Christmas Reading

We have been reading lots of Christmas books lately. Actually we started reading Christmas books probably the week of Thanksgiving but now it seems to be all we read. I secretly bought a few Christmas books from Gabrielle's monthly Scholastic book orders and the book fair. This past week we made a trip to the library to check out some new books. Our excellent librarians had already pulled all of the Christmas books and had them conveniently on a cart. We came home with 21 children Christmas books!! Don't worry - there were plenty of good books remaining on the cart for everyone else.

I am no expert on giving a book review but we have read so many good ones lately I wanted to share our favorites.

Gabrielle's favorite book is probably "The Gingerbread Man" by Jim Aylesworth. She loves gingerbread men anyway and when I saw this book I realized she probably had never heard the original story so I had to buy it. We have read this book at least a dozen times in the past week. It is the classic story of the Gingerbread Man who is chased by various characters, only to be outwitted and eaten by the fox. The illustrations have this old fashion look to them.


Samantha's favorite book is a board book I bought when Gabrielle was 15 months old, for her second Christmas. It is a simple story but perfect for a toddler. "Christmas in the Manger" by Nora Buck and Felicia Bond is a short and simple board book with cute pictures telling the true reason for Christmas. Samantha loves to say "baa" at the picture of the ram, "moo" at the photo of the oxen, "shiny" at the foil star and of course "baby" for baby Jesus. We read this one almost every night before bed.


Another cute board book we checked out from the library is "Down Through the Chimney." The book originally comes with a CD which has a narrator reading the story as well as singing the song. Unfortunately the disk was lost with the library's copy but the book itself is really cute too. Samantha loves seeing Ho-Ho.


Some of Gabrielle's other favorites from the library are "Reindeer Christmas", "The Christmas Hat" and "The Christmas Humbugs" (my favorite out of the bunch we have read so far). All very cute stories.




If you are looking for a book true to the Christmas story scripture but on a child's level I definitely recommend "My First Story of Christmas" by Tim Dowley. I found this recommendation last year from Proverbs 31 and ordered a last minute Christmas gift for the girls. I let them have it on Christmas Eve so we could read the Christmas story before bed that night. We have already read it once or twice this year but I will definitely make it a tradition to read it every Christmas Eve.

With all the Christmas books for the girls I decided I wouldn't mind something on my level as well so I too checked out a couple of novels from the library. In one evening I read the short novel "Miracle on I-40" by Curtiss Ann Matlock. It was an excellent (and quick) read in which part of the story takes place near Raleigh, NC - which was the first thing that peaked my interest about the book. I had not planned to read it one sitting but as I sat down to read I could not find a good place to stop, I wanted to know what happened next.


Both myself and the girls still have a pile and a list of books we want to read this Christmas season. If we come across any other favorites I'll be sure to share those as well!

Love, Santa

In the mailbox today we received the reply I was hoping to get - a postcard from Santa!! Gabrielle was really excited.

On Saturday we visited Santa in person. Gabrielle told me she was not going to be shy this year and was going to actually talk to Santa herself. She did pretty good and managed to tell him one item on her list. Samantha was excited to see Santa while we were standing in line. Once we got near Santa she suddenly turned more serious. She also managed to say a word or two to him and leaned down from my arms to give him a hug but there was no way she was going to let me set her on his lap. So here is our Santa photo this year - Ha!


I did not want to hold up the line therefore did not get the chance to pass off my camera to someone to get a photo. Fortunately there was a photographer taking photos but instead of paying the insane cost one will find at the malls for a tiny package of photos, at the end of the day the photographer took a disc of that day's photos to the nearby CVS. Today I stopped by the CVS, viewed our photos and printed whatever I wanted of the photo. I thought this was a great idea and system.

I did manage to snap a quick shot of Gabrielle with Santa.



I wish I had a photo of the sticky mess Samantha was after enjoying her candy cane from Santa. She certainly enjoyed it! By the time we got home her face and hands were red and sticky and what was left of her candy cane was covered in lent from her sweater. It was pretty gross! *smile*

Decorating for Christmas

Well after a bit of Christmas tree drama and issues and about a week of placing items here and there I have to say I'm pretty pleased with our decorations this year. I am still working on a couple of craft projects that I hope to be done with tonight or tomorrow and we still have a box of outdoor lights and garland to put up but that will have to wait for a day it is not 40 degrees with snow/ice on the ground and blustery winds.

Gabrielle loves the decorations and has declared this as the best Christmas ever. Let's hope this feeling remains throughout the entire Christmas season. And fortunately Samantha is not afraid of the tree like she was last year. Instead I am back to the days of all ornaments and decorations lower than 3 feet high being removed and placed all throughout the house. *smile*

Here is a glimpse of our little Christmas touches throughout our home...

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

This is the second year we are doing our countdown paper chain. So far it is going well. I simplified the daily activities even more this year to make the season more relaxed and the days more enjoyable for us all. Samantha is not able to do some of the activities and needs help with many of them but she is definitely enjoying the mini candy cane she gets every other day with our snowman countdown.

From My Little Sunbeams

And here are our poor snowmen who are awaiting repairs. Samantha loves them and hugs them and kisses them but she is also a bit destructive and rips their noses, buttons and even arms off. Once they are all fixed we'll have to find higher spots to place them.

From My Little Sunbeams

Our first activity on our chain this year was writing our letters to Santa. This year we opted to mail the letters. I'm hoping to get a reply from Santa. I've heard of some people receiving a reply as long as a legible return address is on the envelope so we'll just have to wait a few days and see what happens.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

This Christmas

We are only one week into December (which I'm actually having a really difficult time believing) and already my to-do lists are getting out of hand. In hopes of actually enjoying this Christmas and not getting too caught up in all that must get done I decided to participate in the Peace on Earth December Challenge over at Women Living Well.

To be honest I did not light my candle everyday but each time I saw it, lit or not, I did stop to pray for some peace - peace of mind, peace in my house, and peace this season. I've remained busy but I think it has helped to at least pause once throughout the day and put everything into perspective and get my priorities straight.

And I have to admit I am really looking forward to this week's challenge. *smile*