Oh it is magical around here, folks. Christmas time is upon us, the calendar is flipped to December, the lights are twinkling, and there is pine and gingerbread wafting through the air. All of the Christmas is happening in our house. We spent the weekend pretending we were snowed in, and actually in Texas terms we were because it was a bitter 45 degrees and it was PRECIPITATING! Stock up on milk, lock those doors, and get under a blanket, we are NOT going outside. And being “stuck inside” is the perfect excuse to deck all of the halls and usher in the season of Advent.

I have so many words for Christmas and my love of this magical season. But sometimes it is best to turn to the words of others by getting lost in a book. It is no secret that I love books. I believe they are a driving force behind learning and imagination for a child, and for the child at heart. So naturally, at Christmas time, reading books is exactly the tradition we need. Learning about giving and love and kindness and magic and miracles all through the pages of a book. I cannot think of a better way to slow down during this busy time – on the couch, by the tree, snuggled under a blanket, and reading about Christmas.

Last year we started an advent tradition that I plan on maintaining for as long as my little ones will tolerate it. For each day of Advent leading up to Christmas we opened up a new book to read. An Advent Book Calendar. Chocolate is tasty and treats are fun, but more sweets and junk is not necessary around here. A book,however, now that is never in too much abundance around here. Each day, as we draw closer to Christmas, we watch the pile under the tree grow smaller and the stories on the book shelf grow larger.  

But gathering 24 books (or more, we started on the night before the first Sunday of Advent so that means three extra books this year!) seemed a daunting, and expensive, task. I am sure eventually our collection of favorite Christmas books will grow and we will have too many to pick from. For now, though, the one place that always offers an abundance of FREE books is the library. And I have learned that if you want the best Christmas books, you have to start collecting (hoarding) in early November (and fingers crossed you can keep renewing them!) The other great thing about pulling books from the library is we get the chance to try out new books each year.  Some of our favorites from last year are back in the rotation as well as new finds. And those that are the most loved become purchased to read year after year. Building this Christmas Book Library is becoming one of my favorite traditions.

Now, because I was feeling especially caught up in the Christmas Spirit, I also decided it would be fun to add an activity to go along with each book. Sometimes this means a craft, sometimes it means an outing or experience. I wrote the name of each book on the back so as the month goes along if I think a particular book would be better for a certain activity we have planned, I can switch the tags around for that day (washi tape for the win!) I believe there is someone in this house who has his doubts as to how long I can keep this up. So far I am three for three, so I’ll let you decide who to bet against. And later in the month I’ll share some of our favorite activities.

Below is our book list this year in case you wanted to read along with us, add a few more books to your collection, insert into gift lists, or raid your local library. And remember, traditions can begin at any time. If you don’t have 24 books, start later in the month. Just like diets and TV series, it’s never too late to start.

Happy Season of cozy snuggling on the couch by the tree and reading!

Advent Book Calendar 2015

Giving Manger by Allison Hottinger – More on this in a later post to come. A great way to encourage giving during this season.

The Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett – The Gingerbread baby gets lonely during the day and needs some friends.

The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman – One of our favorite authors and illustrators shares the best part about Christmas, spending time with those we love.

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs – I adored this book and movie as a child. With no words, only amazing illustrations, you follow the story of a little boy and the night his snowman came to life.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg – This book likely needs no introduction. A boy travels to the North Pole by train one night and is given a magical gift.

Christmas in the City by Loretta Krupinski – Two country mice experience a big city Christmas when their home becomes the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.

Just Right For Christmas by Birdie Black – Little animals learn the joy of giving and finding the right gift for someone you love.

Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones – “It’s Time! It’s Time!” All of the animals of the earth, from the Whales to the Sand pipers were rejoicing when the King was born. This book brings me to tears.

Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal – Through the act of baking Christmas cookies, this book teaches wise lessons as well as wonderful new vocabulary words.

Dream Snow by Eric Carle – An old farmer dreams of snow for Christmas to cover his animals and magically his dream comes true. The magic of this book is in the end when he prepares for Christmas.

Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray – The story of two unusual friends who come together to start a Christmas tree farm. A lesson in growing and working together.

Star Bright by Alison McGhee – A little angel tries to find the most perfect gift for baby Jesus, on that is worthy of his holiness. A lesson that even the smallest of us can be a shining star.

The Nutcracker by Alison Jay – A beautifully illustrated version of a favorite Christmas story, only second to seeing the real performance. See the Nutcracker through the glass of a snow globe.

The Christmas Visitors by Karel Hayes – The city dwellers decide to spend a simple Christmas in their summer cottage. But it is the bears who surprise them decorating for Christmas.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss – Another book that needs no introduction. I am hoping Dr. Seuss can make an impression on how to encourage the true holiday spirit.

Who would like a Christmas Tree  by Ellen Bryan Obed– This tells the story of the Christmas tree and who uses it every month of the year. Bringing the importance of nature into the Christmas story.  

Angelinas Christmas by Katharine Holabird – It is fun to bring in familiar characters at Christmas time, and Angelina is one of our favorites.

If you Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff – The same lovable mouse with so many ideas is back for a little Christmas version. This just gives us an excuse to watch a movie and eat popcorn.

Listen to the Silent Night by Dandi Daley Mackall – This tells the Christmas story of Jesus through the sounds that Holy Night, that was actually “not such a silent night.”

The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola – The Nativity story told through the eyes of all the colorful birds that were there that night.

The Christmas ABC by Florence Johnson – A Little Golden Book that takes you through the alphabet at Christmas time. Letter recognition is big in this house now so this should be a fun one.

The Innkeeper’s Daughter by Carol Greene – A little girl who is not very nice learns about forgiveness and love when she meets the new baby Jesus and learns why he is special.

The Hedgehog Christmas Tree by Kathryn Jackson – Most of the smell is starting to go away, but this classic scratch and sniff book shares the wonderful scents of the season.

Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O’Connor – What could be more fancy than Fancy Nancy at Christmas? Teaches what happens when things don’t turn out quite as planned.

The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear by Stan and Jan Berenstain – Another book with favorite characters, this time the bears learn a bit about Santa.

And Now We Call him Santa Claus by Kay Tutt – An online story I printed off to tell about who Saint Nicholas actually was without spoiling the magic of Santa.

What are you reading? What books should we include next year?

Frankly, I don’t know why it took me so long to write this review. I attribute the very reason I am writing at this moment to the lessons that spoke to me from falling into this book. I picked this book up at the book store as a birthday gift to myself. It had been on my list for a while, as I had seen a number of creative people recommend it as practically a necessary textbook for creativity. I have never described myself as an artist, and I certainly did not have a habit of creativity in my life, but I knew it was something I craved. Perhaps this book would offer a few suggestions to help me find creativite moments more frequently in my life.

From the first chapter I knew this book was speaking to me. Calling me. Setting me up for something great. It went beyond just speaking on how important a creative life is valuable, but it called the reader, me specifically, to do something about this. Now. Make this a priority. And through practical lessons and helpful examples, the book outlined how this can be achieved.

The author, Twyla Tharp, is a talented and award winning choreographer, who shares her process of making a habit of creativity, not just through her own experience but through countless different examples from creative types from all walks of life. There were so many important lessons outlined in this book, my book is quite colorful with the graffiti of the sharpie highlights. I will attempt to not just repost the entire book in this blog post, but I feel I must share some of my favorite lessons, those bulletin board hanging moments.

“In order to be creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative…there’s a process that generates creativity – and you can learn. And you can make it habitual.”

— pg. 9

She shares the story of Mozart and how whatever amount of musical gift you attribute to him, his discipline to the craft was at least if not greater than that. There are no “natural” geniuses, she says. Sure, an inner skill is helpful but the true craft is perfected through the art of doing. This means each and every one of us, no matter our creative desire, can learn this skill, not just wait for divine intervention to strike.

“It’s vital to establish some rituals – automatic but decisive patterns of behavior – at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way.”

— pg. 15

I found this to be so poignant for me. The starting is always the hardest part for me. But I love routine, I love tradition. So finding a routine that would work and not discourage me became a major goal. I feel I am still working on this. I have different types of creative outlets in my life, but I would say at this point writing is my primary state. A need a peaceful environment, not silent, but calm. This likely means no children. They evoke many amazing emotions from me but a calm and peaceful state is rare. So my writing is limited to sleeping periods or, if I am really really lucky, a visit to the coffee shop while dad mans the ship. With ambient noise in the background, I sit down to a  cup of coffee or tea or, in the case of evening writing, a glass of wine. I glance at my notebook of ideas. With a blank word screen open, I am now ready to begin. And as Tharp said in her book, truthfully the creative habit is already there. It began with the very first step. Often the choice to begin and sit down is all I need to begin the habit.

“Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box.”

— pg. 88

Start every creative habit with a goal in mind, and write it down, she says. Her “box” is actually more than figurative; it is a literal box she uses to house all of the ideas for each creative project. Maybe that’s a pinboard on Pinterest for you, a notebook of scribbled ideas, post it notes sticking out of recipe books. Whatever your process, have a place to store all your ideas, even if that is all they are. It gives your work purpose. Sometimes she calls this goal the “spine” of her work. It doesn’t have to be obvious to the audience, but it is enough to start you on your path, hold your work up and keep you moving forward.

“You can’t just dance or paint or write or sculpt. Those are just verbs. You need a tangible idea to get you going. The idea, however miniscule, is what turns the verb into a noun – paint into painting, sculpt into sculpture, write in to writing, dance into a dance.”

— pg. 94

One element of this book that I found so helpful were the many exercises, 32 actually, that she suggested through out the book to get into a creative habit. The great thing about these lessons is that no matter your art, you can find ways to get into practice, to hone your skills, to create ideas. Cooking dinner is an art, exercise is an art, your job, whatever it may be, is an art. It produces something, and requires practice, skill, and generating ideas.

“I know it’s important to be prepared, but at the start of the process this type of perfectionism is more like procrastination. You’ve got to get in there and DO!”

— pg. 124

Well that sentence write there might as well have begun with “Hey you! Read this! This one is for you!” I can’t tell you how many times perfectionism has gotten in the way of my just doing. Remember my mission statement for this blogging project? Wake up. Coffee. Shine. Repeat. I left no space in there to sit and stew and think and ponder and gather and plan and gather and think and question and on and on and on. That is what I do best. But sometimes you just need to wake up. Begin. Do it. Make it a habit. Repeat. Every single day. And with that, you will get better.

“The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work…It’s only by actually going through a volume of work…that the work you are making will be as good as your ambitions. ”

— Ira Glass

My sister shared this video of a clip from Ira Glass regarding creative habit. It spoke to me, much like this book.

Ira Glass read creative habit. He gets it. Show up every day, give yourself a schedule. Just keep doing it. It is only through this process that you will get better. As I came to a close on reading The Creative Habit I had the spark. I knew this was more than just figuring out how to incorporate a little craft project throughout my day. I wanted a creative task that I could work on every day, or at least more often than I had been doing. And in my current state of little ones and chaos and mess, writing always seemed to be that area that I could get to. I could find my computer and my notebook and I could get to work a whole lot quicker than I could if I wanted to put together a quilt or scrapbook every memory of my life still un-scrapped. Those are creative elements I don’t want to lose, and I am sure I will come back to one day. But for now I am jumping in, as often as I can, and I am going to make a habit of this creative drive.

“Creating dance is the thing I know best. It is how I recognize myself. Even in the worst of times, such habits sustain, protect, and in the most unlikely way, lift us up.”

— pg. 243

In this time, I can think of nothing better than a creative habit to help me find myself. 

I highly suggest this book. Tap into your creative habit. We all need this. When we create, we show a little bit of our soul. 

Friday we took a trip to the library, a task we make at least every other week, sometimes more. Between story time and book searching and check out, we spent a good two hours there. I can’t think of too many places I would choose to spend two hours with my children and come out grinning and at peace. The library is my happy place. Imagine a place where you don’t have to say “no” to a child or to yourself. Unless we hit our 50 check out limit (It has been done before!), Caroline, and I, are free to say YES to each and every book that catches our eye. It’s like going on to Amazon, putting ALL OF THE THINGS into the shopping cart, and then entering in a gift card wiping that total down $0.00. It is Christmas morning. For me and for her. And because we just spent a morning saying “YES!” everyoneleaves happy.

My favorite books for children? Oh gracious I couldn’t even begin to list them all. Often it is a cleverly written story combined with stunning illustrations. I could narrow down a few recent favorites, but why limit myself? With the holiday gift giving season approaching, I am sure there are many readers who would love a few suggestions to wrap up for your favorite little person, or add to your own personal library. So I will periodically throw in a few favorite based on a theme. Think of this as my only little Reading Rainbow episode on the blog (which by the way is BACK and I have already conned Caroline into watching. And the song is now in my head all day. Butterfly in the sky...)

Lately, I have found the books that I LOVE reading over and over are the ones that I feel were written just for me. The ones that leave me inspired to channel my inner creative spirit. If I didn’t have a little one in the house, I would still want to put these books on my shelf. There are messages here for creatives of all ages.

Rosie Revere, Engineer - Andrea Beaty

The story of a little girl who is the descendent of her great-great Aunt Rose (Rosie the Reveter), a great engineer of her time and female voice of strength. Little Rosie, much like her Aunt Rose, is inspired to make creative machines from thrown away objects. But when she feels defeated by an invention gone wrong, little Rosie vows to never create again. Her Aunt Rose shares with her a lesson that makes me cry every single time I read the line. “You did it! Hurray! It’s the perfect first try! ...Your brilliant first flop was a raging success! Come on, let’s get busy and on to the next!”

If there is any lesson I hope to leave to my daughter, and to all of God’s children, it is that innovation is only succeeded by trying, again and again and again. She described her mishap not as a failure but as “perfect” and “brilliant.” Creativity is a process, and greatness is achieved by doing. Love every bit of this, and we remind Caroline so often of Rosie Revere and how she had to keep trying. A superb role model.

What Do You Do With an Idea? - Kobi Yamada, Mae Beso

Similar to Dr. Seuss’s tale Oh the Places You Will Go,  this is almost a version for the “idea,” as if the alternate title could be Oh the Places Your Idea Will Go. The “idea” is a character in the book and the story shares what becomes of this idea. As the child grows, so does the idea. Amazon and their fantastic ability to say “People also purchased…” triggered me to check out this book after purchasing Rosie Revere. The line that caught my attention was “a story for anyone, at any age, who has ever had an idea that seemed a little too big, too odd, too difficult…welcome that idea, give it space to grow and see what happens next.” I read this line in August, as I was searching for birthday gifts for Caroline. Meanwhile, if you might remember, I was beginning the process of considering taking steps toward increasing my creative habit with blogging more regularly. Amazon, darn it, you have found me once again. I purchased the book for Caroline, but secretly I just wanted an excuse to read it myself. The story is simple, but the message inspiring. And the illustrations tell the story as much as the words do, which I think is so important for a young child. You can’t help but be swept away by the beauty, especially at the end when something truly great happens. Breathtaking. Tears. Again.​

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires and Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg. Both share similar inspiring messages of making something great from something small or mistaken. I have them on hold at our local library, a great way to “try out” books. But I have a feeling these may end up on our personal book shelf to read and indulge in over and over and over again.

Although these books are great for inspiring any age, I have another book review coming up Wednesday about the book that inspired me to first really take a look at my creative direction. This time I’ll call it my Grown Up Book Review. Coming soon…

But first, what are your favorite books for inspiring children, or yourself? Also, what other types of books would you like me to share our favorites from our book shelf? I love to hear ideas! They are all great!