🎄🚀 With Artemis II on the horizon, anticipation seems to be everywhere — so much so that a few toys couldn’t wait any longer and decided to launch themselves on a journey all their own. It turns out our Florida Panthers astronaut — a favorite gift this year — has ambitions beyond the ice. 🐾🏒🚀

(Yes… this little blast-off scene was created using one of “Grandpa’s” new AI toys. Turns out, once a science teacher, always a science teacher.)

As we head into the New Year holiday, we wish everyone a joyful, restorative break. Our team will be back next week, and January brings some exciting launches of our own across Access to Fresh and the Macieverse.

🌱🚀 Kicking off January: Macie and the Magic Rocket Seeds — featuring Farmer Lundyn

Grow a Space Garden on Earth? Farmer Lundyn Will Show Us.

This story — and the campaign around it — sits right at the intersection of food, curiosity, and exploration, inspired by real NASA research and the question kids naturally ask:

How will we grow food on the Moon… or beyond?

That curiosity is also being explored in real time by my friend Chip Carter and the team at Where The Food Comes From, who shot at NASA and are producing a special multi-part episode about how we’ll grow food in space, on the Moon, and beyond — all leading up to Artemis II and our return to the Moon. It’s a powerful reminder that when food meets space, learning takes off in unexpected ways.

To celebrate the book launch, we’re also rolling out a NASA-inspired “Rocket Seed” planting experiment with the real Farmer Lundyn, echoing NASA’s historic SEEDS project and benefiting the nonprofit, Access to Fresh. We’ll be using the actual Geo. W. Park Seed Company, Inc. / Rutgers tomato seeds that orbited Earth for nearly six years after being sent into space in 1984 — one of the largest student-led science experiments in U.S. history.

(Coincidentally, my father — who inspired the Grandpa character — was a Rutgers University graduate, a step that set him on his path as a science teacher.)

More details soon. Until then, enjoy the New Year, and we’ll see you next week as we launch into what’s ahead. Happy 2026!
🚀 Shoutout to the Florida Panthers for the unexpected astronaut recruit