Christmas Reading

One of my favorite parts of gift giving at Christmas is picking out books. In the past I always bought a book for each of my nieces and nephews at Christmas. I used to think I was pretty good at it too, but I have to admit it is a lot harder to do that now (2 of them are 16! Don't know how that happened.).

So I have been turning my book buying traditions to my own children now. I try to buy a special book for all the big occasions - Christmas, birthday, etc. This year I am very proud of my picks. It was one of those times when I picked with care, but even so, I ended up with a book even more perfect than I anticipated. I glanced at the title and did a quick thumb-through of this one, but did not realize until we read it last night how exactly right it was. It is called "You're All My Favorites".

I picked it for the message. It is about how parents love all of their children equally even though they are different. What I didn't realize is that there are 3 baby bears in the story, the oldest is a boy, the middle one is a girl, and the youngest is a boy. Perfect!! I even called them Liam, Natalie, and Owen when I read it, and Liam just grinned from ear to ear. Now I refer to Liam as my "Favorite First Bear" and Natalie as my "Favorite Second Bear", and can't wait to call Owen my "Favorite Third Bear".

I also got the Star Wars Pop Up Guide to the Galaxy for Liam. Of course, a hit! It really is an amazing pop-up book - such incredible complexity in the pop-ups, complete with a Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker duel with light-up light sabers (there is a battery in the book). Excellent.

The third one I gave to Natalie, although I have to admit this one was more for me. It is a new version of Puff the Magic Dragon, with a CD included. I love, love, loved the book and 45 record of Puff when I was little. I did forget that it made me cry. It still does. I think Liam was also trying to decide whether he should cry. But the new version of the book gives a bit happier ending as it shows a new little girl meeting Puff (maybe Jackie Paper's daughter?). All is happy again in Honalee. The illustrations are incredible, and some of the buildings in Honalee actually look almost Russian (onion domes).

In other news, we delivered a new-baby gift to a neighbor today, and Liam's face when he saw her (she is about a month old, and VERY cute) was like a kid in a candy store. Tonight before bed he told me "Mom. I wish we could have Mia. If we had a baby like Mia, I think I would cry." Not sure if this was a good thing, I asked why he would cry, and he said "Because she is SO cute. Why are babies so cute??" Awwwww. I told him to rest assured that Owen would be very, very cute as well. I think he still might want baby Mia, however. I love it that he can love Star Wars AND new babies. I think he will be a Renaissance man.