Bb is for Book Basket

To help me count the days until Christmas

I wrapped up 26 of my favorite Christmas picture books

from Aa to Zz and put them in a basket by our Christmas tree!

Grandpa or I (or you if you happen to be here ) will open one of these wrapped books each day and I will tell you about it so you can read it, too. Your family probably owns some of these books and you can find the others either at the library or at my house!

The first present (Aa) is a

pop-up book called "Christmas Alphabet" by Robert Sabuda

The next present (Bb) is "Bah! Humbug?"

It is the story of a big brother who thinks Santa is a big fat humbug and forces his little sister, who still believes in Santa, to help him set a trap to catch Santa on Christmas Eve. Read it to see what happens. (and remember to button on the letter "B")

Merry 26 Books until Christmas!

Love, Grandma

Aa is for Advent

Advent is a word that means "coming" or "arrival". It is the season when people begin preparing, getting ready and waiting for Christmas to come. Some people have an advent tradition of lighting a candle each of the four Sundays before Christmas and telling part of the Christmas story. Some people start their holiday preparations by getting out special dishes and decorations, playing Christmas music and reading favorite holiday books. Some people open a little flap on a cardboard calendar each day in December to count the days until Christmas. There are all kinds of ways to get ready and countdown the days until Christmas.

Do any of these ways look familiar?

Once upon a time (before 8 out of 9 of you were born)

your mommies made these cute advent calendars . . . including Shelly whose picture I could not find. (Sorry.) You will probably have it hanging up in your house soon and using it again this year. Nevertheless, I am going to turn this Alpha-Blog into a sort of Alpha-Advent Calendar this month to count the days until Christmas. So check it out each day so you know which letter of the alphabet to button onto your Christmas tree pillow. In case you can't tell, today would be a good day to button on the letter A!. By the time we make it to "Z" it should be Christmas!

Merry Advent Alphabet Adventure!

Love, Grandma

Zz is for Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

Remember that song you hear in Disneyland at the end of the "Splash Mountain" ride? Well, sing along with me to this version:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-a

My oh my what a wonderful day

We finished the alphabet--

all of the way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

and hip-hip-hooray!

Have you finished coloring or gluing letters and pictures in every chapter from Aa to Zz of your Alpha-Book? I sure would like to look at it sometime. But for now, you had better catch a few Zzzzzzz's (rest up) because we're starting all over with more alphabet adventures again next week! (And you should have your end-of-the-alphabet surprise by then, too!)

Congratulations on your successful trip to the letter Zz!

Love, Grandma

Yy is for Yellow

My favorite color is yellow.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a yellow house. Or maybe it's because I live in a yellow (on the inside) house now. Or maybe it's just because yellow is such a bright, cheery, warm, happy color. You can see great yellow things all year long like yellow daffodils in the spring . . . yellow sunshine in the summer . . . yellow sunflowers in September . . . yellow leaves on trees in the fall . . . and twinkly lights on houses and Christmas trees in winter. There are just as many yummy yellow things to eat like bananas, corn-on-the-cob, lemonade, lemonsnap cookies, and cheesy scrambled eggs. In fact, Eddy thinks the color yellow is "lemon". And don't forget all the everyday yellow things like pencils, school buses, the middle "caution" light on traffic signals, Big Bird, little rubber duckies, and my Kitchenaid mixer.

Celebrate the color yellow by wearing, eating,

and looking for yellow today.

Maybe you could also draw or find a yellow picture

to put in Chapter Yy of your Alpha-Book.

Happy (as Eddy would say) Lemon Day!

Love, Grandma

Xx is for "X marks the spot"

X marks the spot where an "end-of-the-alphabet" surprise is waiting for you. However, we still have two more letters in the alphabet to go . . . so eXcuse me for a moment while I tell you my gratitude alphabet: I'm thankful for Alphabet books . . . Brody and brownies . . . Coltin and crayons . . . Disneyland and dishwashers . . . Eddy and e-mail . . . my Family and fall foliage . . . Grandpa and gardens . . . my Home and holidays . . . Idaho and ice cream . . . Jack and raspberry/peach jam . . . Kleenex and my kitchen . . . Luke and little Lindsay Lu . . . M&Ms and Mary Engelbreit mugs . . . Notebooks and numbers . . . Oregon and the ocean . . . my Piano and peaches . . . Quilts and quiet . . . Ryan and rainy days . . . Sunflowers and seasons . . . Teapots and trees . . . my Umbrella . . . Vacations and vegetables . . . Wade and waterfalls . . . Yellow . . . and Zachary and zippers! Look and see if you can find a picture for every letter of the alphabet. X marks the spot where you can get a sneak peek of your "end-of-the-alphabet" surprise. While you patiently wait for it, perhaps you could draw or cut out pictures of things you're thankful for and glue them in each chapter of your Alpha-Book.

Best wishes for an eXcellent day!

Love, Grandma