Deconstructing Christmas

Since we're leaving for vacation this weekend, we wanted to get a jump on taking down holiday decorations and packing up. It's amazing how many "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments you can amass in one holiday season! Will's wonderful grandparents, aunts, and uncles bought some lovely ornaments for our tree that I'm looking forward to putting up next year.

I also wrapped up the books we purchased this year for next year's Advent. We're still far from 25 books, but I figure it will take a couple years to build up to that. So far we have:

1. A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker
2. The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree by Jan & Mike Berenstain
3. One Snowy Night by M. Christina Butler
4. The Nicest Gift by Leo Politi (a gift from my Grampa years ago)
5. A Snowman Named Just Bob by Mark Kimball Moulton
6. Twas the Fright Before Christmas by Judy Sierra
7. The Story of Christmas by Tom Paxton (from Aunt Karen)
8. Twas at Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (from Uncle Pat's baby books)
9. The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman
10. Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
11. The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle
12. Have Yourself a Furry Little Christmas by Naomi Kleinberg
13. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer
14. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
15. Harry and the Christmas Dinosaurs Make a Christmas Wish by Ian Whybrow

Not bad for year one, right? Only ten more to go (well, maybe eleven since the book in slot #15 is the most poorly written children's book I've ever seen and the editor should be fired, but I digress.)! In any case, I can't wait to see Will tear into his Advent books next year.