The Hundred Dresses

I think there are certain books every family should have on their book shelves. You know the kinds I’m talking about; books with the ability to miraculously suck you into a new world and consume you with sheer delight. I love when books stick like glue in your hands and seem next to impossible to put down, give you vivid images in your head as if it’s a movie, and leave you with great material for deep discussions with your kids.
Baylee finished one of those...an all-time favorite of mine! Have you ever read, the Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes? It makes me cry, it makes me cheer out loud, it makes for amazing conversation!
As her book report for this quarter Baylee was to pick a novel and then prepare a creative way to share it with her classmates. It was hard for her to nail down just one way to express herself after being captivated with the story line, so she chose a few.

Day in and day out for weeks, Baylee made one hundred dresses on a paper doll chain (if you read the book, you’ll understand why). She gave it her all, taking no shortcuts, and it shows. Then Baylee made cookies for her classmates and on each cookie used a variety of words to describe friends/friendship. Words like; unique, funny, loving, caring, generous, sharing, cheerful, listener, honest, and loyal were some that were iced on the dress-shaped cookies. And then, as if God had the song written just for this event, we came across one by Jordan Pruitt called ‘The Outside Looking In’. Baylee played the song with the lyrics on an overhead, while fashioning a dress herself.

Was it too much? I don’t think so at all because it all was Baylee’s reaction to being touched in the center of her heart from the words of Ms. Estes. We are thankful to Baylee’s teacher, Mrs. Yeargain for allowing such a beautiful expression to happen, regardless of a timeframe or stringent parameters that leave little to no ability for originality, inspiration, and imagination.

Baylee, you are a beautiful, hard working student. I am so proud of you for the time you took on this project. You reached for the stars and caught several!

On the Fourteenth Day of Christmas

Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg? In December of 2004, my amazing cousin and friend Laura gave us the book which was a welcomed addition to enhance to our Christmas library and family tradition we’ve had for quite sometime.

We love to read it at the beginning of the month while sucking on these confection treats. Afterwards we remind ourselves what we just read, thus what they stand for…

Shape = a “J” for Jesus as well as the same shape as a shepherd’s staff since Jesus is our Shepherd.
The stripes = the prophet Isaiah said, “By his stripes we are healed.”
Red = to represent the blood that Jesus shed suffering to save us from our sins
White = to stand for the pureness of Jesus, making us white and pure as snow.
And finally, its hardness = to remind us that Jesus is the rock of all ages.

We then tie small candy canes to a piece of paper that explains this then place it by our front door. Anytime someone comes to the door; a postman, delivery person, friend, or sales person, we present them with the paper and candy cane, telling them, “Merry CHRISTmas!”


Isn’t it so cool how something as simple as a piece of candy can share in the truth behind its symbol, the truth of Christ’s birth and redemption, and the merciful gift of his love?!


(Thank you again Laura, for the gift that keeps giving!)

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

My dad passed down a tradition from his childhood to me that is so much fun. We take oranges and stick a candy cane though the rind into the juicy orange’s center. Next, you suck on the candy cane as if it’s a straw. In fact, the acid from the orange creates a hole in the candy cane, in essence transforming it into a straw. The yummy peppermint orange flavor is so great!



Today we read the heartwarming book, Christmas Oranges to go along with the tradition activity. In addition to sucking the juice out of the candy cane, we also ate orange rolls and planned out our donation to the local orphanage (relates to the story). So…a few days after Christmas, once things settle down a bit, we’ll head to the local orphanage with a request they’ve made, gift cards for local fast food restaurants and batteries for all the toys they receive for Christmas from sponsors. I can’t wait. Between the money our Brownie troop and our family has put forward, they’ll have a nice stash.


Merry Christmas. Isn’t this a great month?

On the Eighth Day Of Christmas

Today we (finally) pulled out our family star. I purchased it from a dear colleague of mine before I even had kids. I fell in love with the whole theme. The star, as you can see, is on a stick with a poem attached. We use it throughout December to do secretive good deeds for family members living in our home. Once the person who has the star does something for any person, he/she lays the star on the pillow of the new recipient and the cycle continues every day. There are a lot of happy people in our home with the star. It’s so fun to be a “giver”, not expecting anything, not even a thank you, in return.

I came across a new book this year that just enhanced this tradition even more. It’s called, Christmas Day in the Morning. It’s beautiful and even brought tears to Jon’s eyes! It’s a must read every year in our home, talking about selfless giving and what a true gift it is, not only to the receiver but even to the giver!

(Jon made these stars last year for me to sell as part of my craft boutique. If anyone is interested, I can see if we have any extras around here or if he’ll make more. They are awesome for your home and make very special gifts. These were a huge hit to so many, I sold a lot of them which delights me knowing there are other families doing this thoughtful tradition!)

On the Third Day of Christmas

I am a HUGE sucker for books, especially children’s books, and even more especially Christmas children’s books. It’s a family tradition around our home that each day in December a Christmas book is read. It’s so much fun because all the titles during the rest of the year are packed away so they seem so new to the kids each December when they are unveiled. I love it! To pick a favorite would be hard for us all. As a child since 4th grade, I’ve always read the sentimental chapter book “The House Without a Christmas Tree” by Gail Rock and still do to this day as an adult. Also a great chapter book is “The Christmas Box” by Richard Paul Evans, given to me by my friend Judi-Ann.

Baylee’s favorite every year is “The Jolly Christmas Postman” by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Owen’s (right now) is “Get Well Santa” by Julie Sykes
Nathan’s favorite is “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg

Some of the others we like so far this year are:
“A Wish to be a Christmas Tree” by Colleen Monroe
“The Nutcracker” by Susan Jeffers
“The Jesus Tree” by Annetta E. Dellinger
“Night Tree” by Eve Bunting
“The Snow Angel” by Debby Boone

There are some other titles I can’t wait to share with you later this month as we read them and do some fun activities to compliment them.

I’m curious, do any of you have a special Christmas book you love to read?

Family Fun Night, Quiet Style!

Tonight’s Family Fun was very mellow, which was for us, a fun way to greet this soon-to-be hectic week! We spent almost 2 hours at the local Barnes and Nobel store reading books in the children’s area. Most of the time we read as a family with a pile of books just waiting to be opened that were carefully hand selected by the kiddos. And then at other times, each youngster would read on their own or pair up. I couldn’t believe how focused each of them were, even our 3 year old, Owen. I’d recommend this outing to everyone. It was so great!

We left with a new chapter book to add to our personal library, one for us to read as a family. Since we loved Kate Dicamillo’s, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, we grabbed another of her titles. So now, we get to begin The Tiger Rising. It’s a tale of 12-year-old Rob Horton who finds a caged tiger in the woods behind the Kentucky Star Motel where he lives with his dad. The tiger is so out of place in this setting, Rob views the vision as some sort of magic trick. Indeed, the tiger triggers all sorts of magic in Rob's life.

We’ll keep you posted on how the book is!

A Must Read!

This is a children's summer "must read" for those who love to read or listen to chapter books. Baylee received this as a gift from dear friends (Matthew/Michael...thanks guys!) and we will forever be grateful. It kept Baylee, Nathan, and even little Owen's total attention and begging me to keep reading each day as we'd make predictions of what would happen next. It was such a fun dramatic read aloud! We just ended it and I want to start it all over again!

It's a darling story of Edward, a china rabbit who has a "good life" but has no attitude of gratefulness. He's loved but doesn't "give" love back. Through this story, Edward's life is tossed up and down as he journeys to learn to love and find love, once again.

I've never read any of by Kate DiCamillo's books before, but now I am going to be sure to find more!

If anyone else has book suggestions, I'd love to hear them. We're about to hit summer vacation and we'll have time on our hands to dig into some great literature!