Christmas Book Tradition: More Titles

So, at pre-school drop-off today, guess what happened?

This.

I have a real weakness for Scholastic book orders.  How do you pass up the prices they give you???  I know we could check the books out at the library for free, but I want my boys to be surrounded by books and have treasured memories of them.  Their dad normally does bedtime at night, while I do story time before nap time, and it just makes my heart swell when I go back to check on them and see them cradling books in their sleep.  It is the most precious thing.  Ever.  Even Elijah now sleeps with "The Busy Spider" or "Turkey Train".  And I don't have to worry about the condition of the books since they're not from the library (though luckily, my boys are pretty gentle with their books most of the time).

So, these books will be replacing some of the board books in our official "24 days of stories" next year, and I decided to go ahead and add them to my list while I was motivated to.

The Gingerbread Man, illustrated by Gail Yerrill:  I realized we've never really read this classic story, and wanted to add it to our collection.  Spoiler alert:  Does the gingerbread man always get eaten by a fox?  He does in our story.  I'm a little afraid that may cause tears, but we'll see.

An Otis Christmas, by Loren Long:  Elijah received his first Otis book from his Aunt and Uncle last year, and he has loved it ever since.  "Otis" was even one of his first words, and I believe the first name he ever said.  In this Christmastime tale, Otis is the only one that can face the blizzard to try to get the veterinarian to the farm in time to save a laboring horse.  Will he do it?

Olive, the Other Reindeer, by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold;  From the song, "All of the Other Reindeer," Olive ("all of") is a reindeer (dog) who helps (henders) Santa on the big night.  A great story for all the dog fans out there.

Ten Shiny Snowflakes, by Russell Julian:  This was the $1 of the month special, and is as titled, a counting book about snow.  It is a little different than our other book in that it starts at ten and counts down.

The Berenstain Bears and the Nutcracker, by Jan and Mike Berenstain:  We have a few small decorative nutcrackers, and every year the boys love to play with them (hence all the glue on their swords).  But, they don't know about the classic ballet at all, so I picked up this one in hopes that we can see it some year.  There are lots of theatres or puppetries around here that cater specifically to adapting shows for little kids and I'd love to take the boys to a show.

Llama Llama Jingle Bells, by Anna Dewdney:  With our spend $10, get a free book coupon, Theodore did his shopping for his brother's present from him and very aptly picked this story.  Elijah is also a llama llama fan, so this little book will be perfect for him.

Altogether, only $14.  Now, to resist the spend $10 get a free book up to $5 coupon for this month...

For the rest of our list, go here.

Theodore's Reading List: Age 4, Train Edition

Theo recently picked the book, "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" by Richard Scarry to take to show-and-tell as his favorite book.  Since I'm almost due for his annual book list, I decided I would limit it to just his favorite train books for this one.  It's harder to tell his favorites because he likes a variety of books now.  Eli however just started into the phase where he wants every book repeated over and over again,  so he has filled that vacancy.

Some of our favorite train books include:

Thomas the Tank Engine Story Collection, by the Rev. W. Awdry.   Though Theo has several Thomas books (some more interactive than others) this is the mother of all Thomas books.  This collection contains over 500 pages of the originals stories.  It has been read nightly for months at a time, and has been well loved.  We're going to need to find a way to rebind it soon.

The Turkey Train, by Steve Metzger.  We bought this one last fall, and have been enjoying it ever since.  It's a great little rhyming story about turkeys on a trip to Maine.  I was surprised to read that their starting destination was Ft. Wayne, the "big city" near my hometown, so I liked the book even more.  

Locomotive, by Brian Floca.  I picked up this one to add to my Caldecott collection.  It is quite wordy for a four year old, but Theo has never been bothered by a long story.  He said his favorite part of this one is all the sounds the train makes as it crosses the country.  It's got quite a bit of information about how the locomotive helped the country grow.

Freight Train, by Donald Crews.  Another Caldecott that falls in the train genre, this is a beautiful book.  The simple story about a train going across tracks, with all the cars identified by color and type.

How to Train a Train, by James Carter Eaton.  Theo gets a kick out of this story, that is a handbook for how to get a train to be your pet.

I Love Trains, by Philemon Sturges.  I picked this one up at the museum last weekend.  It's a pretty simple story about a boy waiting for his father to come home on a caboose.  My favorite part though, were the additional illustrations in the book covers that label the different kinds of cars and tells you what each is used for.

Choo Choo, by Virginia Lee Burton.  This is the story of a little engine who ran away, written by one of our favorite "vintage" authors.  The book was written in 1937 but is still relevant today.  Though black and white, the illustrations still capture the boys attentions.

Trains, by Byron Barton.  This simple book was pulled out by the librarian when Theo asked for help finding the train books.  Though he is fine talking to strangers on the street, he always becomes shy when talking to librarians.  But, he loved going around with her and pulling out all the train books she could find.  This one would be best as a little beginner board book.

And this concludes my train posts, see our trip to B&O Museum for Thomas's Day Out and our recommendation for a train heavy exhibit at the American History Museum if you missed the other two posts in this series.  

National Book Festival & National Building Museum Festival

I've put the National Book Festival on my calendar for every one of the last five years, but I've never actually made it there until this year (though a student did get Mocking Jay signed for me one year).  I was very excited to go, and even though it turned out to be a pretty rainy day, I was glad I did.  I didn't try to get any books signed this time (I doubted Eli would be interested in standing in line), but I did get to listen to some favorite (Kevin Henkes among others) and interesting authors.  And hear from a librarian about doing genealogy work at the Library of Congress.  I'm hoping to get there some day soon. 

Theo would have loved all the PBS Kids characters that were there as well, but he and daddy split from us and went to the National Building Museum festival instead.  We've heard about this place, and when we saw the festivals would coincide we decided to check out this museum through their free festival.  Admission to the actual museum wasn't included, but the festival included many activites and vendors in their huge indoor courtyard.  Theo loved...

everything.

Since all the free museums in DC are still closed from the government shut down, we may have to fork out the fees to visit all of this museum during our next trip into the city.

Summer Reading

So, I only got through about half of my summer reading list this year.  I got a little distracted, what with two of my favorite books coming out as movies ("Help" and Harry Potter-I felt the need to re-read both of them).  However, I did get through Sense & Sensibility (Brian thinks I am "meaner" while I am reading Jane Austen) and Ingrid Law's follow-up to "Savvy" the new book "Scumble".  I'm hopefully she keeps the series going, I think they are really unique, and great books for reluctant readers (it is a young adult book).  I also stumbled across James McBride's memoir "The Color of Water" while I was at home, and I'm still not sure how it wound up in my parent's house, but it was extremely interesting.  I'm about half way through Moll Flanders, and hope that I can squeeze in some time between taking care of Theo and grading papers to keep reading throughout the school year.

Theo is very excited by one of his new books,"Dear Zoo".  The board book version of this children's book has flaps that he can lift to find different zoo animals.  He LOVES it!

Book Recommendations: Historical Fiction

So one thing motherhood does not seem to allow for is a lot of reading time. Over the last year I have really had to work to squeeze in time to read, but I'm finally getting the hang of reading while being Theodore's mom. Mostly on the weekends...

I love historical fiction.  It has always been one of my favorite genres. Lately I have found a few great reads from this section.

"The Sky Unwashed," Irene Zabytko: I found this book in our bookshelves, apparently one Brian had from a college course. I have always been really interested in Chernobyl, even before the recent tragedy with Japan's nuclear power plant. I did a research paper on the event in high school. This book was a haunting portrayal of fictional Ukrainian villagers, and the ways that the Chernobyl accident effecting the different generations of residents. Zabytko's first book.

"Water for Elephants," Sara Gruen Before I even saw trailers for this upcoming movie, I knew I wanted to read the story. This love story reads almost like a Nicholas Sparks novel, but with smarter writing and a lot more adventure. There are a few scenes that are a little too graphic, but for the most part a great book. The story transports you back in time.

"These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine", Nancy Turner: Another book shelf find by a first time novelist, I picked up this book at Changing Hands in AZ a few years ago but didn't have a chance to read it yet. Once I started, I read throughout spring break until I finished. I was hooked by the Arizona setting, but kept intrigued with Sarah's stories in the wild territories. When I found the link for the book above, I found that there is a sequel!! I must head to the book store tomorrow. She also wrote, the Water and the Blood, which I believe is also sitting on my bookshelf.

I love all three of these books, and can't rank them over each other. They all have a sad streak to them, but I can highly recommend each!

Book Recommendation: Pride and Prejudice

So I picked up this the other day at the bookstore, keeping with my desire to catch up on "the classics."  Once I started reading it, the prose felt so familiar and I wondered if this was just from seeing glimpses of the movie from time to time over the year. I didn't think I had ever watched the movie in it's entirety, or read the book, but by the time I finished with Jane Austen's prose, I was convinced that I had just read "Pride and Prejudice" for a second time. For whatever reason that I don't remember the first time I read it, I will definitely not be forgetting Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy again anytime soon. Now that I'm more accustomed to reading things written in the early English dialect, I could find the comedy behind the words and truly enjoy this story. Though Theodore was not nearly as interested in it as I was :)

Book Recommendation: The Wednesday Sisters

A recommendation.

I have had this book sitting on my end table for a while. Like a couple of years. I'm glad I waited until I was a mama before I read it because I think I found it a little more emotional and found more personal connections with it. It was a great (and quick) read about five young wives living in CA in the 60s, who were writing together.

Book Recommendation: The Time Traveler's Wife

Read the book.

Watched the movie.

Cried too much.

Reading Log

Kids Books:

The Hunger Games: My librarian read a teaser about this on the announcements last year, and I've wanted to read it ever since. I got it from my Aunt Jorita for Christmas, and was done with it before the holidays were over. It is a pretty depressing book, but it just draws you in to it.

Chasing Fire: And it turns out, there is a second book that follows Hunger Games. I think I read through this one even quicker-and can not wait from August when the next book comes out.
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Historical Literature: My other goal has been to read some of the "classics" that I have not read. It takes me quite a while to get through most of them, but I finally got through all 634 pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Once I got used to reading the dialect, I was finally able to get into the story. It seems so strange the book was really written so long ago, before emancipation. I can see how this book spurred people into action.

Winter/Christmas 2009

Picture of the Atlantic snowstorm:

Dec. 19. Saturday: I wake up early to find the entire complex covered in snow. It’s been coming down pretty hard for a few hours, and no one has really mussed up the streets yet. I make Brian get up to see it, and Cori loves bouncing around in the snow. The car dealership closes, so we can’t take our car in to get its oil changed like we had scheduled. We take our Christmas card picture with the windows open so everyone can see the snow. “The Blizzard of 2009” ends up being pretty substantial, definitely setting some records for the area. I see on facebook that our church has canceled services for the next day.

Dec. 20. Sunday: I bake pretty much all day… We get a call in the afternoon that Appo has already canceled school for the next day!! Get a lot of wrapping and letter writing done.

Dec. 21. Monday: The baking continues. I’m making up for last year, when I didn’t get any Christmas cookies made at all… I get another call saying that Appo has called the next day as well, and am officially on Christmas vacation! Get the Christmas letters mailed.

Dec. 22. Tuesday: Bake a few more things… decorate our sugar cookies! I normally don’t have the patience to decorate, but tried to make them cute this year.

Dec. 23. Wednesday: Wake up to find a tragedy in our fish tank. Apparently a bubble fish anemone has attacked our Nemo fish. Brian got it knocked off, but by then the fish was pretty much a goner. We hoped he would perk back up, but he never did. Good-bye Nemo fish.

Started on our way home. First stop is the Gap cheese shop, to pick up some extra aged gouda (Rembrandt) for Brian’s sister. We also add the following to our cart:
· Campo de Montalban (semi-hard Spanish cheese, made of cow, goat and sheep’s milk)
· White Stilton with Mango and Ginger (AGAIN! We always get this)
· And one of Bill’s Christmas Cheddars (Beecher’s Flagship Reserve, Seatle, WA)

We then decide to stop for lunch at the Gap Diner, since we always drove past it. We finally get going, and make the following progress, averaging 30 mpg. The cat and dog actually traveled very well together. No fighting, hiding, or getting sick.
· Left Newark at 10:17 AM
· Estimated Drive Time: 10 hrs, 43 min, Estimated Total Mileage: 627 miles
· Actual Drive Time: 12 hours, 33 min, with 2 hr, 44 min in stops, and actual mileage of 637 miles · Arrived Huntington at 10:50 PM

Dec. 24: Thursday: Spend the morning in Huntington, and head up to G & G B’s for our early Christmas. We then head to my old church for communion, and then up to Roanoke for a Lutheran Christmas Eve service. We sleep at Brian’s house. I’m too tired to make sure someone put out cookies for Santa.

Dec. 25: Friday: My mother ends up not having to work another shift, so we do get to have Christmas morning with my family when she comes home from being at the hospital from 7 pm-7 am.

We then head to Grandma Knight’s and see some of the family there. Little cousin Madison does a good job of leading Cori around like a steer and tiring her out.

Then we make it back up to Huntington to spend the afternoon with Brian's family, including Grandpa Eddie, excluding Mike and Ashley.

Our last stop of the day is the Banter Christmas that evening, where we get to meet baby Dylan.

Dec. 26: Saturday: We head to Ohio for Brian’s family Christmas. After a freakish car malfunction that left us sitting in a parking lot for about 45 minutes, we make it to the party. After eating, the Hutson aunts do an awesome job showering us with gifts for the little one.

Dec. 27: Sunday: Brian and I attend my church for worship, and then I have a “last super” (before one of us is a mother) with Mariah and Ashley. Following this we head to my second baby shower, hosted by my sister. She did a great job with it! We did the candy-diaper game, one where they had to guess my girth, a guessing game, and also the game where you lose your necklace if you say “baby”. It was cute, and pretty fun. My older sister in Alaska got to attend over the internet through Skype, which was really cool. I’m not much for video cameras, and this had the same feeling to it, so it took a while to get used to, but it was really awesome. Nephew Aydan acted like it was totally normal for him though. Good food and great gifts rounded out the shower.

(Pictures from the showers to come...)

Dec. 28: Monday. This was our first break in a while. We returned one double gift we got, went to the Bath & Body Yellow Sale (a personal favorite of my mothers, and a big surprise to Brian-“This normally costs $12????” Everyone in the store heard his opinion on the price for a bottle of lotion), and ate at Biaggi’s for lunch (you can now get refills on the soup!!! I have not had the chicken Florentine in years and was very excited). I got to read through most of “Hunger Games” and Brian spent most of the night playing poker with Matthew and my father.

Dec. 29: Tuesday. We ended up going to see my mother’s new hospital unit… see more in baby update posting. We then headed up to Huntington to have our official Christmas dinner with all of Brian’s siblings.

Dec. 30: Wednesday. Hung around in Huntington all day… I finally finished this needlepoint for baby Alison. I almost had it done with she was born, but it took me forever to get the last details done. Picked up “Chasing Fire” to start reading.
Cori had a lot of fun playing with Gus, most of the time. She had more energy to play than he did though, and he got grouchy about it a few times. Here they are in her cage together.... they both went in together on their own.

Dec. 31: Thursday. We had a busy day, having breakfast with my grandparents, and then eventually heading over to Megan and Ben's for a late lunch. She made us really tasty chilly, and we enjoyed some time with them. My sister thinks she is moving to Germany soon to live with Ben while he is still in training, but I'm not thinking about that until I see the actual orders in her hands.

We then have a quiet New Year's celebration with each other. For TEN years (!!!) Brian and I have visited the Marion lights every New Year's eve. We continued that again this year, and then headed to Ivanhoe's for tenderloins and ice cream. It was fantastic, and a nice little quite night together. We then headed to my parents where Brian worked on cooking meatballs and I fell asleep long before midnight. Brian missed waking me up to see the ball drop, but we said our "Happy New Years" a few minutes later.

Jan. 1: Friday. We partipated in my cousin Joel's 8th Annual Meatball Contest. There were 13th entries.  Even with crumbled bacon on his, Brian was not able to pull out a win. Afterwards we spent over an hour packing the car, getting almost all the Christmas and baby gifts in the car. We finished with dinner at BWW with Kari & Josh and Mariah & Kory. Even though it was absolutely FREEZING out, we finished off with DQ ice cream. My ribs hurt quite a bit after today-I think it was all the giggling.

Jan. 2: Saturday. We attended our last Christmas party in Toledo at Brian's grandpa's. Afterwards we drove straight through for nine hours and finally arrived home. Unpacking and getting our house back in running order will be on the agenda until we go back to work on Monday.

Day Trip: Summer Lovin'

When I checked the weather report for Saturday morning (something I almost never do) I automatically decided that "80 degrees, Abundant Sunshine" was code for get-to-the-beach. Brian and I packed up and headed down to Rehoboth Beach for a few relaxing hours in the sun.

It's about an hour and a half drive, so we we got there a little after noon we were already a little hungry. We conveniently parked near this restaurant, and decided it was about time that we finally try it out. The burgers were okay (a little overdone for our taste), and the brews were really good. We ate outside on the patio under the umbrella.

After feeding the meter again (note-they only take quarters, and cost about $1.50 an hour), we then found some empty sand on the beach and commenced reading and relaxing. I finished "The Stranger" by Albert Camus (not at all a beach read, I only read it b/c Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize, I wouldn't recommend the book). We spent just a few minutes in the chilly water, and got a kick out of the retro airplane advertisements that occasionally passed through the sky.
Once we had enough sun, we grabbed some popcorn from this stand (nothing special) and then headed back up to Newark.
On the way, we stopped at this stand just south of Dover. I think it was the 3rd or 4th time we've been there now. It always has pretty good looking produce. We got some asparagus, cherries, and strawberries among other things.

Memorial Day Weekend 2009 (including book recommendations)

I thoroughly enjoyed this weekend. We ended up not going camping, and decided to avoid the crowds that are descending upon the East Coast beaches at this moment. We basically stayed around home, and just decided things on the spur of the moment. Nothing was planned.

Friday night we continued our hunt for a good pizza place in DE. We tried Ciao's Trolley Pizza &  Grill based on good reviews I had found. It turned out to be a little more casual restaurant than we were expecting. It reminded us of Slices in Tempe. We ordered slices at the counter (though you can order a whole pizza) and ate outside on the patio in the beautiful weather. It was pretty good pizza to try if you are in the area, which was a quaint beautiful little part of Wilmington. Just be careful what you sprinkle on your pizza. Brian ended up seasoning his with garlic powder that he thought was Parmesan.

We then headed to the nearest theater to see the new Night at the Museum movie. As D.C. and the Smithsonians has quickly became my favorite DE getaway, I enjoyed seeing the familiar sights in the movie. It wasn't quite as entertaining as the first, but definitely worth the time to see.

On Saturday morning we went for a 2 mile walk in the warm weather, during which we tried Fresh Hot Bagel. The bagels were good, and not too big, but the service needed work (they were out of my desired spread and gave Brian a regular bagel when he ordered an everything bagel). We'd rather stick with one of the Main Street places.

Brian made a great lunch for us-Pasta Carbinara from the Rachel Ray Summer 2009 issue (he suggests adding balsamic vinegar).

We also finished off some cupcakes from Sassy Cupcakes in Newark. Though overpriced, the boutique offers different flavors daily and are good enough to merit a return trip. My favorite is the red velvet variety, while Brian has really liked the Baily's and triple chocolate flavors.

The rest of the weekend has been spent napping and reading and enjoying our time off. I've finished the following books:

"Mrs. Kimble" -is a book about a man told through his three wives. Each wife comes from a unique background and time, with very different expectations for their husband/children's father. ****.5

"American Girl" -a book set in the radical times of the 70s-it took a while for me to even understand the main plot of this book, but it ended up being interesting. It prompted me to wonder about the teaching of the Japanese-Americans internment during WWII in the US (CA and AZ mostly). I found out about this while in AZ-and I wonder how many people remember learning this in school-whether it's found it's way into the history books yet? *** Susan Choi's book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and after describing it to my husband he informed me it was loosely based on the Patty Hearst story.

"The Devil in Massachusetts" -this was one of the books I was assigned back in my Human Event class freshman year of college. I finally finished reading through this non-fiction book, and enjoyed the historical understanding I gained. ****

(Young Adult) Book Recommendation: Princess Academy

I have slipped in the last couple years with keeping up with the Newberry award winning books (and finalists). I picked up this Shannon Hale book this weekend and whipped right through it. It was a touching story, told well by the entertaining author. Many moral lessons and themes are nicely twisted into the plot as well. It is an unpredictable fairy tale story for older, more realistic girls. I highly recommend it!

Book Recommendation: The Bridges of Madison County

This book has been in my bookshelf for a long time. I acquired it from a give-away pile at school. I finally picked it up during a long car trip recently, and greedily read through most of it in one sitting. It was a very good guilty pleasure kind of read. I highly recommend it.

I'm going to netflix the movie version soon.

Book Recommendation: Twilight Part 2... 3... and 4

So, for the last week I have basically been wrapped up in my blankets in my room, escaping the crisp air and rain outside. Though I did drag myself out of bed to go to work and celebrate my birthday, I spent the rest of the time reading. Right on through the Twilight series. :) I'm talking serious reading-skipping meals, phone off, staying up really late, even missing the Top Chef premiere.

I know it sounds like a silly series, vampires and all, and it is really meant for adolescents, but I really just enjoyed escaping to Forks and Bella's life. I haven't been that wrapped up in a series since I started reading the Harry Potter series (when most the books were already out). Or when I started reading Jodi Picoult books. It is just so invigorating to read a really addictive book-it makes me sad for people who don't like to read.

I also really appreciated the "small world" I entered when I read her acknowledgement at the back of book 3. She thanks Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, which happened to be my very favorite bookstore right next to Wildflower. I bought many, many good books there.

My husband is so glad I'm done reading though, so I can start cooking for him again.

Book Recommendation: Twilight

For the last few years, I have seen the same black covered book in the bookstores, and in students hands. I glanced at the back cover once, and it didn't make me want to read the book at all. I thought it wouldn't be very good.

After a friend recommended it to me, I finally started reading the book Twilight. This was yesterday afternoon. I finished it today. I think that is enough said.

It was definitely a hard book to put down. There are three more books already in the series, and I can't decide whether to start reading them, or wait until I am on a school break. I'm afraid I'll start reading them and not be able to put my book down to do work.

Now I'm super excited to see the movie come out in a few days.

Delaware Book Festival

Sunday we went to the Delaware Book Festival. The festival was quite a bit smaller than Arizona's, and still had some kinks to work out (food lines, book stores lines), but it was still a nice time. It was located in Dover, near the state capital, which is actually quite beautiful. I was most excited to meet Marc Brown, author of the Arthur books, and Jon Scieszka, one of my favorite authors. He is especially interested in getting guys to love reading, and has written the following: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, Squids Will be Squids, Science Verse, and Summer Reading is Killing Me! Scieszka (rhymes with Fresca) was very entertaining-as are his books.

Here is a list of other book festivals:
National Book Festival Washington DC: (WE MISSED IT! Apparently this was in September)
Arizona Book Festival Phoenix, AZ (Undetermined date)
Free Library Festival: Philadelphia, PA (April 18-19)