Christmas Books To Celebrate the Season

We’ve decked our halls and trimmed our trees. Our large blue wooden box of Christmas books sits stuffed to the brim and many titles have already passed through little hands.

We add to our Christmas book collection each year and develop new favorites as we revisit old friends. Traditionally our family celebrates the season at a slow pace as much as possible. Several years ago I wrote about 5 Helpful Principles Every Type A Woman Needs to Embrace and I’ve since tried to abide by them. With my husband working in the ministry the Christmas calendar has the potential to quickly fill up with church events alone so we have traditions that we maintain in our home but not always around town. The first and foremost tradition is reading wonderful books!

Christ is the central focus of Christmas in our home and here are the books we read to aid us with that intention:

Most of the books we read embody the spirit of Christmas without telling the Christmas story explicitly. There are many many of these but here are our favorites:

There are so many 12 Days of Christmas books that I don’t have a strong favorite at this point. In fact, I have five or six I want to try out this Christmas and decide which one I love the most. Here is another cute edition by Hilary Knight:

https://a.co/d/c1mcxhZ

While Santa doesn’t deliver presents to our house (read more here), we have a few that incorporate St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. Here are some that we would recommend checking out at your local library or adding to your collection:

Santa Mouse may be the cutest mouse you will ever meet!

Don’t you love a wonderful Christmas story? The kind that offers peace, hope, and good will towards men?  Me too! I reread A Christmas Carol every year and typically I Saw Three Ships and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Following is a list of my 16 most cherished Christmas chapter books to read aloud or individually. Please share your favorites in the comments and feel free to ask me any questions that you have.


 I have a few that I’ve introduced to at least one of my children and plan to introduce to each of them this year:

 The Little Match Girl made an impression on me when I was a child. It is one that I haven’t shared with my children but plan on doing so this Christmas. I think this will open the door for rich conversations around our responsibility to look for ways to help others. 

Finally, I’ve posted here about Christmas books that have corresponding movies. Check out the list and see if there are any of your favorites!

Merry Christmas to you and yours. May your days awaiting the celebration of Christ’s birth draw you nearer to the heart of God.

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Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale is Published!

Emily and I, along with our entire family, are proud to announce that our book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, is now available on Amazon and for purchase through our local church’s bookstore. Yippee! This has been a wonderful family project for us and a goal realized personally. Thanks to over 70 backers of our Kickstarter campaign, we were able to see our dream to fruition.

All along it has been our ambition that in telling our son’s adoption story we will encourage and promote adoption to a broader audience as well as provide a means for adoptees to discuss their adoption stories around the shared experience of reading aloud.

Two of our sweet friends with their copy of Thirty Balloons. Share your pictures using #ThirtyBalloonsBook

I think this book is best suited to read aloud to children eight years of age and up. However, our youngest two children, ages three and eighteen months, request the book be “read aloud” by telling a shorter synopsis as they look at the pictures. With their shorter attention spans, even discussing the pictures in a book and retelling in our own words builds interest in books, exposes them to new vocabulary, and helps accumulate time spent together. In fact, if your child will sit for a bit longer, you might consider reading the book over several settings.

Three backers from our Kickstarter Campaign purchased Kindergarten Kits. These kits are bundles of twelve copies of Thirty Balloons and a bundle of 30, Thirty Balloons balloons! These are being hand delivered to three local schools this week along with our list of Ten Ways to Get Involved in Foster Care and my top selections of picture books highlighting orphans and celebrating adoption. I am so excited! I know that many children in the public school system either are, or have been, in the foster care system and it is my hope that they can relate to this story in a positive way, or that our story will open doors to talk about the emotions that it stirs up. Moreover, I hope that our story will encourage students of all ages to consider how they might work, even now, to help children in need of forever homes.

Have you ordered your copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale yet? If so, would you leave a review on Amazon here? If not, I have a special offer for you if you order before May 2nd. Order your copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale and I will send you the pdf downloads of my top picture book recommendations and ten ways to get involved in foster care for free! That way you can share these with your family and community.

I look forward to more writing projects in the future that increase adoption awareness. Thirty Balloons turned into an incredible family project and we are extremely honored to share it with you. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us throughout this journey.

Keep holding onto hope,

 

 

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A New Book to Carry With You

Sometimes I marvel which childhood bents will carry over to adulthood. For me, the love of a good book is probably foremost. So much so, that I remember on one occasion alphabetizing my home library. I must have been in third or fourth grade. Perhaps I also instituted a check-out operation, though for whom I cannot say.

The first book that clicked with me I checked out from my school library in the third grade. The name of the text has long eluded me. For years I looked in the same corner of the little school library for the book with the girl and the wagon wheel on the front only to be evaded. It is of little importance what the book was, or even its content. What matters is that the love of reading and learning was unlocked.

From that point on,  I was found digging through treasure troves of books. The hardcover, yellow-paged volumes were my favorite. Black Beauty (Dover Children’s Evergreen Classics), Little Women (Puffin in Bloom), The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, Book 1), and Old Yeller (Perennial Classics) soon became reading companions which still hold honored places on my shelves.

Then there are those books, purchased brand new especially for, or by, me. Books like Charlotte’s Web, Where the Red Fern Grows, A Little Princess (Puffin in Bloom), Matilda, and The Little House (9 Volumes Set). What memories I have of transforming new books into old friends! The sight, smell, and touch of them take me back to the age and place I was when I first read them and they became a forever part of me.

Today, our home library exceeds the shelf space allotted. Now, as then, I continue to find searching for classic and modern volumes therapeutic.

Many childish ways I left behind, but the books I carried with me.

The books we read to our children and the books they find as faithful friends, read and reread as yearly rhythms, they will carry with them long after they themselves can be carried.

Today, I want to encourage you to add a new volume to your shelf.  A new book to turn into worn pages, and its contents into an old friend.

I have written a children’s picture book, illustrated by my oldest daughter, Emily, about our adoption journey of our youngest son. From our first meeting, through the months and months of holding onto hope and seeking his adoption, this story will encourage and inspire you as you wait on the happy endings in your own life.

Many of you have read posts over the years concerning our adoption and foster care journey. Now, you can read our adoption tale to the children in your life that will leave them inspired, asking questions, and perhaps ready to slay a few dragons of their own that stand in the way of them attaining their God-given dream. I hope you will!

I believe that real books read on the laps of parents and with loved ones are the best tools to introduce and reaffirm the magic of story and strengthen family bonds. That’s why I am excited that you can purchase your own copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale on Amazon. I am also offering a free pdf download for those who pop their email into the box below! I pray it is a book you will want to carry with you. Go ahead and download your copy now! Then head over to Amazon to order a copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale to read with your family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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