wrapping the books...

This weekend, while the boy was at his show and the girl was ice skating with a friend, Jeff and I undertook the task of wrapping our Christmas books. I thought I had blogged about this before, but I can't seem to find the post. Anyway, here's what it's all about... for about the last 7 or 8 Christmases, we have counted down to the 25th by unwrapping a book a day.
The first year, only Alex was old enough to get it so it was a free for all... he was able to open any book he wanted. The next Christmas, when Clara was old enough to get it, we still had them open any book but they switched off nights. BUT, we quickly found out that wasn't going to work. Alex was extremely upset when he excitedly unwrapped his book and found it to be Barbie in the Nutcracker. So, the next year, the color coding began...
This year our 1st and the 24th books are wrapped in red. We always start with the same book each year. It is a big giant board book story of the nativity with puzzle pieces of all of the "characters" to fit into each page. They wouldn't touch a board book now with a ten foot pole... but somehow this one at Christmas is actually eagerly anticipated. The book for the 24th is Twas the Night Before Christmas. For this year, I have the gorgeous pop-up book edition (The Night Before Christmas Pop-up)... I found it for 75% off after Christmas last year and the kids haven't seen it yet! So, that leaves 11 books each... Alex in green this year and Clara in blue.

I keep wondering when the kids will outgrow this tradition.... but so far they haven't. They've been chattering on for weeks now because it was almost time to start unwrapping books. We have more books than days (I pick up a book or two each year at the after Christmas clearance sales)... so they never know which books they will unwrap each year. There are some beloved favorites that MUST be there each year.... above is Clara's stack,Dream Snow is a must and so is The Twelve Dogs of Christmas.

So, now they're all wrapped, in their basket and ready to go for Wednesday! The kids can't wait!!