Hot Mama In The City

 Most of us do many many important things online like banking, entering and accessing our private information, purchases or fun stuff like connecting with friends and family via social media. We all take precautions to protect our private information or our computer from viral attacks by using software like Norton. With our smartphones and tablets we are able to access all of the same information with a few simple clicks on our mobile devices yet we don't think twice about mobile security to protect us from the same threats we can encounter online.

Christmas is quickly approaching and I'm happy to say that I have most of my gift shopping done! I try to plan ahead so most of it has been completed for a few weeks now but sometimes I forget something or ... someone. With a large Latino family, it's hard not to miss a Tia or Tio. The two people I still had on my Christmas list were my sister and my daughter's teacher. I honestly had no clue what I was going to get for the both of them. My sister is extremely picky and I had no clue what my daughter's teacher would like and I didn't want to get her something her other students are getting her.

San Antonio Symphony HEB Pops series annual family favorite, Holiday Pops, rounds out the holidays December 20-21 with the San Antonio Mastersingers, Trinity University Handbell Ensemble. Join the Symphony for a magical celebration of the season complete with a sing-along and narration by radio personality John Clare. From “Sleigh Ride” to “The Night Before Christmas” to our Christmas “Pop” sing-along, the San Antonio Symphony will keep you entertained!

The Symphony’s Holiday Pops concert is sponsored by the Macy’s Foundation.

The Symphony’s December concerts will end with a special family concert “Holiday Magic! – a Family Holiday Celebration” on December 22. Families can partake in an afternoon of good cheer and the very best Holiday music, featuring the San Antonio Mastersingers.

Family Concerts are designed for children age 4-11, but this Winter Wonderland concert can be enjoyed by persons of all ages. Bring the whole family for an afternoon of family fun! The concert will take place on December 22 at 2:30 p.m. with an instrument petting zoo and other interactive activities beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Tickets are available for purchase at the Symphony and Majestic Theatre Box Offices, by calling (210) 554-1010, or by visiting www.sasymphony.org. Tickets also can be purchased by visiting any Ticketmaster location www.ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 745-3000.

Giveaway
Win a 4-pack of tickets to the Holiday Family Concert on Dec. 22 at 2:30 p.m. with an instrument petting zoo and other interactive activities beginning at 1:30 p.m. Giveaway Ends 12/20 at 3PM.

To enter: Leave a comment with your favorite Holiday song! Please leave best contact email. 

Did you know that an estimated 1 in 2 Hispanic adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years old will suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

Do you have a selfish holiday wish? Is there something you'd like this holiday season? It's so easy to get caught up in all the hustle and bustle of the holidays and finding the perfect gifts for everyone one on our list that we often forget what we want for the holidays. Most of us just want our friends and family to have a great holiday and we just want to help them achieve that. We all have a selfish thing we want this holiday season. For me, my selfish holiday want for the season would be a new computer with all the bells and whistles or even just a little help with the busy holiday season.


Celebrate a selfish Christmas this holiday season and give yourself a chance to win what you really want—an Xbox One. Visit selfishxmas.com and register to win from 12/1–12/31. If you want even more chances to win, head to Walgreens and pick up participating AXE products and scan your receipt for more entries.

Like most Hispanic families, growing up we celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve also known as Nochebuena. Growing we had to split our holiday time between families, as kid's it was awesome, we had more than just one Christmas to open our gifts. Christmas Eve was always the day I would look most forward to as the holiday season began, it by far was my favorite. We would spend Christmas Eve with my mother's side of the family so I got to spend time with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins who I was most close too. Now that we live in a different state from all of our family back home in California, we still celebrate on Christmas Eve, it's just what we are use to. We get together to have what many would think is an "nontraditional" dinner which can be anything from tamales, brisket to a traditional chicken roast feast. After dinner we sit around the Christmas Tree and open our gifts and in the morning we got to see what Santa brought us!

It's the Holiday season and with the colder weather and change in outfits. it's also time to glam up and change up our makeup routine for a more festive holiday look. When I think of holiday fashions, I think dark colored outfits with a pop of color like a red scarf paired with a colorful large necklace. I feel the same way about holiday makeup, I think of darker colored eyeshadows to make your eyes shine bright and bright red lips to make them stand out.

Here are a few of my favorite Neutrogena items for my holiday beauty routine.

• Clean and healthy skin is always in season. Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes gently and effectively dissolve all traces of dirt, oil and makeup and will leave your skin clean with no heavy residue so there is no need to rinse.
• A flawless looking complexion is always a must-have for every look. Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup is Silky, ultra-lightweight formula blends seamlessly with skin, evens tone and hides imperfections to instantly transform skin’s look and feel.
• Make those eyes stand-out and shine with pretty eyeshadows. Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadow this silky and creamy eyeshadow stick instantly revives and brightens the look of eyes, while a built in primer prevents creasing & fading for 12-hour beautiful wear.
•  Mascara is a beauty must-have. I love it for the instant impact it delivers. Neutrogena Healthy Lengths Mascara, the lash lengthening formula instantly makes lashes look 100% longer, while it actually conditions & strengthens them to grow to their fullest potential so they are beautifully healthy and more noticeable
• My favorite items for lips by far is Neutrogena MoistureSmooth Color Stick, a sheer & beautiful color that instantly moisturizes lips, while it continuously conditions them so they are softer and smoother in just 3 days with nothing on them.

 Avocados are one of my favorite fruits and I love adding them to many of my dishes. Avocados were my son's first food when he was a baby and he's loves them since. Avocados are a great source of natural good fats, over 75% of the fat in an avocado is unsaturated, making it a great substitute for foods high in saturated fats.

Avocados can be used as part of a variety eating plans and are: nutrient-dense, cholesterol-free, sodium-free and less than 1 gram of sugar per 1 oz serving, they are so easy to add to any of your recipes. Add them to your favorite smoothie, sandwich or sauce for a boost of nutrients.

Cottonelle believes that more is better. Why? It’s simple – more is better. Having 25 percent more this holiday season can make a big impact. I've heard many people often say that less is more but that should never apply to toilet paper. When it comes to that daily necessity, more is always better. Many of us could use an extra 25 percent this holiday season.

Citrus Lane delivered a box full of awesome goodies last week, all items were handpicked just for us! Citrus Lane’s award-winning subscription service delivers boxes on a monthly basis that are geared towards newborns and children up to age five. Every month your child will receive a box full of goodies that include toys, books, snacks and personal care products.

Ever wonder how celebrities look so perfect on the red carpet? They don’t wake up looking flawless. Like anyone trying to look their best, they have beauty secrets!

Here are a few beauty tips for your hair, skin and face to look carpet ready. Red carpet or not, we all want to look fabulous at all times.

If you have little one in your house then you're probably very familiar with those As Seen On TV commercials for Flipeez, Bright Light Pillows and Flashlight Friends. The commercials are a little hard to miss with their catchy little jingles and your kids pointing to the TV saying "I want that!". These products are sold online, TV and in store and are some of my kid's favorite toys.

The kid's recently received a Mini Micro scooter from KickboardUSA.com. The Mini Micro kickboard scooter features 3 wheels, gentle axle steering and a low-to-the-ground deck, all of which make the Mini exceptionally stable for young children between the ages of 3-5. The Mini's unique lean-to-steer mechanism makes this scooter a fun learning tool as well. Kids direct the Mini scooter by shifting their body weight to curve right and left, learning balance and coordination as they go.

Chewbeads are soft, non-toxic and colorful jewelry that your little one's can chew on, perfect for teething babies. Not only are Chewbeads safe for babies but they are fun and chic to wear. Chewbeads are 100% silicone, contain no BPA, phthalates, lead, cadmium or metal and are dishwasher safe.

Flu season poses a big problem for businesses ­ each year it causes an estimated 70 million missed workdays and billions in lost office productivity. It’s critical that both employees and employers take notice and promote healthier habits.


I work from my home office but that doesn't mean I don't work alongside some germy co-workers. The kid's can easily spread their germs around the house and that includes my work area. My kindergartner attends public school and often comes home sick from others at school and spreads the virus to the other members of the family. The kid's love to play at my desk to draw, color or play on the computer and that's why I wipe my desk down often during the cold and flu season. I work from home but I still have to take sick days and postpone deadlines and projects.

The fourth annual Flu Season Survey from Staples, a leading provider of supplies that help keep offices healthy, revealed nearly 90 percent of employees go to work even when they know they are sick. These findings show a growing trend when compared to last year’s survey indicating 80 percent go to work sick, up from 60 percent in 2011.

According to the survey, employees acknowledged that staying out three days when sick with the flu was appropriate. The majority of those surveyed, however, stay out of the office for less than two days when sick, putting coworkers’ health and business productivity at risk. The primary reason most respondents cited for returning to work early was not wanting to fall behind on their workload (45 percent).


Being proactive early in the flu season ensures health and productivity throughout the season. Since the flu season is now upon us, here is a list of items for your Cold & Flu Prevention Kit:

1. Clorox Clean Up Wipes
2. Lysol Antibacterial Cleaner
3. Purell Hand Sanitizer
4. Soft Soap Hand Soap
5. Kleenex Tissue Box

{This is a sponsored post for Staples. All opinions are of my own}

Baked sweet bread are always an easy dessert to bring to a class or office party. They are easy to make and require little to no fuss, just bake and take. Baking with chocolate is always fun because chocolate baking goods are always a big hit with everyone. I've been holding onto this Pumpkin bread recipe for sometime but wanted to do something fun and unique with it. When the opportunity to create a recipe using Milk Chocolate M&M's I knew I would be using my delicious pumpkin bread recipe.

The holidays are here again! Who doesn’t love this time of year with all the fun holiday gatherings, cooking and shopping – oh yeah, and surprise guests to buy a little something for. You know, tia stops by unannounced with a stack of gifts and you don't have anything for her. What do you do? This is where Walgreens can help!

Walgreens offers an array of ideas for those last-minute, gifts to help make your holidays a little less stressful. Whether it be for tia, a teacher or a neighbor Walgreens has gifts for just about anyone on your holiday shopping list.

Johnson & Johnson and Univision have launched a campaign to find an authentic, modern and active family to become “La Familia de Hoy" (Family of Today). Three modern families are competing for the title of “La Familia de Hoy”,  the winning family will become the spokesfamily for Johnson & Johnson in 2014. You can log on to Univision.com and vote for your favorite familia and help them represent today's families.

The other night I created a delicious and tasty meal for the family using Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauce. Probably one of the most easiest and quickest meals I've ever made. In just under 5 minutes, I was able to prepare dinner in my slow cooker and let the cooker do the rest of the work for me and within in a few hours I had a tasty meal ready for the family and I. The flavor of the sauces were a big hit, so much flavor! The easy slow cooker recipes on the back of these packages make for a simply amazing weeknight dinner.

We all want to live healthy lives and we make changes in our diet and physical activities to help us accomplish our health goals. One important factor most of us forget is to take our daily supplements. Taking a daily supplement can help fill in gaps in our diet, they can insure that you're getting all the nutrients your body needs. Amway North America recently launched the NUTRILITE® Supplement Recommender, an online personalized health assessment to simplify the product selection process. It eliminates the guess work by offering you a credible way to know which NUTRILITE® supplements are best for your lifestyle and diet.

Best Buy is the authority and destination for all your technology and appliance product gifting needs this holiday season.
The assortment is second to none:

• Feature more than 100 products sold only at Best Buy this Holiday
• Offer a market-leading selection of the hottest tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles and titles, wearable technology, health and fitness gear, mobile accessories and much more.

I love The Children's Place, it's wear I shop for most of my kids clothing, shoes and accessories. They have the latest fashion trends for kid's every season and their awesome sales are often hard to beat. I'm there so often that many of the sales associates know my daughter and I by name. The Children's Place offers so many adorable and cool clothing and accessories, it's hard to not love all of the styles they have to select from.