Liam’s Book Club: The Littlest Christmas Star

The Littlest Christmas Star by Brandi Dougherty illustrated by Sanja Rescek

In The Littlest Christmas Star, Max – the smallest child in the class – hopes for the biggest part in the play because he really wants to be the star. Instead, his hopes are dashed when he literally gets cast as the star which is the part with the fewest lines (and likely the shortest one, as well). After memorizing his one line, he tries to help out with other parts but keeps getting told that it’s not his job. The night of the play comes and Max does his best to be the biggest star he can be.

It’s a cute little story, though Liam didn’t ask for it again the next night like he did with The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever. I’m a little unclear over whether there is supposed to be a message in the story or not. You could say it’s to be happy with or make the most out of what you get. Or it could be that even the smallest contributions count…or it could just be a story.

On the plus side, the illustrations are cute and colorful so it’s fun to look at even if Max is a Grumpy Gus through the majority of the book.

The 12 to 25 Days of Christmas – Day Nine

Day nine wasn’t nearly as productive as I’d anticipated. The original plan was to take that unwired flocked ribbon that I’d intended to buy on Sunday and decorate the doors like presents. Sadly, I didn’t get my ribbon, so I had to use the wired one I’d had the presence of mind to pick up at Costco.

One thing that I consider rather important when it comes to Christmas decorating: wires and babies don’t mix. This, of course takes a great deal of fun out of decorating…and is also the reason my doors don’t quite look like presents (though I’m sure, on a roll of film somewhere, I’ve got a picture of a door that I did manage to decorate once upon a time when I was still in university), and instead just have bows on them. Even the bows aren’t quite up to my standards in quantity or fullness as I was making them with little Callan in the playpen and he was objecting rather loudly.

I got two doors done – Liam’s bedroom and the master bedroom. Liam loves them and has been after me ever since to put more up. I believe, “You didn’t do the bathroom door,” came out of his mouth the other day. That confused me since I had just been down the hall shutting doors to keep the baby out of the rooms down there and I was positive that I’d shut the bathroom door (duh!). He’s also been after me to do the rooms downstairs, which I really should do. There’s no reason not to decorate downstairs even if our Grinch does spend most of this time down there.

Liam’s Book Club: The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever

The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steve Kroll illustrated by Jeni Bassett

Yesterday, our new Scholastic order arrived and I figured that I’d read a new book to Liam every night between now and Christmas when I’ll give him the rest of the books from the package. First up was The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever. Both Clayton the town mouse and Desmond the country mouse decide that they want to find the biggest, best looking Christmas tree they’ve ever seen. Unlike TV/movie world, this does not result in a tree lot brawl. On the contrary, they work together to find the most awesome tree on the lot. Then, they gather family and friends to help them get the tree back to town.

So not only is it a cute little Christmas story,  but it gives a lesson about cooperating and helps tell children that if you work together then you can have something better than if you do things by yourself. Overall, totally worth the $1.43 or so that the package pricing comes to ($19.99 for 13-14 books).

The 12 to 25 Days of Christmas – Day Eight

On the eighth day, I baked…and iced. I had both of these projects on my mind for a few days now and figured I should get them out of the way – especially since I had already baked the cupcakes on Monday (so I didn’t do all of the baking today. They were meant to be yesterday’s project but Callan had objections). I will fully admit that, once again, I cheated and didn’t make either item from scratch (unless you’re talking about the icing because you can’t top home made icing). That being said, they still taste great.

So what did I bake? First up: chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate chips in them, iced with vanilla icing and topped with crushed candy canes. There’s something so very satisfying about smashing candy canes with a rolling pin…or maybe that’s just my inner child talking. Second project: chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla icing and Christmas sprinkles. I was tempted to make the icing mint for these but a) I ended up icing them first and b) I wasn’t sure if that would go over well with the boys. I may love mint icing on my brownies but that doesn’t mean everyone does.

I decorated one cupcake early so that Liam could take it to preschool with him. It passed his approval. By that I mean that he ate all the icing and candy can topping and barely ate the cupcake itself but even that was deemed worthy enough to eat more of when we got home and then stick in the fridge for later. The rest of the family (minus Callan – no sugar for him) taste-tested them after dinner and a good dessert was had by all. So far, I’m the only one to try a brownie but that’s because crushed candy cane trumps mini trees made of sugar any day. I’ll be sending a couple to school with Aiden tomorrow.

The 12 to 25 Days of Christmas – Day Seven

Ribbon! Glorious ribbon! I know what you’re thinking: Is she crazy? The answer is, “Yes! Crazy about ribbon!” Okay, maybe it would make more sense if you knew that ever since I was a child, I have loved (though my mother may contradict me) decorating presents (yes, sometimes with a dozen layers of wrapping paper and tape). It doesn’t hurt to know that in my late teens and early twenties, I worked at my parent’s fabric store where I wound up wrapping and making giant bows for sewing machines (and occasionally sewing baskets) every Christmas. We also made bows for customers when they bought ribbon and couldn’t make a bow to save their souls. So, between the textiles background and the joy I find in making presents look pretty – regardless of the fact that no one in my house cares…or even reads a gift tag – I foster a love of ribbon.

On Day Seven (which just happened to be Sunday), I bought four spools of ribbon to help with my gift wrapping and house decorating. I would have bought more, but I figured I should a little restraint. After all, each spool has over 45 meters on it so that will last me a while. I do need more curling ribbon, though. What would possess me to buy full spools of ribbon? Where would I get them? Costco, of course! As with everything they sell, they do it in excess.  The best part is that they only cost $7.49 each (hence my buying four instead of just one). Unfortunately, Costco didn’t have the ribbon that I was actually looking for: flocked ribbon that can be used indoors or outdoors.

So, I wound up going to Michael’s in my quest for ribbon. I left with Christmas cookie cutters, pipe cleaners in Christmas colours and these cute little Santa candies on a stick (yes, impulse advertising works on me even though I know exactly why it’s there). I did not find my ribbon. Oh, they had lots of ribbon, just not the one that I was looking for, so I came home without it. It turns out that it was available at Home Depot…which was next door to Michael’s. Darn! Although, 9.14 meters really isn’t that much. At least I have cookie cutters now. Putting Christmas cookies on sticks will be much easier with them.