Christmas Preparations Part Two: Books

Last year we started a new tradition of wrapping up our Christmas books and opening one each night before Christmas. It's a great tradition and one we plan to continue for a long time. Christine loved unwrapping a present every night, and I loved getting to read every single Christmas book with Christine.

Favorite memories:

• Amelia Bedelia's Christmas- we bought this book because it was super cheap (we love shopping at Half Price Books- our used book store) and because Jeff and I loved Amelia Bedelia as kids, but we thought it might be too old for Christine this year and she wouldn't like it. Boy were we wrong. There is a joke at the very beginning of the book that Christine couldn't get enough of: Mrs. Rodgers tells Amelia Bedelia that "Christmas is just around the corner" and Amelia Bedelia responds "What corner?" Then Mrs. Rodgers explains, no no it's an expression that means it's coming soon.  We would get a few pages into the book and Christine would turn back the pages to the beginning "no no Mommy read that page!" so she could hear the joke again.... and again, and again!
• Dora's Starry Christmas- how could we resist buying a Dora Christmas book for our huge Dora fan? (A little background: Santa's reindeer get  sick so Diego has to nurse them back to health and Dora helps Santa deliver the presents while her explorer stars pull the sleigh) Christine's favorite is the page where they are delivering presents in the jungle and it's too dark to see and then... (imagine a LOUD toddler voice excitedly saying this:) "OH! OH! GLOWY STAR DO IT! GLOWY STAR DO IT!"
• Twas the Night Before Christmas- This was another of those books we bought thinking it would be too old for Christine this year, but maybe she would like the pictures (it's illustrated by Mary Engelbreit). Christine shocked us by memorizing almost the entire the book (it was a potty time favorite). What?! Does she even know what sugar plums are? or kerchief? or even creature? We pulled out the video camera and recorded her reciting the poem as proof because we figured no one would believe us that Christine can say "Twas night before Christmas, all through house, not a creature stirring not even a mouse" all the way through "Merry Christmas all, all GOOOOD night!"
• I Spy Christmas- definitely the most used Christmas book, though not for reading. Because of it's large, hard-backed size it made the perfect book to put her Dora puzzles together on top of.