A Book a Night

A few years ago we started buying our children beautiful picture books for Christmas. Jim and I have always picked the books together. One of our regular dates is Barnes and Noble but we buy from book stalls at craft boutiques and also other book stores. Often we have stood reading a book with tears streaming down our cheeks feeling pretty dumb. I wonder if passers-by think that we are a couple of nit-wits. But some of those books are so touching!

Then we re-wrap a book (books we have bought over the years), including the new ones, for each night of December and then each evening before bed let the children pick one and unwrap it. The bedtime stories are wonderful for calming them down at this crazy time of year and also reminds us all of the wonderful values that we should be practicing. The books reflect kindness, selflessness, courage and often sacrifice, not to mention love, honesty compassion and many others.

The other thing these story-times focus us on is spending quality time with our children which is the greatest gift we can give them. This is a crazy time of year and this is a great way to stop for a minute gather your family close and prove to them that you really do love them.

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