Not Lost Forever, My Survival Story by Carmina Salcido
*William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words by John Bemelmans Marciano
*Painting Aalesund by Tod Steward
*Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America by Kati Marton
*Herodotus and the Road to History by Jeanne Bendick
Confessions of a Closet Master-Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado
Boys Adrift: Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax
*Saint Paul by Pope Benedict XVI
*The Iliad by Homer
Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides
*NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
*A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem
The Lost Chalice: The Epic Hunt for a Priceless Masterpiece by Vernon Silver
The Walking People by Mary Beth Keane
*A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
*Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John
City Boy by Jan Michael
*Hamlet by William Shakespeare
*To Whom Shall We Go? by Archbishop Timothy Dolan
*The Midnight Dancers: A Fairy Tale Retold by Regina Doman
*Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg
A World Away: The Quest of Dan Clay, Book One by T.J. Smith
The Harrowing Escape: The Quest of Dan Clay, Book Two by T.J. Smith
Trespasses Against Us by Christian M. Frank
I didn't like all of them, but there were quite a few good ones this year. I've put an asterisk before my favorites. (Naturally this isn't a complete list.) Also, I didn't include picture books here (and I read a lot of them this year). I'm hoping to put together a separate post on favorite picture books and favorite movies that we discovered this year.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Why I Love Celebrating Christmas for Twelve Days
Reposting an old favorite (from 2007) again - amazing how many of the details still apply this year too. For me it's a critical part of how I keep joy and sanity in Christmas (Especially for me! I've had a couple of Christmasses with major let-downs in the middle of Christmas day and it's not fun!) Also, another piece that's grown in recent years is how much the kids do in the Christmas process. Because I'm often sick a week or so before Christmas, (still trying to get the allergies under control!) I've had to bring the kids in to do more tasks for me - and it turns out they really enjoy being part of the process. For example, we do a teen movie night in our room some time in the week before Christmas. We all watch a movie and all wrap presents together and have a lot more fun with a lot less stress than trying to do it all myself.
Ah, and so my two updated hints are: 1. The kids will enjoy helping as long as you don't give away all the surprises! 2. Don't be afraid to buy used presents. For us this both opens up the possibilities (because of the reasonable prices) and takes away some of the stress (for the same reason). I'm pretty selective with the used stuff though; basically, it only goes out on Christmas day if it's really like-new. If they'll love it anyway, but it's more obviously used (like a movie with a wrinkled or marked-up case), I'll save it for one of the 12 days of Christmas.
Merry Christmas and a Joyful and Blessed Christmas Season to You and Yours!
1. It makes Christmas Day itself a lot more relaxed with less expectations than if we tried to cram everything into one day. We actually scatter some extra presents out throughout the 12 days and especially on Three Kings Day - part of the fun of this is that the kids never know when there will be something under the tree. Hint #1 - keep Christmas day presents fairly reasonable in size and quantity. Hint #2 - don't give them something every day or it messes with the expectations (ahem... and the pocketbook!). :)
2. It allows us to spend our Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in the "stable" of our church gymnasium in order to attempt to provide many who attend Mass only once a year with a more beautiful and meaningful liturgy (musically speaking) and yet still celebrate Christmas the following Sunday in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in (the inside of the dome of St. Josaphat's Basilica is pictured here - click here for more photos). Ria did manage to go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass later that night with her grandparents (who very kindly brought her back in time for opening presents on Christmas morning) and Gus and I watched Midnight Mass from the National Shrine in D.C. via EWTN.
3. It gives me an excuse to play loads of games of Settlers of Catan (one of the very favorite Christmas presents this year) with the kids and encourage them to keep baking Christmas goodies, even though John had to work for a few days last week. (I hardly ever do any baking any more as my kids love it - warning: it does get messy!)
4. The same goes for listening to Christmas Music.
5. I get to take advantage of crazy after-Christmas sales to supply fun little presents for between Christmas and Three Kings' Day - such as the dollar section at Target at 75% off! :) Yesterday was a day that everyone got to open an item of clothing courtesy of Kohl's 80-90% clearance sections and $20 in Kohl's cash.
5. Many of things people try to cram in before Christmas are still open the week after Christmas too. On the third day of Christmas we went to a fun drive-through light show with John's parents and lots of Christmas music on the car CD player, followed by an indoor look at an amazing nativity set and a fun and enormous set of electric trains.
Also, after visiting the Basilica yesterday, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and particularly enjoyed the "European Village" (here's a sample photo, though I can't remember which house this is from - Ria thinks it's the Austrian one) in which each exhibit was still decorated for Christmas and Christmas music was playing throughout. What fun - and this was completely unexpected for us - I never knew that they decorated these houses for Christmas!
6. We still have more time in which to send out our long-neglected Christmas Cards!
Ah, and so my two updated hints are: 1. The kids will enjoy helping as long as you don't give away all the surprises! 2. Don't be afraid to buy used presents. For us this both opens up the possibilities (because of the reasonable prices) and takes away some of the stress (for the same reason). I'm pretty selective with the used stuff though; basically, it only goes out on Christmas day if it's really like-new. If they'll love it anyway, but it's more obviously used (like a movie with a wrinkled or marked-up case), I'll save it for one of the 12 days of Christmas.
Merry Christmas and a Joyful and Blessed Christmas Season to You and Yours!
1. It makes Christmas Day itself a lot more relaxed with less expectations than if we tried to cram everything into one day. We actually scatter some extra presents out throughout the 12 days and especially on Three Kings Day - part of the fun of this is that the kids never know when there will be something under the tree. Hint #1 - keep Christmas day presents fairly reasonable in size and quantity. Hint #2 - don't give them something every day or it messes with the expectations (ahem... and the pocketbook!). :)
2. It allows us to spend our Christmas Eve Vigil Mass in the "stable" of our church gymnasium in order to attempt to provide many who attend Mass only once a year with a more beautiful and meaningful liturgy (musically speaking) and yet still celebrate Christmas the following Sunday in one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in (the inside of the dome of St. Josaphat's Basilica is pictured here - click here for more photos). Ria did manage to go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass later that night with her grandparents (who very kindly brought her back in time for opening presents on Christmas morning) and Gus and I watched Midnight Mass from the National Shrine in D.C. via EWTN.
3. It gives me an excuse to play loads of games of Settlers of Catan (one of the very favorite Christmas presents this year) with the kids and encourage them to keep baking Christmas goodies, even though John had to work for a few days last week. (I hardly ever do any baking any more as my kids love it - warning: it does get messy!)
4. The same goes for listening to Christmas Music.
5. I get to take advantage of crazy after-Christmas sales to supply fun little presents for between Christmas and Three Kings' Day - such as the dollar section at Target at 75% off! :) Yesterday was a day that everyone got to open an item of clothing courtesy of Kohl's 80-90% clearance sections and $20 in Kohl's cash.
5. Many of things people try to cram in before Christmas are still open the week after Christmas too. On the third day of Christmas we went to a fun drive-through light show with John's parents and lots of Christmas music on the car CD player, followed by an indoor look at an amazing nativity set and a fun and enormous set of electric trains.
Also, after visiting the Basilica yesterday, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and particularly enjoyed the "European Village" (here's a sample photo, though I can't remember which house this is from - Ria thinks it's the Austrian one) in which each exhibit was still decorated for Christmas and Christmas music was playing throughout. What fun - and this was completely unexpected for us - I never knew that they decorated these houses for Christmas!
6. We still have more time in which to send out our long-neglected Christmas Cards!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Speaking of Advent...
I just love this picture of Frank posing with his Advent chain. That and a cute little punch-out Nativity set/book by H.A. Rey that I picked up this year have been big hits this Advent.
One Lonely Apple
A squirrel had just climbed down this branch to steal an apple right next to this one and shaking all of the snow off of it. It used to frustrate me that there are always some apples and pears that we can't quite reach. With this snowstorm noticed that they're eaten by squirrels and birds, so they don't go to waste.
A Little of What I'm Up To....
(and partly why the blog suffers these days)
An interview I did (with my sister!) on homeschooling, published in an Italian Catholic newspaper:
Il Sussidiario.net | HOMESCHOOLING/ Educating Across the Generations
An upcoming homeschool conference I'll speaking at in March, 2010:
Blessed Sacrament Homeschool Conference, Memphis, Tennessee
Besides that we're managing to do most of our Advent traditions that I wrote about a few years ago, though I haven't begun to do anything about Christmas cards yet. Last year, I managed to flop on the Christmas Cards right in the middle of the stack and I may just pick up where I left off then.
Last week was one of those weeks where everything converged all on top of each other - First Reconciliation for Kate, an amazing Vivaldi Concert with some families from our homeschool group, SAT IIs for Ria, the National Geographic Bee, Catechism discussion, a language workshop for the kids, dance, and several choir and Shakespeare practices. Now suddenly, with the all the snow and activities tapering off before Christmas, we're having a rather peaceful lull.
A Blessed Advent to you all!
An interview I did (with my sister!) on homeschooling, published in an Italian Catholic newspaper:
Il Sussidiario.net | HOMESCHOOLING/ Educating Across the Generations
An upcoming homeschool conference I'll speaking at in March, 2010:
Blessed Sacrament Homeschool Conference, Memphis, Tennessee
Besides that we're managing to do most of our Advent traditions that I wrote about a few years ago, though I haven't begun to do anything about Christmas cards yet. Last year, I managed to flop on the Christmas Cards right in the middle of the stack and I may just pick up where I left off then.
Last week was one of those weeks where everything converged all on top of each other - First Reconciliation for Kate, an amazing Vivaldi Concert with some families from our homeschool group, SAT IIs for Ria, the National Geographic Bee, Catechism discussion, a language workshop for the kids, dance, and several choir and Shakespeare practices. Now suddenly, with the all the snow and activities tapering off before Christmas, we're having a rather peaceful lull.
A Blessed Advent to you all!
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