Holiday Book Basket

Good Wednesday morning!

What "Christmasy" thing are you going to do today? Some days Christmas things are just thrust upon us (like last night's Christmas Band Concert), and some days, we have to look a little harder to find something a little festive in our day. Something that has to do with the season and not the mundane and the humdrum. What will it be? What will it be?

The Band Concert was special to me last night because my oldest (senior in high school) and my youngest (6th grade) played at the same concert. The two of them participating in the same event like that will never happen again during their school years. Roxie started the concert and Austin ended the concert. (I also like Christmas "twofers" -- two good events for the price of one!)

One of our oldest Christmas traditions is the picture Christmas card. It started when Austin was 10 months old, and we haven't missed a year yet. Now, that is not to say we haven't almost left a kid off the card for various (and obvious) reasons... but so far, we've had a picture card every year... with all three kids! (Forget the dogs!)

One of my gifts to my kids this year is going to be their favorite gift of the season. I'm not making them pose for Christmas cards. I worked several minutes (a/k/a hours) yesterday, and I made a digital Christmas card using the pictures from our Thanksgiving Tennessee trip. I picked a card that could hold four pictures and I made a collage! If you don't know me, you have no idea how huge this is. I picked up the one copy I ordered from Wal-Mart to make sure I had done everything correctly, and today I'm ordering the whole 110. It is truly amazing. I'll be able to start addressing and mailing in two days.

And, get this. I'm going to write a mini-newsletter on red paper to attach to the back of the 5" x 7" card. Unbelievable. Again, you have no idea how huge this is.

I know there are people out there who are anti-inflatables. I am also aware that there are people out there who are anti-mini-newsletters. I don't understand your way of thinking, but I'll try to love you anyway... because it's Christmas, you know.

I would put a copy of my Christmas card and my Christmas mini-newsletter on my blog, but being severely technically challenged, and having already performed a small Christmas miracle yesterday, you'll just have to wait until after Christmas when I have a few minutes (a/k/a hours) to figure out how to make it "blog-worthy."

Holiday Book Basket

Last year, Mike's side of the family asked him to read the Christmas story before we opened gifts. Usually, our brother-in-law, Guy, has done the reading in the past. Since our new great-nephew was due any time, I talked to Mike about not only sharing the Christmas story, but sharing and starting one of our favorite Christmas traditions with the not-yet-born Baby Matthew.

His family was probably a little surprised when he pulled out a children's book called The Crippled Lamb. I know most of you have probably read this book, but it is the story of a lamb named Joshua who is a little different from the rest. It tells the Christmas story through the eyes of this special little lamb. To not have any small children in the room while Mike was reading the story might have seemed a little odd, but it was quiet and reverent and sweet. At the end of the story, Mike gave our niece, Brandi, the book to begin her Holiday Book Basket for Matthew.

Every year when the kids were small, we read a Christmas book each and every night. This is easy to do when the books AND the kids are small. It gets a little trickier when they get bigger. (That's when you start reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever a chapter a night!)

To start our collection, we asked for some Christmas books for gifts, and we always went to the bookstore the day after Christmas to buy some good books half price. It doesn't take long at all to get 24 Christmas books. And then you can have even more than 24 and let a child pick a different book each night. We did this for years while the kids were growing up. They would sit under the tree, and Mike and I would take turns reading a story they had picked. Sometimes they weren't even religious stories. We've read The Nutcracker and some of the Disney Christmas books, also.

It's a sweet tradition, and even though my kids have outgrown most of the books in the basket, it still sits under our Christmas tree in case we have little ones come to visit.

NOTE: With all the wonderful Easter and Thanksgiving books out now, you could start a Holiday Book Basket for those two holidays, also. It's a wonderful end-of-the-day activity during those busy times, and something the kids and the parents can look forward to!

Tomorrow, I've got a fun, fun, fun Christmas date for parent and child.

I hope you have a great Wednesday, and find something festive to do today to celebrate the season. Don't let a day go by without savoring a little bit of Christmas!

Christmas Card Count - THREE (Hey, it's better than two!)