Celebrations and Stories

I think we may go a little overboard with children's books around here, but Miss Oona is pretty enthusiastic about her stories, and Mama had quite the collection before she was even born from her own love of stories and illustrations. I love holiday books (ones that are well written, of course, and pretty pictures are nice too) because they explain things that just seem silly when you say them out loud. Like, "we're going to paint some eggs now" or "there's a bunny coming to our house that's going to leave a basket full of treats" or "there's a fat man with short people with pointy ears that makes toys and bring them to you if you're good". Having a toddler in the house that is experiencing each holiday with only vague memories of the year before, it is nice to have stories to help introduce her to these celebrations. I know it's not hard for kids to see the magic in things, but having a little extra help from these books makes the enthusiasm all the greater. Plus, these are books that we'll only read for the particular holiday season, so we can fall in love with different books when the season is over.

"The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes" is a favorite from childhood. And the others are new favorites that we've found along the way. She asks for these books nearly everyday, but it's not tiresome because they bring the magic back to us too! I do love sharing my own childhood excitement for festivities with my daughter (and soon our second daughter!). Each season we embrace old traditions and carve out new ones as a family. It's really quite wonderful to watch her see the small joys in life that we all share with each other.