Karen And Kissable Kids: December 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Books

I've been wanting to do this for some time. Each year the kids get a book for Christmas but this year we are reading one book a night for story time. Hopefully next year I'll remember to wrap them up like presents and then we can pick one from under the tree each night.

Here's a list of some of our favorite Christmas books:

1. A Night Without Darkness: A Nephite Christmas Story by Madsen (I still cry whenever I read this)

2. An Animal's Christmas Eve by Wiersum

3. Morris' Disappearing Bag by Wells

4. Snowmen at Night by Buehner

5. My First Story of the First Christmas by Buck

6. Who Is Coming to Our House? by Slate

7. Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect by Schneider

8. The Gift of the Magi by Henry

9. The Polar Express by VanAllsburg (we watch the DVD and have hot cocoa)

10. A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Monson

11. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by Qojciechowski

12. The Littlest Angel by Tazewell

13. We Were There by Bunting

14. The Crippled Lamb by Lucado

15. This is the Stable by Cotten

16. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess

17. The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas by Berenstain

18. Christmas Oranges by Bethers

19. One Wintry Night by Graham

20. The Three Gifts by Orr

21. This Is the Season Beloved of the Year by Dewey (love the artwork!)

22. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Numeroff (this feels like my life right now, LOL)

23. Grandfather's Christmas Tree by Strand

24. The Night Before Christmas by Moore. We play a game with wrapped dollar toys - whenever the word THE is said, you rotate the gift around. Then before bed we read Luke 2 from the Bible and then sing a couple of Christmas hymns acapella with only the Christmas tree lights on.

This year for myself I've read Evan's latest, "Promise Me" and I really enjoyed Freeman's "A Christ-Centered Christmas". Last year my favorite was "The Nativity" by Gaskill and a little booklet called "The Christmas Scene" by Maxwell.

What's YOUR favorite book to read at Christmas time?

November Recap

Almost every year we go down to Arizona to visit with both sides of our extended families. Thanksgiving Day is with my family and the day after is Young Thanksgiving at my SIL's house. The kids love playing with their cousins and we really enjoy the warmer weather. We've also rode in El Tour de Tucson a couple of times which is always held the weekend before Turkey Day. It's a great ride for a great cause and it's well-supported. This year I did the 40 miler and Troy did the 109 miler, and we both didn't train nearly as much as we should have, like... next to nothing. We just did not have time. But my dad convinced us to stick to it. I rode with my cousin Julie. We drove up just as the 40-milers were starting, traffic was backed up so we were late. Oops. So I put the car in reverse and drove a couple hundred yards to the closest parking lot. :) We jumped out, got on our bikes and started the race without ever going across the offical starting line. A mile into it we ran into my dad and Troy who were doing the 109 miler together. The were exhausted at that point but I had to get back to my baby ASAP so I kept going. My brother Mark was doing awesome and was quite a ways ahead and we thought for sure he'd finish first. I tried to keep up with Julie but she trained for this and was hopping on the back of people's tails to draft and I can only draft behind people I trust so she lost me after 10 miles. I kept going. Then about 15 miles from the finish I see the shirt of my brother Mark. I almost spanked him coming up from behind but didn't want him to crash into me. LOL He had gotten leg cramps and was hurting. I couldn't go much faster so we stuck together and I pulled him for 5 miles. At one point we pulled over, let our bikes down and laid down on our backs on the sidewalk. We were beat. It was fun to ride together and finish together. My dad and Troy weren't too far behind so we hung around for a picture. My cousin Julie came in first - she's amazing! She's also getting married on 1/1/11 and I couldn't be happier for her. Before she left to go home we made sure to ride our favorite bike ride - the Saguaro National Monument East Loop. It's like a Disneyland ride on a bike. I LOVE it!