Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Christmas Home Tour
It's that time of year again, Christmas home tour time!
I'll be honest and say this is not a Perfect home tour in fact its anything but, (moving six people into a smaller house takes awhile to get things Perfect ) Good thing I'm not striving for perfection! And like one of my favorite bloggers, the Nester, always says, It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
So without further adieu, here is the tour!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Favorite Christmas Books (a repost)
This is a repost from last year, you can check out the original post with a lot more links HERE
We love Christmas books (OK we love books in general!) but we love the Christmas ones especially because they only get seen for a short time each year. I usually keep them in storage the rest of the year so that they are extra special when they come out around the end of November. We keep them in this basket by a good reading chair in the living room so that we make sure to share and enjoy them together.
Onto the books! First we have our Nativity themed books: The First Christmas, the top one is a nice pop-up story about the Nativity and the bottom one is a "changing picture book" so both are a bit interactive. You can get the bottom one HERE. The two on the right Room For a Little One and A Child was born I actually ordered through book orders for the kids school and Room is my absolute favorite I just love the gorgeous illustrations and it is such a sweet story. My kids love it as well as the story is told more from the point of view of all the animals in the stable and they love searching for the little mouse :)
And on to Santa books :) We got I Believe in Santa Claus last year for Christmas and though it looks boring it is a really great story about the similarities between Santa and Jesus. Another favorite is Santa's Magic Key (this version is a kindle version, not sure where you can get a hard copy).This is extra special because we got it from my Grandma and as she is friends with the author, it is a signed copy :) This is a fantastic story and has really helped me answer Gabe's question of how Santa gets in the houses of people without fireplaces (we don't have a fireplace anymore :( As soon as he asked I pulled out all the Christmas books to find this one :) Anyways, the other two are fun, It's Santa! is a lift the flap fun one and My Christmas Treasury is filled with a bunch of different stories including Twas the Night Before Christmas :)
Snowman Books: I guess they aren't necessarily Christmas books (well The Annual Snowman's Ball and Snow What Fun are) But I like to include them in the mix :) We got these from various places, most were gifts though. The kids love Snow Bear as all the pictures of the bear are fuzzy! (Especially great for the younger set)
Since we're Canadian, we had to get the Porcupine in a Pine Tree! We got this one last year as well I think (I'm just realizing we got a lot of books last Christmas!) and we really enjoy this fun adaptation of the Christmas carol, The twelve days of Christmas. Some highlights~ Eight mounties munching, Five Stanley Cups, Four calling moose....:) it's a lot of fun. Then we have I Spy a Candy Cane~ my kids love I spy books and this one is for the 6 and under crowd. I'd love to get the bigger one as the kids are all getting bigger. And next is Teddy's First Christmas (I think Gabe is the only one who reads that one anymore :) Mortimer's Christmas Manger is a cute story and then we have The Elf on the Shelf. Snoodle (that's our elf's name :) has been kicking around here since Dec. 1st although he might have gotten lazy once or twice and stayed in one spot for a few days :) This is a fun tradition with kids especially if you start it when they are really young and your elf isn't lazy (or forgetful!) like ours is sometimes :) I checked on amazon but they are super expensive there so I would google other sources if you are interested and I think I saw them at Chapters/Indigo too.
And last but not least, we have The Christmas Hat and Disney's Christmas Storybook . I left these for last cause they have been around the longest :) Nyla got these from us when she was a baby her first and second Christmases and they are enduring favorites (they are well used as seen by the damaged spine from one too many drops from little hands :) I think more from all the memories of Christmas past than anything else. They are both good books though and the Christmas hat one is fun because the pages are all embossed so they feel neat.
Oops!
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing our favorite books, if you want more ideas for Christmas books you can check out Memories on Clover Lane blog or The Sunny Side Up blog which are two places I have gotten ideas from in the past.
Have a great day!
We love Christmas books (OK we love books in general!) but we love the Christmas ones especially because they only get seen for a short time each year. I usually keep them in storage the rest of the year so that they are extra special when they come out around the end of November. We keep them in this basket by a good reading chair in the living room so that we make sure to share and enjoy them together.
Although I have to admit that this basket is getting pretty stuffed!
Onto the books! First we have our Nativity themed books: The First Christmas, the top one is a nice pop-up story about the Nativity and the bottom one is a "changing picture book" so both are a bit interactive. You can get the bottom one HERE. The two on the right Room For a Little One and A Child was born I actually ordered through book orders for the kids school and Room is my absolute favorite I just love the gorgeous illustrations and it is such a sweet story. My kids love it as well as the story is told more from the point of view of all the animals in the stable and they love searching for the little mouse :)
And on to Santa books :) We got I Believe in Santa Claus last year for Christmas and though it looks boring it is a really great story about the similarities between Santa and Jesus. Another favorite is Santa's Magic Key (this version is a kindle version, not sure where you can get a hard copy).This is extra special because we got it from my Grandma and as she is friends with the author, it is a signed copy :) This is a fantastic story and has really helped me answer Gabe's question of how Santa gets in the houses of people without fireplaces (we don't have a fireplace anymore :( As soon as he asked I pulled out all the Christmas books to find this one :) Anyways, the other two are fun, It's Santa! is a lift the flap fun one and My Christmas Treasury is filled with a bunch of different stories including Twas the Night Before Christmas :)
Snowman Books: I guess they aren't necessarily Christmas books (well The Annual Snowman's Ball and Snow What Fun are) But I like to include them in the mix :) We got these from various places, most were gifts though. The kids love Snow Bear as all the pictures of the bear are fuzzy! (Especially great for the younger set)
Since we're Canadian, we had to get the Porcupine in a Pine Tree! We got this one last year as well I think (I'm just realizing we got a lot of books last Christmas!) and we really enjoy this fun adaptation of the Christmas carol, The twelve days of Christmas. Some highlights~ Eight mounties munching, Five Stanley Cups, Four calling moose....:) it's a lot of fun. Then we have I Spy a Candy Cane~ my kids love I spy books and this one is for the 6 and under crowd. I'd love to get the bigger one as the kids are all getting bigger. And next is Teddy's First Christmas (I think Gabe is the only one who reads that one anymore :) Mortimer's Christmas Manger is a cute story and then we have The Elf on the Shelf. Snoodle (that's our elf's name :) has been kicking around here since Dec. 1st although he might have gotten lazy once or twice and stayed in one spot for a few days :) This is a fun tradition with kids especially if you start it when they are really young and your elf isn't lazy (or forgetful!) like ours is sometimes :) I checked on amazon but they are super expensive there so I would google other sources if you are interested and I think I saw them at Chapters/Indigo too.
And last but not least, we have The Christmas Hat and Disney's Christmas Storybook . I left these for last cause they have been around the longest :) Nyla got these from us when she was a baby her first and second Christmases and they are enduring favorites (they are well used as seen by the damaged spine from one too many drops from little hands :) I think more from all the memories of Christmas past than anything else. They are both good books though and the Christmas hat one is fun because the pages are all embossed so they feel neat.
Oops!
Such sweet beautiful illustrations.
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing our favorite books, if you want more ideas for Christmas books you can check out Memories on Clover Lane blog or The Sunny Side Up blog which are two places I have gotten ideas from in the past.
Have a great day!
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Ordinary days....
Just a quick little blurb today about some of the goings on around here. I cant believe it it the 11th already! We have been busy bees working on house projects and Christmas decorating, but last night I decided I wanted to make some creative mess.
I had ordered and received a SNAP December documented scrapbooking kit some time ago with the intention of taking a picture every day in December and using the kit to keep up with our Christmas traditions. Well, as previously stated I cant believe its the 11th already and I hadn't even opened the package! Last night I decided to remedy that and got my craft on :) I have to say even though I hadn't opened the kit up I had been fairly purposeful in taking photos with this album in the back of my mind but not as much as I had hoped so from now on there will be so many pictures taken my family will think they are celebrities!
I had ordered and received a SNAP December documented scrapbooking kit some time ago with the intention of taking a picture every day in December and using the kit to keep up with our Christmas traditions. Well, as previously stated I cant believe its the 11th already and I hadn't even opened the package! Last night I decided to remedy that and got my craft on :) I have to say even though I hadn't opened the kit up I had been fairly purposeful in taking photos with this album in the back of my mind but not as much as I had hoped so from now on there will be so many pictures taken my family will think they are celebrities!
Our dog is a little nuts and I swear she thinks she is part human. The other day I came into the living room and found her sleeping like this,
What a goof!
Have you heard of this book?
It is fantastic so far and I'm only just over half done reading it! I think most parents of teens and tweens need to read this. You can also check out her blog HERE
Have a great week!
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