Objects in mirror are closer than they appear......

I love it that we can catch simple moments on film.

I think my "11 days away from being 13" son took this picture the other day while we were eating our tail gate feast after we had gotten our trees........just a passing glimpse of a fun day, caught in the mirror........ :-)

***

So, do you have a Christmas book? One filled with Christmas stories that warm your heart?
One year for Christmas my dear brother and his sweet wife gave us our very own Christmas book.
This is what the first page said
Dear family,
A Christmas book is an essential part of every home. If you will read one story for every day of December, you will be surprised how the Christmas spirit will fill your hearts and home.
Keep adding to your book and making memories. Traditions are the best part of Christmas. With love....
P.S.
Don't forget to read the most important story of all!!!

We have loved our Christmas Book. It's getting worn out and the rings don't all stayed closed anymore. It has been the best loved gift we have ever received! We read these stories out loud, each taking a turn reading. Sometimes it was hard to do every single day, some days we missed and so we would read double the next day. We have read as we munched on warm cookies, or hot popcorn, sitting around, as well as quietly working on projects. One year as we read stories, I made......I say made, because that's how some of the kids felt at the time......that they were being made.....anyway, I was tying a rag garland and decided they could help tie while we read our story that night. We all tied the garland, and each took a turn reading. When it was all said and done, we had a nice long garland that goes around a pretty big tree, and we read longer than normal because they didn't want to stop, and......every. single. year. my kids will finger this garland, talk about how fun it was to tie, and then tell me that they think it would look better on their own tree at their house than it does on mine! :-) We didn't stop with filling our books with stories, but started to collect other Christmas books to read out loud as well.

As the kids grew older, and were involved in more and more things at school, grew up, left on missions, got married etc, it became more difficult to find time to read at all. Some years seemed to zoom by with only one or two stories being read. Those were the years that it felt like something was lacking in our Christmas preparations!

We have made some of these ourselves and given them as gifts, and I often wonder if they have become as loved as our own Christmas book.

Her are some random shots of our book

As you can see our Christmas book is a 2" binder with a Christmas fabric cover. Each story and picture is in a protective sleeve. There are stories from magazines, stories from church, stories from fliers, stories that came home from school, stories from everywhere imaginable. Pictures from the same places, as well as from old calenders.

Today is December the 1st, and I am ahead this year! We started reading last week.

The other night, our tween read his dad and I to sleep! How sad is that....he has such old tired parents! LOL

We've gone from 8 of us reading, down to just 3, but the Christmas book and stories still works it's magic!

I would encourage each of you to begin a Christmas book of your own if you don't already have one. It is a great family tradition! Maybe you could even make a book or two to give away.......:-)

We are starting week 8 of our Gratitude Attitude.

I'm grateful for this time of year! For the Beauty and Sacredness of the Christmas season. For the blessing of being able to stay at home and be the keeper of my home. For the joy and happiness that doing that brings me!

Here's a picture of our GS that just turned 2. I "borrowered" it off of his mom's post....I couldn't help myself LJ ! How could I pass this one up? I love this little cute face boy!

Enjoy your day!

opps.....I have to add this....I just read it.....Simple~needs, posted this on her blog a few days ago. Makes you stop and think.....

now, Enjoy your day!