Books for Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! Christmas is not just one day… it's a whole season! And one of the gifts we love to give our kids to last the whole season is a stack of books on Christmas Day.

One question I get asked frequently is what they my kids are reading. I can't publish the books I plan to give my kids for Christmas before Christmas because all of my big kids read my blog. So there would be no surprise. My kids have always been voracious readers so they go through books like crazy using a plethora of paperbacks, ebooks, library books, and audiobooks to sustain them. We allow for a little fluff now and then but most of the books they read are classics. Some of the books we give them for Christmas are books they've already read but loved so much that they want to have their own copy. Some are books that they've never read before. Here are the books each child received this year {all links are affiliate links}…

Yes, there are a lot. Don't judge. ;) If you wanted to give your kids books, you don't have to give them as many. I started buying books (some new, some used) back in July and I try to give each child the same number. As my husband just said, "If there is one thing I will always overindulge our kids in… it will be books."

~The Professor~
(age 16 going on 17)

Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion (recommended by his Latin teacher)

Sword and Serpent

Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes (also Latin teacher recommended)

The Ballad of the White Horse (illus. by Ben Hatke)

The Ball and the Cross (illus. by Ben Hatke)

A Year With C. S. Lewis

The World of Odysseus (recommended by a good friend)

and some very special, mind-blowing, he never expected in a million years books...

A 50th edition copy of The Lord of the Rings (he's been eyeing this copy for years) and a hardcover copy of The Silmarillion… his two absolute favorite books in the whole wide world. He's only had a digital copy of The Silmarillion and his LOTR paperback was falling apart from near daily use. These books totally blew his mind. I love that about him.

~Sunshine~
(age 15)

Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts

The Ultimate Hairstyle Handbook: Everyday Hairstyles for the Everyday Girl

DIY Braids

The Secret Garden (illus. by Tasha Tudor)

A Little Princess (illus. by Tasha Tudor)

The Cranford Companion

the whole Boston Jane Series

Sense and Sensibility DVD (this was part of a set… 

Sunshine received Sense and Sensibility, Rain got Persuasion).

~Rain~
(age 14)

The Hobbit Chronicles: The Battle of Five Armies

Tales from Shakespeare

Doodle-Stitching

Quidditch Through the Ages

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Cranford

Penengro

and Writing Magic 

(and Persuasion DVD ~ not pictured)

~BigBoy~
(age 10)

The Book With No Pictures (hilarious!!!)

Sisters of the Last Straw: the Case of the Haunted Chapel

Sisters of the Last Straw: The Case of the Missing Novice

King Oberon's Forest

The Castle in the Attic

Lord Brocktree

High Rhulain

Shepherds to the Rescue

Danger at Sea

Braving the Storm

~Cupcake~
(age 3)

Dream Animals
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Catholic Churches Big and Small
A Story of St. Catherine of Alexandria
Snowflakes: A Pop-up Book
Meet the Neighbors
One Year With Kipper
Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How A First Lady Changed America.
And…

Julia's House For Lost Creatures
(which was promptly passed around to everyone.)
 This one is definitely in the "give this away to every child you know" category.

~From godparents and grandparents~

Brick Shakespeare (huge hit with everyone! There is a whole series to explore!)
Tea With Jane Austen
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Manger Mouse
The Empire Striketh Back
The Jedi Doth Return (BigBoy's godparents gave him
William Shakespeare's Star Wars for his birthday back in May. These were also a big hit with everyone.)
and The Owl and the Pussycat (not pictured
because I think Miss Cupcake ran away with it)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel...

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

I took a meal to a family with a new little one today. Oh my goodness… it is so easy to forget how teeny tiny babies are! And how fast they grow...

We are officially on break from homeschool (except The Professor who voluntarily chose to continue working on a few subjects) and everyone is having fun just decompressing. Last Friday, my oldest two attended a Jane Austen themed Costume Christmas Party/ Book Club. Their book club chose to discuss Emma and since it was close to Christmas, they decided to turn the book club into a costumed Christmas party.

It was so much fun to see all of those kids dressed up in their Regency finery and enjoying themselves together.

We have also been celebrating the O Antiphons every night with two new Wise Men books for our Christmas book collection (O Wisdom):

 

(I had not realized how lacking in Wise Men stories we were), tiny gingerbread house cookies which quite literally flopped (O Lord and Ruler of the House of Israel), root beer (O Root of Jesse), chocolate keys (O Key of David), Texas Sunrise mocktails (O Dayspring) , and crown cookies (O King of the Nations), much like years past.

The past couple of days, I've been doing some last minute Christmas gift making. These little beauties are going to a family we know with 5 girls. I hope you can tell which saints they are.

And the one below is for a special Mass friend of Cupcake's- they like to hunt for Itsy Bitsy Spiders together and practice going to Confession. These little dolls were really fun to paint and I can't wait to see the girls open them.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Must Have Christmas Books!

It's that time of year when everyone starts sharing their favorite Advent/Christmas books {and Amazon affiliate links}! We have long had the tradition of wrapping up a picture book to share each night of Advent and the 12 days of Christmas. Usually, I select which books are read which night.  I decided to do something a little different this year. I spread all of our books out on the bed and brought the big kids in to tell me which ones were their "must have" books. Which books do we HAVE to read because it's just not Advent without them?

I was a little surprised by some of the picks, not surprised at all by a few and laughing hilariously at the ones that were chosen by them all (including my husband) for the "please let's NEVER read this again" pile… I'm looking at you, An Orange for Frankie! A few of these were sentimental favorites from their early childhood. Bigboy, as big as he is, is still partial to anything that has the word Christmas and kitten in it. Oliver All Alone was such a beloved story to Rain that it used to stay on her shelf all year long.

I'm sharing the list here hoping to introduce you to our favorites but also as a permanent record for this forgetful brain of mine.

While creating this list, I was horrified to see how many of our must have favorites are out of print. I better start looking now for gently used copies to hand down to future grandchildren.

MUST HAVES!

• The Shepherd's Christmas Story
• Corgiville Christmas
• The Homeless Christmas Tree
• Legend of the Candy Cane
• Christmas Cookies: Bite-Sized Holiday Lessons
• A Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale
• Marta and the Manger Straw
• The Christmas Cat
• The Christmas Kitten
• Stephen's Feast
• Hanna's Christmas 
• A Gift from St. Nicholas
• All for the Newborn Baby
• Father & Son: A Nativity Story
• The Three Gifts of Christmas
• The Lady of Guadalupe
• Christmas in the Trenches
• The Christmas Knight
• The Miracle of St. Nicholas
• Through the Animal's Eyes: A Story of the First Christmas
• Snowflake Bentley
• Saint Francis Celebrates Christmas
• Gift of the Magi
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
• One Snowy Night
• The Night of Las Posadas
• Christ Child
• Oliver All Alone
• Mortimer's Christmas Manger
• Angela and the Baby Jesus
• Papa's Christmas Gift: Around the World on the Night Before Christmas
• The Miraculous Child

On the "please let's never read this again" pile…
An Orange for Frankie (not a fan of the illustrations and... he dies!)
The Little Match Girl (hauntingly beautiful illustrations but... she dies alone… in the snow!!)
The Little Fir Tree (weird little tree that can survive being transplanted year after year but hey... at least the kid doesn't die!!!)

Now, we have a ton of Christmas books. Seriously… they would not all fit on my bed, but then again, my bed is a Queen size so, maybe that's not so bad. We decided to pull those books that we all liked but were more like chapter books instead of picture books and set them out in their own little basket this year so that everyone can enjoy them on their own time. I might list those later if anyone is interested.

And for anyone looking for Advent activity ideas, here is a an almost complete archive of our Advent adventures past:

Advent Archive

And here is an old post for those of you tempted to stress out and try to do ALL THE ADVENT ACTIVITIES:

Advent Musings

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oh so many cookies made yesterday. Almond biscotti, haystacks, candy grahams, mint chocolate chip biscotti, and apricot bowties to add to the fudge already made. I think one more batch of fudge and we should be done. Then to start cooking for Christmas Day's feast!

 Yesterday morning, the kids and I decorated our kitchen with paper snowflakes simply because I saw some beautiful ones on FB and just couldn't help myself!

WWRW: Official Christmas Edition!

***Yes, I know it's Tuesday… now. My days are so messed up so just count me early for tomorrow.

So Miss Jessica Spice said that this week is the official Advent/Christmas theme version of WWRW. I know I posted some of our favorites last week, but I'm going to post some more here because, well, we have a ton of them. {with Amazon affiliate links, but you probably already knew that…}

 The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton

The kids were *almost unanimous that this one had to be read this year. It's a great family read aloud book that starts with the first chapter on the Feast of St. Nicholas and then doesn't pick up again until the first day of Christmas. I've mentioned this book before when we made our first Epiphany Tart but since it was such a big hit, I thought I'd mention it again. 

*The Professor was the only holdout against this one but I think that has more to do with husband's silly reading voices, not the book. 15 year old boys don't like to be seen chuckling at silly voices. :)

Shall I Knit You a Hat? A Christmas Yarn by Kate Klise

This is for the people you love who love knitting. It's a knitting story AND it's Christmas themed... which makes it pretty much perfect in Sunshine's opinion. Although, reading this book might mean you get more than a few requests for Christmas hats but is that really a problem? (Well, if you aren't a knitter I guess it might be.)

The Christmas Knight by Jane Louise Curry

This story is based on a medieval tale of a generous nobleman. The illustrations are lovely. I can't tell you much more than that because it's wrapped up right now. It looks like this one is OOP so keep your eyes peeled for it. Maybe check eBay? 

A Christmas Manger by H. A. Rey

It's Christmas AND H. A. Rey. What's not to love? A sweet little punch out creche and a pocket to keep it contained in the back. Just so you know… the book part of this book is just a couple of pages of the Nativity story from the Gospels of both Matthew and Luke. Most of the book's other pages are the punch out figures. 

The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale by Aaron Shepard

Please tell me you have this book. Everyone should have a copy of this book! The illustrations are so intricate and detailed and the story is inspiring. Right now, the Kindle copy is only a penny, but trust me, you are going to want to own a copy. We are already on our second one. 

Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story by Sally Lloyd-Jones

This lovely story was new to us last year but it has already become a favorite this year. We read it the other night and even Cupcake was captivated by the poetic words. I caught her whispering "It's time. It's time." So sweet!

The Dolls' Christmas by Tasha Tudor

 This one will be new this year even though I purchased it used. Right now, used copies are insanely priced but the Kindle version is reasonable. I don't normally enjoy reading picture books on the Kindle/Kindle app but I would make an exception for this one if I didn't have a hard copy. It's Tasha Tudor and in the same vein as my other favorite Tasha Tudor book...

A is for Annabelle by Tasha Tudor

I have my mother's copy of this book from when she was a little girl. When I found out several years ago that it had been reprinted, I purchased an obscene number of them and handed them out as gifts to anyone I knew who brought home a little bundle of sugar and spice. With the number of pregnancies announced lately, maybe I better stock up on some more!

Head on over to Jessica's to find more great Advent/Christmas suggestions!

{p,h,f,r} Christmas edition

{pretty}

Pretty babies! This is a screenshot of the official Christmas card... that is, if I can ever get them in the mail.

{happy}

Our Guadalupe Roses are all gone now that our temperatures have cooled but this last one remained beautiful over my sink for almost a full week after the feast day. It made me happy every time I looked at it.

{funny}

 I think I said it last year but it's probably time to get a new tree when your kids can reach the top without even stretching. Maybe next year...

{real}

The cool front and wind that dropped the temperature also dropped this rather large limb from a tree in our backyard. It happened overnight so no one was outside, thank goodness.

With Christmas coming up quickly and the need to get ready for guests,  I don't know if I will have a chance to say it later, so I will say it now...

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Christmas Morning

Our tradition has always been that the children wake up early on Christmas Day, peek in their stockings to see if good old St. Nick returned and then get ready for morning Mass. It is such a quiet, uncrowded  Mass. The monks at the Abbey who have already said Midnight Mass and celebrated the arrival of the Christ Child are allowed to sleep through their usual 6am call to morning prayer so they join in community to say them right before Mass. It is beautiful to get to hear their chanting as you arrive for Mass on such a special day.

Off to church!

After Mass, the priests are usually still a little sleepy (maybe even a little slaphappy) but very cheerful and happy to socialize. One of the older Hungarian priests told us he was without any hot tamales this year. He made sure we understood that he liked them HOT! Not hot from the oven, HOT as in SPICY!!! Our friend, Fr. R. who grew up in San Francisco very much enjoyed the Ghirardelli chocolates we gave him. He passed the bag around to everyone who walked by saying "These are authentic San Francisco candies!"

We came home, put brunch in the oven (ham and egg cups, toasted English muffins, cinnamon rolls, left over Nutella Dream-Cheese Ball, clementines, biscotti and coffee) and then sat down to open some gifts.

The first gift we open is always the best gift. I usually place all of the baby Jesus's from the nativity sets we have on display (we have too many to count and don't always set them all out) in a wrapped or decorated box. The youngest child gets to open it. Once all of the baby Jesus's are all snug in their mangers, we move on to the other gifts.

My favorite part of the day was when the children opened the stack of books we had picked out for each of them. Some were books they had already read but that we didn't own copies of and some were new surprises. 

A hush fell over the house. 

Not even the tempting call of bigger presents under the tree could pull them away. 

Food however, did get their attention... if they could bring their books.

Everyone loved the other things that had been chosen for them. LEGO sets for the boys and some kitchen things and cookbooks for Shortcake, a play mat for Cupcake. However the best reaction was Sunshine's!

Guess what she wanted for Christmas...

She got it!