When I think of stories, I naturally think of books. Part of my Christmas decor ever since the boys were little is the book basket.

Each Christmas, their traditional present is a pair of pajamas and a book. This means with them now teenagers, the book basket is overflowing. I’ve expanded to the bookshelf by the front door as well.

For this post, I decided to grab a few of the ones that became our favorites over the years.

We went from board books, C is For Christmas, I think, is the inaugural book basket book. It was here long before the book basket for one of G’s first ever Christmas presents.

We giggled together (and still do!) each year reading The Night Before The Night Before Christmas by Natasha Wing. (If you have preschool children, I highly recommend her Night Before series, lots of other holidays).

One year, The Christmas Tree was G’s favorite book ever even into Kindergarten starting the following fall.

J, being more of a math kid, enjoyed The Christmas Story, The Brick Bible one year.  And enjoyed reading the chapter books of Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House when he hit the right ages.

I still do the pajamas and book for Christmas Eve. Admittedly, it’s harder each year to find “Christmas” books. We’ve had a few duds. The book of poems went over as well as a lump of actual coal in a stocking. However, we found success and a new tradition of reading the “politically correct” night before Christmas each year.

This year, I have already set aside a book about Christmas music for J (hoping he likes it) and am still searching for a suitable Christmas book for G.

For me, personally, my favorite Christmas story ever (which we surprisingly do not have in our book basket) is The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.

What’s your favorite Christmas story?

**Want to read more about Blogmas?  Tamy over at Chasing My Life is the one sharing the topics and hosting this fun. Go visit!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go….

Did you sing that sentence?

If not, are you a mean one Mr. Grinch.. kind of person? Did you sing your part?

Today’s all about our music playlist for Christmas.  What are you listening to this season?

I’m listening to a lot of a full-sized version of this:

Well, that might be a tuba. I have a baritone/euphonium player in the house. He practices a lot. And (thankfully) he’s good.

When I’m not listening to my in-house musician, I’m simply pulling up songs on Amazon or Pandora.

I personally prefer either the Christmas classics sung by the original artists (sorry, Mr. Bublé but Holly Jolly Christmas is for Burl Ives ONLY) or instrumental Christmas songs.

And as soon as the local radio station switches over to Christmas music, so do I. So yes, I’ve been listening to Christmas music since before Thanksgiving.  I like all kinds of music so I’m usually good and singing along with whatever they play.

In case you were curious, Holly Jolly Christmas sung by Burl Ives is my favorite Christmas song. However, I also love hearing the old classics like Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and Do You Hear What I Hear (breaking from what I said earlier about original artists, Carrie Underwood does that song right).

What’s on your Christmas play list?

Don’t forget to join in the fun of Blogmas 2019 with Tamy over at Chasing My Life.

Today’s topic is favorite movies.

CLASSICS

My favorite classic Christmas movie is It’s A Wonderful Life.  Spent many Christmas Eves watching it.

ANIMATED

The Polar Express, of course!

A close second is The Nightmare Before Christmas.

GOOFY COMEDY

It’s a tie!

Elf

and Home Alone

ACTION

How’s the saying go? Two kinds of people, those who think Die Hard is a Christmas movie and those that are wrong. Well, I’m not wrong 😉

HONORABLE MENTION

These are movies I like to watch every year but I’m not sure they could count as “favorites”

Santa Claws (it’s actually a bad movie about kittens who take over for Santa but I still enjoy it)

The Santa Clause movies (good movies just not in the favorite category)

Nativity & Nativity 2: Danger in the Manager (Fun British Comedy)

A Christmas Story (Is it even Christmas if this isn’t playing on a TV somewhere?)

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There are lots more but I think I’m going to cut this post short and go watch some Christmas movies!

Don’t forget to hop over and check out Tamy’s list of favorite movies. She’s hosting Blogmas 2019!

Welcome to Day 2 of Blogmas 2019 hosted by Tamy over at Chasing My Life. Today’s topic is wish list.

I struggled a bit with this topic. Mainly because, I have 3 very different (although all true) answers to the question.

1. 1. The Miss America Answer:                                                                                                                

            World Peace, health, and happiness to all. Let’s sing it….I’d like to buy the world a Coke….I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…. go ahead and sing along with it. I am, perhaps not in perfect harmony, however. 

2. The Snarky Answer:  

A house where we don’t have to do advanced level math just to put up the darn Christmas tree, a family who wants to do all the same Christmas things as me or anything Christmas,  A Caribbean vacation to somewhere warm.

    3.The Down To Earth Practical Answer (And I Don’t Expect All These Items):

1. A pair of house slippers that are open in the back so my feet don’t get hot.
2. A set of stacking coffee mugs with cute sayings on them I noticed at the grocery store
3. Anything from Bath and Body Works
4. Starbucks plus some cute coffee cup ornaments (again, noticed at the grocery store, I don’t get to too many place apparently)
5. A new pair of finger-less gloves with mitten covers
6. A new laptop of some sort, any laptop as I don’t currently have one. Just be nice to compute outside the “dungeon” a bit 
7. Maybe a new camera, on the fence about it
8. New pajamas
9. New paddle for the Kitchen Aid mixer (old one is worn out)
10. Fancy indoor fireplace/TV stand

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I feel like my real list is long. Probably because it’s hard to ask for things and I always feel guilty. Also, my birthdays is in a week so by default, I make my list a bit longer. It’s okay to have a wish list! Really.  

What’s on your wish list this year?