Essential Christmas Childrens Books: prepping for next year's advent

Last December at bunco, I noticed Amara had a stack of wrapped books in a basket. We learned that they were starting a tradition of opening a book every evening in December leading up to Christmas. That evening was particularly exciting because Chloe had opened the Nightmare Before Christmas and was delighted at all the spooky pictures. I became enamored with the idea of finding 24 (or more) Christmas books for us to wrap up each year and discover again in the evenings leading up to Christmas. This seemed way more appealing than cheap chocolates. I shopped after Christmas last year but had a hard time knowing what were the "good books" versus just lame stories that happened to have a Christmas tree or Santa on them to cash in. So this year post-Christmas, I asked the Facebook Hive Mind and let me tell you, you all did not disappoint! Many of the books recommended were 50% off at Barnes & Noble (plus 10% off with our membership card). I'm looking forward to reading some of these over the next week up to Twelfth Night (we spread our Christmas out, old school style) and will lovingly pack them away for December 2013.

We read Snowmen at Christmas last night and found it fitting that our last book as we were both yawning and droopy-eyed was Bear Stays Up for Christmas. I've compiled the wonderful suggestions you all had last night here for your reference and enjoyment. Feel free to comment with others that aren't on the list. Christmas is going to be awesome next year!

Hard(er) To Find Books Claude the Dog Cranberry Christmas Dance in the Desert All For the Newborn Baby The Littlest Angel The Tall Book of Christmas

Kindle Books Harold at the North Pole

Books We Found (and bought) at Barnes & Noble Bear Stays Up For Christmas The Polar Express Snowmen At Christmas The Mitten Santa Mouse The Gingerbread Pirates Snowmen at Night Llama Llama Holiday Drama

Other Books at Barnes & Noble (we were overwhelmed) Anything and every book you can find by Jann Brett Mary Englebreit's Nutcracker Carl's Christmas How the Grinch Stole Christmas The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Olivia Helps with Christmas It's Christmas, David

Book I Bought A Million Years Ago And Now Have To Find Red Ranger Came Calling Books Not At Barnes & Noble But Now On Ian's Amazon Wish List Room for Little One My Penguin Osbert The Snow Queen A Bird's Christmas Carol A Pirate's 12 Days of Christmas The Clown of God The Christmas Quiet Book The Sweet Smell of Christmas The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story The Jolly Christmas Postman Merry Christmas, Curious George Santa Duck How Santa Got His Job Snow Globe Family Russell's Christmas Magic (Russell the Sheep Saves Christmas) The Velveteen Rabbit The Snowy Day

Movie night

We went to see Les Miserables last night*. I can't remember the last movie we've gone to a movie together. We didn't go to many movies in theatres before having a child and now it's even more of an anomaly. (As a bit of trivia, my father hasn't seen a movie in a theatre since Funny Girl in 1968.)

I have a hard time with my blood sugars during movies. Something about sitting in a theatre makes my blood sugar either crash to 30 or sky rocket to 300 (or both!) in a brief two hour period. Any snacks to correct it are approximately $58/ounce and I can't even easily check my blood sugar in the dark row because my meter doesn't have a back light (curses!). God forbid if I have to go to the bathroom.

As we sat there in the previews, though, I also realized I have a hard time with movies in general. We watched the preview for Oblivion and by the end of it I could feel my heart racing. I'm such a chicken the live action Scooby Doo movie scared me. I'm a sensitive soul and if the screen is 40 feet high and in surround sound, it's just a bit more than I can bear.

So of course we go to see this epic musical adaptation that is sure to evoke strong emotions. By the time Fontine sang "I Dreamed a Dream", I was a mess all the way up to Marius' "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables". It was not a perfect movie, but it was incredibly good and it was a wonderful way to introduce a favorite musical of mine to Rich.

Because we'd put Ian to bed right before leaving (no nap meant for early bedtime, or so we thought) I at least didn't have the distraction of being away from Ian for several hours. If we go during the day, I am always worried at being "out of touch" in the theatre and leaving the house is heartbreaking as Ian cries "don't leave me!" Of course, when we got home at almost midnight, our son was wide awake and running around playing trains. He'd slept only an hour before waking up crying for Mommy and not wanting to go back to sleep. So my parents just kept him happy and alive until we got home.

Our tickets were $20 for the two of us. Our drinks, popcorn, and red vines were $21. Parking was $1, gas probably $3. If we'd paid a sitter (versus the generous care of Mamaw and Pop), it would have been four hours of care for another $30 or more. Even the strictest paid sitter might have meant coming home to a wide awake child (Ian didn't go to bed until almost 1am and there were some gritted teeth to get to that point). For all the magic of the film, I just wonder if it's worth it. Granted, I've bought the Les Mis soundtrack and am listening to it as I type this, so it obviously had an effect on me.

Do you all go to movies in a theatre? Do you just wait for them to be On Demand or Red Box? What are some of your best or worst movie experiences? What movies should I put on my bucket list?

* Another bit of trivia is Rich didn't recognize Hugh Jackman at the beginning of the movie so couldn't figure out why he was freaking out when Javert showed up at his factory. He was all, "What's your deal, Mayor? He's looking for that Jena Valjean dude, not you."

Chemotherapy

This week, the geriatric cat peed all over the dining room rug, our Christmas tree fell over and smashed my new favorite ornament, and Rich found out he has to have chemotherapy. It's been a rough week. Trust me, I'm as frustrated as you are. With four damn litter boxes in a row, what would possess the cat to sleep on the chair in the dining room and only hop down long enough to pee at the base of the chair and then return to her perch? I'm sure she's been pooping in that room too, but the dogs are covering for her. So half the Flor tiles of our dining room rug are spread all over the back deck and I'm coming home each evening to sniff the dining room and monitor the stupid cat. And she's spry for her age so I can't put up baby gates to keep her in like I could Sarah the elder stateshound. So maybe we'll install storm doors on both of the entrances to our kitchen and close the cat up in there. That will look lovely.

Speaking of lovely, I'm hoping we found all the glitter and glass that exploded like a yuletide grenade all over our living room. We bought a tree that was thin on the back because it was both discounted and fit better in the corner of our room. But that apparently makes it off-center so a literal cat's breath is all it took to send it flying while Ian and Rich were sitting in the room Monday night. The tree has been returned to its station and tied to the bookcase behind it so that hopefully it will survive until Twelfth Night. My brand new octopus ornament can't say the same. He's more of a pointy, dangerous pentapus now.

We finally heard back from Dr. Hausner. He emailed at 4:59pm on Monday saying that we can't do the antibody treatment unless we get back the K-Ras evaluation (the one that no lab will agree to perform) to prove the cells aren't mutated. So his recommendation is either FOLFOX of XENOX as forms of chemotherapy.

When you tell people that you're supposed to get chemotherapy, they tend to gasp. At a minimum they get the Sad Eyes. I should tell people that Rich is going to a farm where he can run and play with other cancer patients to unburden their hearts.

What we've learned, though, is chemotherapy has many shades to it just like cancer does. Rich said that saying you have cancer is like asking someone "do you like pie?" Well, yeah, I think so, but that depends. It could be rhubarb pie which is disgusting (according to Rich) or it could be pumpkin pie which is the King of All Pies and Best Pie Ever (again, according to Rich). So being diagnosed with cancer is like being given a slice of pie. You just have to determine exactly what kind of pie it is and how much of it you should eat.

Chemotherapy is very similar in that I always assumed it involved looking like hell and losing all your hair and bringing a puke bucket with you most places you go. But then there are chemo treatments that are pills instead of IV drugs. And some of them have very mild side effects. So you could look fine and just feel a little "bleh" for a few months. We think that's the kind of chemo treatment plan Rich is in for, but we're still not quite sure.

I'm not interested in googling the chemicals Hausner mentioned. I don't want to hear about how it makes one person horribly constipated and another have confined to the bathroom diarrhea. We'll wait and see what an actual oncologist says. But that probably won't happen until 2013 at this point as Dr. Lee is still waiting for information from Hausner's office. We hope that will happen Friday but aren't holding our breath.

In good news, Rich is back up to 220 pounds so he's shaved off the mountaineer beard and I have my husband back. He's in surprisingly good spirits which is probably what has afforded me the spare energy to be cranky. But I'm rallying for the holidays, I'm hoping to beat my annual Christmas cold I get every year and I wrapped the first presents of the season tonight. And soon, I'll try making some pumpkin pies for Christmas dinner.