Top Ten Christmas Books

Now that we've finally entered my absolute favorite season, I've pulled out all our Christmas books (a collection that's ever expanding). I'm always looking for more titles to add (and I have added a few new ones this year), but I also have several stand-bys that I don't think I could ever not read during the Christmas season. So, below, are our Top Ten Christmas Titles (and please feel free to leave a comment recommending a new one for us to try!):

In no particular order...

1. The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden, Illustrations by Barbara Cooney
This is one of my all time favorite stories, regardless of the holiday--it never fails to make me ball and then feel all gooey and happy with the world. The story is particularly resonent if you were one of those little girls who had a doll who you truly loved and saw not just as a toy, but a friend. Now, to some who never had that, that might sound a bit creepy, but for those of us who had that sort of attachment, this story will totally touch your heart.

2. The Polar Express written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
This is a true Christmas classic that I have adored since I was a little girl. It's one of those books that is written so well, illustrated so beautifully, that it reaffirms, very easily, your love for illustrated storybooks. This biggest appeal for me in this story is the idea of always believing Santa Claus and never letting your faith in him waiver, even when everyone around you let's go of their own.

3. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story by Gloria Houston, Illustrated by Barbara Cooney
There is something beautifully simple about Barbara Cooney's illustrations in this book that make the words by Ms. Houston all the more poignant and perfectly sweet. This book never failed to make my mom cry as she read it to me every year, and now, as I read it to my little girl, I shed my own set of tears. While the book is obviously meant for children, there is an undertone in the story about the sacrifices parents make for their children and for each other, and it is those sacrifices that showcase the love and truest meanings behind Christmas.

4. The Wild Christmas Reindeer written and illustrated by Jan Brett
Jan Brett is the queen of Christmas stories and this is my absolute favorite of hers. It's a story about perseverance and friendship, and also tells a good story about how one should approach people (or reindeer) in a cooperative situation. I thought of this story all throughout my student teaching (especially when I was at the high school level) and tried to use it as a metaphor for how I needed to work with my students. On another note, the illustrations are awesome, especially the little side panels that help track the days until Christmas and show off all the hard work Santa's elves are putting in.

5. A Little House Christmas by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Illustrated by Garth Williams
In this little mini-collection you have three stories from three different "Little House" books. It's lovely to capture those sweet moments, when times were simpler, the pleasures somehow smaller but bigger at the same time. These stories bring you to a different place and time, and that is so much fun!

6. Robert Sabuda Pop-Up Books
There is something incredibly whimsical about a pop-up book, and Robert Sabuda's Christmas books are simply amazing. We have three of these and truly enjoy reading them and playing with the very interactive pictures.

7. The Tiny Star, by Arthur Ginolfi, Illustrated by Pat Schories
This is one of the first Christmas books I remember reading as a little girl and my favorite "reason for the season" type books. It's about a tiny star that gets her glow after warming a new born baby in a stable (we can all guess who that baby is, right?). It's so sweet and very subtle in it's message (something I can admire in any form of literature).

8. Santa's Secret Helper, by Andrew Clements, Illustrated by Debrah Santini
I think this book was one of my mom's favorites to read to me (and I enjoyed it, too!). Have you ever wondered how Santa could possibly get to all those houses all over the world in one night? This book has the answer, which it reveals in an ever charming guessing game of who the secret helper could possibly be.

9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, Illustrated by Judith Gwyn Brown
So, while it's a chapter book (a book I plan reading over time with Lizzie when she gets a bit older), it's one of the best books ever because it combines all of my favorite things about childhood literature: fun characters, an interesting plot, and a good, wholesome message (there is not a ton that is terribly wholesome in the world any more, and kids' books, especially Christmas books, are one of those wholesome things that remain).

10. The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell, Illustrated by Paul Micich
Are you ready to ball your eyes out, but to feel so incredibly uplifted afterward? This book is...amazing, but it can be so hard to read. The idea is that a little angel boy, who just can't seem to get anything right, is trying to decide what to give the Christ child when he is born. The story is short, but so rich with detail in both the writing and the illustrations, and when you read it (something to read only once a year, on a special night for your family, I think), you will be blown away and filled with such love and appreciation for why we are truly celebrating Christmas.

Top Five

It's that time again! Another prompt from Mama Kat--two weeks in a row! Go me! 

Here is the prompt I chose this week: Five Things. List 5 things we don't know about you, 5 things you're knowledgeable about, 5 things you know nothing about, and 5 things you believe.

Five Things You Don't Know About Me:

(First of all, since I'm one of those open book sorts of people, it's hard for me to come up with this stuff, but I'll give it a whirl.) 

1. I have a little brother with Asperger's Syndrome. It's actually surprising I haven't talked about this before, because the "issues" my brother and family has dealt with has significantly shaped my life (including my meeting my husband), but I haven't yet felt compelled to blog about this. 

2. I was a flaming, unabashed Communist/Anarchist when I was 15. I'm not entirely sure if I knew what either one of those things were, except it meant I kept a notebook filled with that anarchy A symbol and political cartoons that I'd drawn, consisting mostly of conservative political figures hanging themselves. I was such a pleasant teenager. 

3. I won the school-wide geography bee in 6th grade and actually went to the statewide geography bee but went out in the first round. Did you know the capital of South Korea is Seoul? 

4. I seriously considered converting to Judaism in middle school. 

5. I played with American Girl Dolls and Barbies until I was about 15 (when my childhood abruptly ended and I decided I needed to take down the American government). 

Five Things I'm Knowledgeable About:

1. Autism and Asperger's Syndrome. (See #1 above.) 

2. The similarities between John Milton and William Blake (Renaissance poet and Victorian Era poet; both awesome). I wrote a pretty sweet research paper comparing the two. 

3. Nirvana (the band). I spend most of high school convincing myself I was Kurt Cobain reincarnated...despite the fact he died when I was six. 

4. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I put these two things together because I don't want to take up the last to spots on my list with my extreme nerdy-ness. 

5. Babywearing. I am the ultimate salesman for all my slings and SSC (soft-structure carrier). 

Five Things I Know Nothing About:

1. Quantum physics. And I so badly want to be an expert. 

2. Seoul, South Korea. 

3. How to parent a little boy (or a teenage girl, for that matter). 

4. Karma Sutra (something DOH would very much like to change). 

5. Twilight (and I'd like to keep it that way...though, I will admit, I did read the entire first book, have forgotten much about it, and, again, would like to keep it that way). 

Five Things I Believe:

1. Karma. It's there, deal with it. 

2. Nothing is black and white, nothing is ever really clear. Life is too fluid for complete certainty on anything, but sometimes you just need to make a decision and go with it. 

3. My family. Together, we're capable of anything. 

4. This world was created with love. By whom or what I'm still pondering (though I've got some ideas), but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a place made for and with love, we just need to connect ourselves to it. 

5. Santa Claus. I don't care what anyone else says, he's real. 

What I've Never Done

Here's a prompt (I haven't done one in a while) from Mama Kat.

I'm 23 years old.
And I've never:

1. Left the United States (sad, I know

2. Eaten a kumquat

3. Gone surfing

4. Read Gone with the Wind

5. Appeared on television 

6. Spoken a foreign language fluently

7. Occupied Wall Street

8. Remained unshowered for longer than a day

I'm pretty sure this is my mother-in-law

9. Permed my hair

10. Seen Forrest Gump

11. Supported the New York Yankees

12. Gotten into a fist fight

13. Been to the top of Mt. Washington

14. Made fudge successfully

15. Been to Disney World or Land

16. Gone clubbing

17. Peed in public (like, in the open--I use public restrooms all the time)

18. Lived on my own

19. Been tattooed 

20. DIY'ed a really cool project

21. Served in a political office

22. Purchased a gigantic chicken 

Writing Prompt: School's Out!

Top ten reasons why you're glad you're done with school.

For the first time in my living memory, I'm NOT going to school this year. At least not as a student (I am going back to school as the educator rather than the educatee). As much as I love school, love being a student, and, honestly, am a little sad that I'm not heading back to campus this Fall, there are lots of reasons for me to be happy that I'm done with school. Here are the top ten:

1. I don't have to buy books! My last semester of actual classes (last Fall), my book bill was around $600 for four courses.



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2. Snotty professors/teachers. "I don't give As in this class." "I don't care what other courses you're taking, this is the most important course you'll take!" "A weekend is more than sufficient to read this book and write a ten page paper." "You're not very good at this, are you?" (From my 9th grade English teacher!)



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3. Having a class that ends at 1:00 and another that begins at 1:05...across campus.



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4. Cafeteria food. Bleck.



Our troop of "mannies" (male nannies). Actually, they're DOH's friends, but they've all pulled babysitting duty at least once.

5. Needing to have three different people to watch Lizzie so I could go to class at really random times.



The school bus I wish I took to school. Source.

6. Riding the bus. I even rode it my senior year of high school! Embarrassing!



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7. The DRAMA. Katie's not speaking to Zoe, because Zoe might have maybe kissed Rachel's boyfriend, Adam, and Rachel is Katie's best since first grade, except for that year in fifth grade when Rachel was a Jock and Katie doesn't hang out with Jocks, she's into the Emo group and...How on earth am I supposed to keep all this straight?! And it's all very important when you're in high school.



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8. Homework. Sometimes it was okay, but other times all it did was completely tear apart my confidence on a subject. Take physics and pre-calc, for example. I should take this time to thank my good friend Catherine for letting me copy her homework.



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9. Romeo and Juliet. I love Shakespeare and I actually really love this play, but I've had to read it about four times, starting at the beginning of high school all the way to the end of college. I get it now. And I'm done.



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10. The pressures of being a student and being a kid. Maybe I'm turning into one of those old people who glorifies their childhood, but I feel like I was not faced with the same complex and honestly frightening issues pre-teens/teens and young adults face now (and it's not like I'm that much older). I'm so glad I grew up in the times I did, with the parents I had, and made the friends I keep now.

Top...However Many I Come Up With: iPad Apps

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I mentioned a few weeks ago (here) that I had acquired an iPad 2 (the mention of the "2" is really important). I think after nearly a month's worth of time qualifies me to talk about some super neat apps that I'm obsessed with really enjoying. If you have an iPad or even an iPhone or iPod Touch (because some of these have a version for both), I definitely recommend checking the following out.

1. Houzz. If you're totally into interior design and love virtually house crashing people's pads, this is a wicked cool app. They  have hundreds of thousands of photos of beautifully designed houses in tons of different styles. You're able to go through the photos, which are sorted by room and design style, and make notes on different rooms, and then save them to different folders called ideabooks. So, for example, I have folders for kids' rooms, bathrooms, ideas for our house, etc. You can also check out ideabooks by other designers and other users of the app. Free.
2. Period Tracker. If you're like me and the mysteries of womanhood are still a bit mysterious to you, then this might be the app for you. This little app helps you track when your period is most likely to occur (even if you have a longer or shorter than usual cycle, like me), when you're most fertile, and allows you to quickly and easily document menstrual and even possible early pregnancy symptoms. If you feel a little out of sync with what happens with your body each month (and I am most definitely one of those people), this is a really great and convenient app. Free version.
3. Evernote. This is a wicked neat app, especially if you write or blog, study, or need to take notes. I would have loved this app in my early years of college when I was still taking classes where I needed to memorize facts or take tons of notes. Anyhow, Evernot allows you to take and organize notes, take pertinent pictures to whatever your writing about, and record audio. You can sync all the information with your laptop and your smartphone or tablet. So, imagine you're a college student in a lecture hall. While you're taking notes, you can record the lecture. I would have killed for this app when I was taking biology my freshman year of college. And it's been enormously helpful in getting ideas down for my blog.
4. Touch Pets: Dog. This app is a game and it is my Farmville. You adopt a puppy, you play with it, you earn coins and XP points, they try to get you to buy more coins with real money, and it's completely pointless--but in a fun kind of way.
5. M.A.S.H. Okay, totally not related to the show from way back when (my parents used to force me to watch reruns), but instead, it's a throw-back to that old middle school game where you pick five guys you might want to marry, where you'll live, what car you'll drive, how many kids you'll have, etc. This game could keep me occupied for hours (okay, about 30 minutes, but still, it's really fun).
6. Kindle. I love me some books and I love my Kindle (which is currently on the fritz, boo!), and I love the Kindle app for the iPad. While there is an e-reader app on the iPad, I am an Amazon devotee and I feel like there is a better selection of free e-books for the Kindle, so I downloaded this app. Anything you can do on the Kindle, you can do using the Kindle app on the iPad (except for the games, which stinks). The obvious disadvantage of the iPad vs. the actual Kindle, besides size difference, is screen glare, which does make a difference for those of us who are big beach readers (and is why I'm looking into getting my Kindle fixed A.S.A.P.).
7. My Recipe Book. This is so cool! You can save recipes from your own collection (and I have tons that I've pulled from magazines), recipes you find online, and can search a huge database of recipes already available on the app. Plus, with the iPad 2, you can take pictures of whatever you've made and save it with the recipe. This is one of my favorite apps and is wicked useful!

T.V. is Bad for You

Okay, so I'm going to cheat a little bit in this writing prompt from Mama Kat. Some of these shows (okay, most of these shows) are probably still on the air, but I don't think I've watched enough T.V. in my life (or I'm too young) for there to be a lot of shows out there that have come and gone and are really bad. But anywho, here are my top ten shows that should be showed the door (or have been, and shouldn't be let back in).

1. Mad TV. This show is...lame. It's a wanna-be Saturday Night Live (and I love me some SNL), but it's not funny. The jokes are juvenile, the comedians who are on the show are second rate, and...it's just dumb. And Stuart? Give me a break...
2. Step by Step. I don't know. There's just something about Suzanne Summers that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's the unstoppable perkiness?
3. Joey. I'm sorry, Friends was great, Joey was an awesome character, but this just didn't work. I was irritated that they tried, nevermind that the show itself was pretty bad.
4. Gossip Girl. I know this show is still on, but this show is so vapid and shallow and such a poor representation of teen life.
5. 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom. I feel like these shows should be a PSA for why girls (and I really do mean girls) should not be having children. These chicks are MORONS. But, instead, they've just legitimized getting pregnant at an absurdly young age.
6. A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and Rock of Love with Brett Michaels, I Love New York, Flavor of Love, etc. These shows GROSSED me out. Any show where you feel you need to be given a stupid nickname to hide your identity should show you that maybe appearing on this "dating" (read: orgy) show isn't the best idea. Also, take note of the picture above--would you risk getting your hair yanked out over this man?
7. Mama's Family. Okay, so I pretty much wasn't alive for most of the time this show was on, BUT I did catch reruns while I was home sick plenty of times. It was enough to make me go to school puking.
8. Cavemen. Loved the commercials, thought I'd love the show (really). Lame.
9. Any vampire show except Buffy and True Blood. Guys, get off the Twilight train.
10. Passions. This was a wicked bizarre soap opera on NBC with a monkey, witches, and all sorts of sideshow weirdness. Okay. I admit it. I loved it. But it was bad.

Top Ten: Terribly Awesome Things I'm Currently Unable to Live Without

1. My $15 "sea grass" bag from Wal-Mart. And while I'm currently coveting a $45 one from Cold Stone Creek, this one is doing just fine.
2. Mrs. Meyer's basil scented dish soap and lavendar laundry detergent. OMFG, this stuff makes me want to do the dishes and laundry, a previously impossible task. Love this stuff.
3. Flip-flops. Whatever pair I can find lying around the house. These are on my feet from March until November.
4. My super-sweet key chain--a repurposed shower curtain hook (an idea from Martha Stewart).
5. My camera. I've been taking TONS of photos this summer (something I've had a tough time doing in the past). I don't know what it is, but I've felt a strong need to document EVERYTHING visually this summer.
6. Stuff You Missed In History Class podcasts. These podcasts are AWESOME. Sarah and Deblina, the lovely and ever-informative hosts, are great, pick the best topics, and you feel like you're listening to a couple of your girlfriends talk about, of all things, history (and really neat history, at that). They cover a wide range of topics and have warded many afternoons for boredom.
7. Spray on sunscreen. We've been spending a ton of time outside lately, and with all that lovely sunshine comes sunburns (owie!). So, to head it off, a quick spray of sunscreen is what we use. It's fast, convenient, and works wonderfully.
8. Jergen's Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer. With a family history of skin cancer, I've really never been able to justify tanning, either in a booth or by simply sitting out in the sun with no coverage. However, I'm a blond and I'm pale, so I need something to perk up my skin tone a bit and this product from Jergen's does the trick.
9. Matchbook Magazine. It's a FREE online magazine that is...awesome. It focuses on twenty-something ladies, their interests, their designs, and all that other great stuff. Love it!
10. My roses. They are all over the place at our house and I've started cutting a few every once in a while to bring into the house. The best ever.