot, but YVR has other plans. This summer, experience ‘Take-Off Fridays’ at the Vancouver International Airport for games, family events a live DJ and multicultural mingling.

The final Friday event is August 27th. The fun starts around eight in the morning and wraps up around four at night. The festivities are spread out over both the domestic and international terminals.

Activities include face painting, dancing, food specials and the ‘money machine.’ The latter offers each contestant a chance to grab as many YVR bucks as they can. The catch: you need to grab them while standing in a closed wind cylinder. Each ‘buck’ you grab can be used towards purchasing items at stores around the airport.

The backdrop to this event are the finely carved and crafted First Nation artifacts that routinely offer travelers a glimpse at the beautiful history of the first West Coast peoples.

Come and enjoy the richness of YVR with the whole family. Your kids will love it and you will be reminded of how lucky we are to have such an amazing airport to welcome and bid farewell to travelers from all over the world.

Looking for an educational activity for the family this weekend. All Discovery Walks is offering a interactive tour of one Stanley Parks secret bogs. The tour begins at Lost Lagoon at 1:30 and ends around 3:30.

Vancouver Community College Science Instructor, Maria Morlin will be hosting the walk that will focus on the role of bogs and wetlands in forest ecology.

This is an excellent opportunity to subtly get your children back into an academic setting. You may want to research the topic of bogs beforehand with your family, to get them thinking about the subject matter. While on the trail, encourage questioning by modeling. Maria will be happy to answer any questions you or children bring to light.

Educators might also want to take part, specifically those working with students in Grades 3 and 4. ‘Habitats and Communities’ is a big part of the Science curriculum for these grades. Maria’s tour may inspire you to organize your own forest walk in the fall.

If you do plan on attending, you may want to wear appropriate footwear. We suggest boots.

Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the start of the tour.

Beaver Lake

A new baby can turn your sleeping schedule upside down. Finding ways to help your infant fall asleep at times that are suitable for you is a challenge. New research is showing that one of the best aids you can use is soothing noise. This calms the baby and encourages sleep.

The makers of baby related products have reacted to this research and have started producing high-end white noise machines. These little items might make great shower gifts, but for those mothers who don’t receive one, the cost can be a little excessive. Babies are an expensive enterprise and finding ways to cut down on costs is a necessity for new parents.

Good news! A new app for your android phone called Relax and Sleep Plus can play soothing sounds through the speaker in your phone for a fraction of what it would cost to buy a white noise machine. The app costs $2 and is available at the Android Marketplace.

The app lets you set how long you want the ambient noise to run. It also has a number of various sounds to choose from. You can mix them together, or have them play one after another. Examples of available sounds are: acoustic guitar, aquarium sounds, ocean and rainforest. There are also animal noises such as frogs and birds. The most bizarre option is the sound of wolves howling, for those Farley Mowat fans.

Consumer guides suggest setting the volume at a low level and keeping the phone well away from the sleeping infants head; the debate on cell phones and stimulating brain cancer is ongoing.

Another tip is to set your phone on airplane mode. You don’t want your infant interrupted by one of your friends calling or texting.

Unfortunately for iPhone users, this app is not currently available on Apple products. We’re sure they will make something similar in the coming months.

Down for at Least a Few Hours

As the world tries to come to grips with the damage caused by the recent earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, here at home, people are starting to fear that the next big quake could occur somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. This has many Lower Mainland residents thinking very seriously about their preparedness level.

To address these concerns, citizens can visit the British Columbia Earthquake Preparedness website for tips on what to have ready and what actions to take in the event of a massive earthquake. The site is an excellent resource for preparing your loved ones for an environmental disaster.

Remember to Hold On!

Here are a few quick tips for your family to work on:

1. Know the safe areas of your home that can be used for cover.

(heavy tables, desks, archways)

2. Know the dangerous areas of your home.

(near windows, beside large appliances, near shelves)

3. Signup for a first-aid course.

4. Plan and practice safe evacuation routes from your home.

5. Have a plan in place if your family is separated. Organize a contact number of a family member or friend who lives in another area of the Province.

6. Make sure every member of the family knows how to turn off the gas incase of a leak.

7. Have a list of emergency contacts posted near your main phone. You can also add these numbers to the contact list on your cellphones.

8. Prepare emergency supplies for at least 72 hours.

This should include: first aid kit, tarp or small tent, water (lots of it), water purification tablets, non-perishable food, flashlights, am/fm radio, batteries, toiletry items, fire extinguisher, wrench, shoes, gloves and if possible, sleeping bags.

The in-laws arrive on Thursday night.

They are flying in from across the country.

Simon and his fiancé are traveling from Calgary. Brenda, Scotty and the kids are coming in from Oshawa. Fran is making her way from Nova Scotia and Frank and Laura are flying out of Cranbrook.

It’ll be a packed house.

The turkey has been bought, you’ve planned dinners for both Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and the presents are wrapped. The only thing left to do is to figure out where everyone will sleep.

So in your usual fashion, you make a list.

Master Bedroom  – You and your husband.

2nd Bedroom (Jules’s) – Your two kids and Brenda and Scotty’s boys. They can squish. You have three extra foamies plus Jule’s bed.

3rd Bedroom (Mathew’s) – Simon and his finance. The bed’s small, but they’re in love. Well, newly in love, so you assume they still enjoy holding each other at night.

Office – Fran. It’s small as well, but there is a mattress in the garage that fits perfectly into the room. She’ll also be closer to the computer, which you’re sure she will appreciate.

Basement – Brenda and Scotty. They need a break from their little monsters and that’s the furthest spot away you could offer them.

Den – Laura and Frank, your husband’s parents.

But wait, you replaced the hide-a-bed last year with that new couch from the Brick. It doesn’t fold out! OMG! You can’t make them sleep on the floor…. Frank’s back is always bothering him. Plus, Laura would never forgive you. She’s still sour about the spaghetti incident from last summer.

What now?!??!

Don't Leave Your Loved Ones On The Floor

The quick solution: buy a spare mattress from Simmons Mattress Gallery. They’re open all week till six o’clock. You can make it to the Coquitlam location after work on Tuesday. You’ll have the mini-van and you can tie the mattress to the roof. Best of all, Laura can’t complain about the quality of a Simmons!

Excellent. Crisis averted. Stand down. Christmas is a go… for now.

Looking for holiday events for the whole family?

A great, relatively cheap, activity this holiday season is a Christmas light tour.

Once you finish dinner, pack the kids in the car, put on a CD of Christmas classics and drive through the city on a treasure hunt

Document your adventure with a digital camera.

Have a ballot sheet, where your kids can vote on the most creative, the most absurd, the most classic.

A great starting or ending point is the tree at English Bay. Park the car and take a walk underneath the strings of lights.

If you’re looking for a longer walk, take the family to the Vandusen Garden’s Festival of Lights. The light display will run from December 10th till January 2nd. The lights turn on at 4:30 and shut off at 9. The family rate, for two parents and their children is $29.75.

Time a factor?

Try going for a walk in your own neighbourhood. Check out all the displays and appreciate the effort that went into the many multicoloured mosaics of light.

Just remember to get home at reasonable time.

Wouldn’t want the young one’s to lose any sleep.

Happy hunting.

St. Paul's Hospital (Downtown Vancouver)

Fact: St. Nick enjoys his pancakes.

You always knew the ‘man in the red suit’ loved his cookies and milk and the odd sip of bourbon, but do you also know that Santa is a huge fan of the flapjack?

Breakfast with Santa, since its inception at the old Eatons building, has been a tradition in Vancouver for years. This year Santa will be making a pre-Christmas visit to sample breakfast wares at four different locations around the city:

1. The largest and most established event will be held at the Vancouver Convention Center. There will be a exquisite buffet offering, live entertainment and of course a visit from the jolly one himself. There are two dates planned for this event: December 18th and 19th.

2. For a more scenic meeting place, Grouse Mountain will be hosting a meet-and-greet in the Lupins Café at the top of the gondola. Buffet brunch will be provided, along with children’s entertainment. This event will run daily from December 15th to the 24th.

3. For a more community feel, both Douglas Park and West Point Grey Community Centre will be hosting Santa on the 11th of December. Crafts will be on display for purchase.

Have your child bring their wish list down and their appetite.

The Christmas Season is here; Starbucks is offering their eggnog Latte, the stores downtown are staying open longer and the Christmas train is set to leave the station this Friday in Stanley Park.

Always a Vancouver favourite, the annual train ride is a holiday classic.

Titled ‘Bright Lights in Stanley Park,’ the train runs through the Stanley Park forest, which is lit by thousands of coloured lights.

It passes through different theme areas that are synched to the music being played from small speakers on the train itself.

There are interactive elements for the kids as well, with a costumed Gingerbread Man and a petting zoo.

The park employs student volunteers to act as festival ambassadors for the event. They are aided by the regular park staff and the other volunteers who help make Bright Lights one of the most spectacular lightening displays in all of Canada.

Tickets are $9.00 for adults and $6.00 for youths. They can be purchased online through Ticketmaster for any night as long as it is one day prior to the date you wish to ride. For day of tickets, you will need to head down to the park as early as possible, as most rides sellout hours before.

Make sure to bring a non-perishable item for the food bank and a small monetary donation for the Vancouver Firefighters Burn Fund.

Bright Nights in Stanley Park

Simmons Mattress Gallery has been sharing blog entries with our readers for over a year now. We have written on a variety of topics ranging from our showroom mattresses, to events around town, to the local sport’s stories. We have given you useful information about sleeping disorders, bedbugs and relationship advice. We have had a lot of fun writing and researching our articles. I hope you have enjoyed reading them.

For a quick look back at some of our posts, here is a thematic listing:

Sleep Disorders:

Grinding in the Night - ‘Bruxism’ is a term used to describe the practice of grinding one’s teeth during sleep

The Phantom Leg – This article talks about the neurological disorder, restless leg syndrome.

Mattress Guilt - For older readers, this article concerns sleepers who unknowingly engage in sexual activity while asleep.

Breathless at Night – Sleep apnea causes some individuals to pause their breathing during sleep.

“You’re getting very sleepy…” - This article talks about hypnosis as a cure for sleep disorders.

Wide Awake and Writing – This is a review of Patricia Morrisroe’s book “Wide Awake: A Memoir of Insomnia.”

Mattress Buying 101:

A Lesson in Mattress Shopping – Six tips for mattress buying.

The Simmons Brand – The history of our brand and the innovative non-flip pocket coil mattress.

The Simmons Difference – Comfort, motion separation and professional advice.

There Are No Silly Questions; Well, Maybe a Few – Some questions that caught us off guard.

Kid Friendly – Simmons Mattress Gallery also sells classic wood cribs.

Humourous Tales:

WordPress Crashes on Mattress – A little April Fools humour.

Sleeping With a Legend – The Japanese think of everything.

The Sweet Sounds of “Mattress Music” - A fictitious soundtrack inspired by our favourite topic.

Tales of the Absurd – The bizarre world of competitive eating.

The Smell of Victory – A play-by-play description of ‘giving a dutch oven.’

Hold Back That Yawn… You Can’t! – Just try to. Once you start there is no stopping.

Life is Precious! - The story of a feline who got caught up in a move.

The Royal Mattress Stack - The retelling of an old fairy tale.

Family and Relationships:

Putting the Kids to Bed – Addressing the sleep issue with every member in the family.

Relationship Advice From the Mattress Professionals – Our number one piece of relationship advice: “Don’t go to bed in the middle of a fight.”

Mattress Romance – A little message from the baby with heart tipped arrows.

The Marriage Bed – Buying the right bed to start your new life together.

Sex Differential - Yes, we are different.

Missing the Moment - Be there for all your children’s firsts.

Canadians Need to Leave Work at Work and Enjoy Their Leisure Time - Title says it all.

Survey Says: Parents Need Help With Sleepless Infants - Finding solutions to sleepless nights.

Back-To-School Sleep Ideas – Plan for the transition between holidays and school.

Blowing Off The Dust

“I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.”

-Robert Louis Stevenson, The Land of Counterpane

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The twenty minutes or so it takes to put your kids to bed each night, can contain some of the most important parent-child moments in the day.

Taking time to read and talk with your children in a setting void of distracting stimuli is paramount for making strong connections that last a lifetime.

Part of this process is providing calming entertainment that doesn’t involve an on-off switch; we’re talking about bedtime stories.

Some of our staff favourites are:

For the little ones: Goodnight Moon

For the more poetic: Robert Louis Stevenson’s collection of poems, A Child’s Garden of Verses (The Land of Counterpane)

For a humerous poetic spin: Anything by Shel Silverstein

For a simple read: Beatrix Potter’s Tales (The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher)

For a chapter book: Anything by Roald Dahl (make sure your children hear the words first and create their own visuals before seeing the movies)

For the older ones: Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling’s books are dipped in the magic she loves to write about it)

But if you have even an ounce of creative juice in your body, try, at times, to come up with an original work. You can personalize the story for your children and create characters that they will never forget. Try it.

Good luck and Goodnight.

The Simmons mattress brand has been making quality-sleeping products since 1891. Known worldwide for their mattresses, the Simmons Company is also keenly devoted to creating superior products for the young ones in your household.

Since 1969, when the Simmons Company purchased McGraw-Edison, Simmons has been operating a Juvenile Furniture line.

In 2006, the furniture division was renamed Simmons Kids Furniture.

Today, they offer a wide range of wooden cribs, chests and armoires for your toddler’s nursery.

Simmons Mattress Gallery in Coquitlam, is proud to sell the Simmons Kids crib line. We believe in selling only the finest sleeping products and Simmons Kids Furniture is no exception.

Sausalito Crib N More

All of the items in our showroom have received the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association certification. This means they have been thoroughly tested for safety and quality. To indicate our standards, each approved item bares a gold seal with the acronym JPMA. Viewing this seal, on any product in our store, communicates one thing: “Rest easy. It is a Simmons.”

So next time you’re in need of a new sleeping platform, shop for the whole family, at Simmons Mattress Gallery, where quality, craftsmanship and competitive pricing go hand-in-hand.

Up At Night

Rob will always remember the night his family stayed at the Red Cedar Inn when he was twelve years old.

It had been a full day of driving and his parents, instead of pitching a tent in the local campsite, had decided to splurge on a hotel. It had been a week since Rob had been in a proper bed and his anticipation for sleep was more than a twelve year old should ever have.

His parents booked two rooms, one for them and one for Rob and his brother Alex.

They were side-by-side, with a gap of five metres between the doors.

After watching some local TV, the two brothers turned their lights out at around 10:30. They were sharing a bed, but it wasn’t a Thermarest, so Rob has happy.

Then around 1:30 am, Rob heard a noise at the door.

He woke to see his younger brother turning the door handle. The room was cut open with light from the hallway, as young Alex proceeded to slowly move out of the room and down the hall.

Rob called after him in a groggy voice, but his brother said nothing.

Jumping out of bed Rob ran to the open door way. Alex was already halfway down the hall. Rob called again, softly, but with intent. Alex turned, but only a quarter. Then he started to open the door to another room. Rob stood in amazement as the door swung open and Alex entered another suite.

Then the scream came and Rob sprinted down the hall. It was a lady’s voice and it kept coming in a high pitch siren tone.

Arriving at the door, Rob saw Alex staring at a young couple on their mattress.

Slowly Alex turned and Rob saw a small tear in his eye.

“What are you doing?” Rob yelled.

“I don’t know was the answer.”

“Well, get back in bed.”

The boys quickly shuffled out the door and met their Father in the hallway.

Alex walked straight past his Dad and back into the boy’s room.

Rob shrugged at his Father with his hands gestured outwards and followed his brother back to bed.

The next morning Alex remembered nothing.

Fact: one in three children sleep walk. It’s not weird, it happens. But it does provide ammunition for embarrassing wedding stories. Like the one told here. It turns out that the couple Alex walked in on was on their Honeymoon. Guess they weren’t expecting kids that early.

Beatirce had to think fast on her feet. The Gatekeeper was demanding a reason why he should let her enter, even though the torrential rain seemed to be the obvious answer.

“I’m a princess,” she said coldly, mustering a stare that demanded attention.

Half an hour later, her ruse had her inside the gates and heading to the castle. The king had apparently set aside a special room for her to sleep in.

Once inside, she was lead to a tower and asked politely to climb a long staircase. After five minutes of climbing, she reached a stone platform with a single door. A servant swung it open and motioned her in. The room was well lit with candles and from their glow Beatrice could see that the only piece of furniture was a towering four-post bed.

The canopy of the bed was close to the ceiling and stacked, almost to the same height, was a huge pile of mattresses and feather beds.

Staring aghast, she counted twenty of each.

“This, your lady, will be your sleeping quarters.”

“You mean I am supposed to sleep on that? I don’t think so. How would I even get up there?”

“There’s a ladder my lady,” the servant explained, ” on the far side of the bed.”

“Is this any way to treat a princess,” she said, remembering her character.

“It is by the Queen’s orders,” replied the servant, shutting the door.

Beatrice stared back at the mattress stack and whispered under her breath, “Are they serious?”

Mattress Stack

Early the next morning there was a loud banging at the door. Beatrice climbed down from the mountain of beds and opened it, still half asleep.

As she did, a small crowd of royal dignitaries burst into the room, staring intently at her.

The Queen pushed to the front of the pack and addressed Beatrice: “So young lady, how was your sleep?” The others in the room leaned closer, as if Beatrice’s answer would change their lives forever.

“Not so great, now that you ask,” replied Beatrice.

A cheer erupted from the crowd at the back of the room, but was quickly hushed by the Queen. “And why would that be.”

Beatrice stared at the tower she had slept on and thought for moment. “Well, you may have stacked twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds on top of one another, but I don’t see a single Simmons in the bunch.”

As summer winds down and the days slowly become shorter, the family focus shifts from summer activities, to prepping for back-to-school. The kids maybe dreading it, but your countdown to Labour Day has probably already begun.

One important part of getting your children ready to start school is establishing formal sleep routines.

Back-To-School Sleep Patterns

Here are a few tips from Simmons Mattress Gallery:

1. Start putting the kids to bed at a set time each night. Try for 8:00. It will probably still be light out, but if you model the behaviour yourself, the kids will mimic your habits. Once they’ve fallen asleep, you can enjoy the last light of summer with a nice glass of wine on the patio.

2. Begin to limit television and video game use, at least before bed. Start a regular pattern of reading before bedtime. This will get them back into school mode and excited for new literature.

3. Remove distracting elements from their bedrooms. Slowly start moving their toys to another area of the house and away from their sleeping sanctuary.

4. Prepare dinner earlier so that their stomachs have more time to digest their food before the earlier bedtime. Also limit their junk food intake, especially the amount of pop and candy they are eating. It is suggested that children should not be given caffeine within six hours of their bedtime.

5. Establish weekday patterns. Let them stay up a few hours later on Friday and Saturday, but return to the scheduled bedtime on Sunday.

Good Luck and Goodnight!