Christmas books

I know I still need to write about Thanksgiving and some other things here and there but I really want to mention some lovely Christmas books I bought this year for Emma. Last year E was really into snowmen. She would pronounce it, "noman". She loved everything about them, so we got her books, coloring and reading, stuffed snowmen and we constantly were drawing them. This year, she is really into Rudolph, the 1960's claymation Rudolph. So she is watching the movie and singing the songs and she has amassed a nice little toy collection. She is also into pirates and when I saw the book, Gingerbread Pirates written by Kristin Kladstrup and illustrated by Matt Tavares, I had to look at it. I am not a fan of how the humans are illustrated but the story is really sweet. It even brought a little tear to my eye. Needless to say E loves this book! So if you have a pirate fan out there, this is a great gift.

The second book I want to mention is The Twelve Day of Christmas, illustrated by Jade Fang. It is an animotion book so each page comes alive as you see ladies dancing and lords a leaping and the best thing is they hide the previous day in each page, so it is fun to ask your child, where the doves and the hens are? E enjoys this book, especially me hitting those high notes. I really only sing for her.

Finally, I just never tire of mentioning this book. It is one of my all time favorites and I don't mean just at Christmas. Mr Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry is such a classic, lovely tale that teaches the joy of enjoying what we have and seeing the beauty in something that someone else might disregard. I love the illustrations of all the furry little animals.

He's up in the sky

It has been a month since I last wrote and the ninj has done some really cute things and improved on several levels, alas, I am so tired that I am drawing a blank. I do want to quickly write this cute little blurb on something she told me while we were in Tampa. I always try and remind Emma of my dad, I will show her pictures and ask her where he is. She always pauses and looks around. I have avoided telling her that he is physically not here anymore, but I finally found the courage to say it out loud. I started telling her that he is up in the sky. I really only told her two times, both of which I thought she wasn't paying attention or that the idea was too abstract for her to understand. I had forgotten how wonderful a child's mind is and how open they are to accepting everything you tell them at face value. On a side note, Emma really does have this incredible use of her imagination. I mean she is over the top. So when I asked her where grandpa was and she responded "up in the sky". I was a little taken aback that she actually remembered. Then she really floored me as she proceeded to tell this lovely story of how grandpa is way up in the sky and he is jumping from cloud to cloud and he goes all the way up and then comes down. She was smiling and so into her story telling. It made me smile and get a little teary eyed. Then I couldn't help to laugh because I could imagine what she was seeing in her little head, my dad actually bouncing around from cloud to cloud, like Pooh bear. It really is a sweet image.