The Night Before Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cute version of The Night Before Christmas for you, pictures by Corinne Malvern.

It's been a really nice Christmas season.  All the events leading up to Christmas are just as fun as Christmas Day itself.  We did things like:

Santa Claus parade

Christmas party for kids and visit with Santa (through my husband's work)

A few Christmas parties with friends and family

Singing Christmas carols with the guitar with my daughters

Making Christmas Nativity Scene story stones with my older daughter (see previous post)

Decorating cookies

Kids' Christmas party at church along with singing in the choir

-Didn't get to go to our daughter's school Open House or school skate like last year since she was sick!...

Putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house

Driving around town to look at the Christmas lights and play a Christmas light/decoration scavenger hunt.

Reading Christmas-y books every night with my daughters.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone.

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

The Christmas Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas Story, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, has 2 different covers but the inside pages are the same, and I have both versions.  Coincidentally, I saw a post on My Little Bookcase about making 'story stones' using pictures from Little Golden Books.  Jackie had the exact same situation - she had 2 copies of the same book, so she decided to cut the pictures from one to make a nativity scene with story stones.  I didn't have a nativity scene either, so this was the perfect quick and easy craft for me! Just throw some Mod Podge glue on there and you're good to go!  I don't tend to make a lot of structured crafts with my daughter as she prefers to make up her own inventions with shoeboxes, ribbon, constuction paper, etc, but this was a great simple craft to do and we can use it every year to decorate at Christmas.

Little Benjamin and The First Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

Another beautiful vintage Arch Bible book to share with you today.  In this book, the main character, Benjamin, is the son of the inn-keeper.

So in my town, it has been a bad couple of weeks for sickness - seems like all the schools are getting hit with it pretty bad!  I heard a school in the neighbouring town had all the kids sick except 5 the other day!  My 6 year old had a bad cough/fever a couple weeks ago, and now last night she caught the flu bug and was throwing up.  Not to mention my 1 year old who has been up screaming in the night about her molar coming through!  Hopefully we will all be in ok shape for Christmas!  How is everyone else doing?

Jingle Bells - Illustrated by J.P. Miller

 

 

 

 

 

This Little Golden Book is so fun, and I love J.P. Miller's illustrations.  He was an animator for Disney and illustrated so many adorable books such as The Little Red Hen and I Am a Mouse.  His style reminds me of Richard Scarry.

Why is it that no one goes door-to-door to do Christmas caroling any more?  I think that would be so fun!  What are some of your favourite Christmas songs?  Some of mine are Oh Holy Night, Mary's Boy Child, Baby It's Cold Outside, Christmas- Baby Please Come Home, Do They Know it's Christmas (I have to like that one, it's got Bono in it!), and so on.  Growing up in a church with a lot of Dutch immigrants in it, including my grandparents, we always sang 'Ere Zij God' ("Glory to God") every Christmas.

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Santa's Surprise Book

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy this cute Whitman Tell-a-Tale book - Santa's Surprise Book - where Santa makes the book and then hops inside of it!  :)
What are some of your best Christmas memories?  We always went to my Grandpa's and to my great-grandmother's on Christmas Eve, all of our big extended family squeezing in.  Then on the way home we'd drive around looking at all the Christmas lights.  Christmas Day- open the stockings before church, then after church the rest of the presents.  My mom liked for us to open them slowly, each of us taking turns.  Now that I have my own family, we don't go quite as slowly with the presents as my mom did, but probably more slowly than most - we like to enjoy watching each present being opened.  Not an easy task with over-excited children, but we try!  On Boxing Day (Dec. 26) we would spend the day with my other grandparents and any relatives from that side of the family that had come in from out of town to visit.  For many years my dad would make an ice rink in our back yard and we could skate and play hockey with friends, relatives, and neighbours.

Linking up to Cozy Book Hop

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

 

 

 

 

 

This adorable Little Golden Book is illustrated by Richard Scarry.  I was wondering - do your kids question the whole Santa/Rudolph/Elf on the Shelf stuff, or do they accept it unquestioningly?  I think that my 6 year old accepts all the Santa and Rudolph stuff, it's not that she's doubting it, but she starting to want to understand more of how it all works.  Questions like 'Why is Santa's name Kris Kringle?  And St. Nick?  Does he live in a castle?  Is that guy the real Santa, or just a helper Santa?  How does he get in our house if we don't have a chimney? ' and so on!  As for the Elf on the Shelf- I am not sure if she suspects anything or not - every morning I play along with helping her to find him and am 'surprised' when she reads me his note and the joke that he wrote down for her for the day.

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Frosty the Snowman

I have always loved these illustrations from Frosty the Snowman, by Corinne Malvern.  The children just look so jolly and sweet in their little snowsuits.  This Little Golden Book was first published in 1950.  This YouTube clip of the song by The Ronettes is so fun, too - The Ronettes are so cool. There's no snow here yet where I live, though.  We had a bit of a dusting but that's it so far.  I grew up in Northern Ontario, where the temperatures every winter were always very cold and we got TONS of snow.  When my husband and I moved out here to the Greater Toronto area, it was weird for me to get used to having 'green' Christmases some years!  Last year it was a very mild winter with hardly any snow - nice that we didn't have to shovel or clear the car all the time, but not so nice for the kids with no snow to play with.  Remember when you were a kid, how exciting it was to see the first snow of the season?  I definitely don't feel that way as an adult but I do enjoy watching my daughters' excitement!

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

and Kid Lit Blog Hop

Eloise Wilkin - Prayers for Children and My Little Golden Book About God

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these pages absolutely make me tear up, especially from My Little Golden Book About God - written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  What a beautiful way to talk about God to small children.  And some of the illustrations seem to show the children and God communicating with each other through nature - it's amazing.  And the way that the author explains how we can also feel God's love through our family and friends and our memories of them- awesome.

Does anyone watch the show Parenthood?  It is so, so good.  I cry almost every week when I watch it.  But it's not a depressing show - just very poignant, with lots of humour in it too though.  Anyway, the theme song over the opening credits is Bob Dylan's "Forever Young".  Since this post is about prayers for our children and about teaching them about God, I thought you might like to read over the lyrics and listen to the song here over this YouTube clip.  Love it!  I couldn't get the clip to embed into the post so you'll have to click on the link.  I dedicate this song to my daughters - hopefully one day they will read this blog - kind of cool to think that it is like a digital scrapbook that they can enjoy when they are older!

"Forever Young"- Bob Dylan

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

Parenthood - Forever Young by Bob Dylan

Linking to Kid Lit Blog Hop